Q: I’ve been seeing all these ads for Apple TV. What’s the deal? Can it replace our cable box?
— Lana, Chicago
A: The recently reinvented Apple TV is a small black box that connects to your TV and sends movies, video and music from your iTunes software to your TV. Other products are also battling to become your TV’s best friend, but they’re going about it in different ways. My favorite is the Roku XDS, which I’ll get to later.
Apple TV figures you just want to stream Netflix, your iTunes music and videos, and some Internet videos to your HDTV — and the nice sound system you might have hooked up to it.
Google TV wants to be your everything, letting you surf the Web from your TV and watch programming and other content from HBO, CNBC, Twitter, Netflix, Amazon Video, Netflix and more. Plus, Google TV is not a box — it’s the brains inside boxes such as the new Logitech Revue and other devices still to come.
Their different goals help explain their different prices: Apple TV checks in at $99, while the Logitech Revue — the device in which Google TV made its debut Friday, Oct. 8 — is $299.
Tech columnist Michael Gartenberg sums it up this way: “Google wants input one. Will never get it. Apple wants input two and might.”
In other words, Google TV aims to replace your cable box, which connected to your TV’s Input 1. That’s tough to do, because people still want to watch “Survivor,” the Super Bowl and other big events available on cable but not through Google TV. Meanwhile, Apple TV modestly aims to bump your DVD player out of the way by offering more variety than your DVD collection can match.
The $99 Roku XDS offers more programming choices than Apple TV right now — for instance, you can watch an outstanding lineup of TV shows available in HD from Hulu Plus — but is cheaper than the Logitech Revue (which beats Roku by letting you browse the Web via your TV, which not everyone will want)
Check out this PC World chart to compare (http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=207197&page=1&zoomIdx=1), and don’t miss tech analyst Dan Rayburn’s in-depth comparison (http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2010/10/apple-tv-and-roku-go-head-to-head-heres-the-winner.html#comments).
In the end, your cable box provides way more choice, especially for sports lovers. But these boxes can make it easy to watch on TV much of the stuff that’s popular with laptop users.
Do you have a tech question? Send a note to Eric Gwinn at egwinn@tribune.com, or use this form http://chicagotribune.com/asktribu. Be sure to include your name, location and a way to reach you if we need more information — and your question, of course.
