Streaming Best Buys

Our favorite devices and services for streaming content straight to your TV.

Zimedia's Streaming Best Buys (price considered):

Devices

1. Best Buy: Apple TV

2. Roku

3. PS3

4. Xbox 360

Services
1. Best Buy: Hulu Plus

2. Netflix

3. Amazon Instant Video

4. PlayOn

Xbox 360: Microsoft's entertainment powerhouse

Now six years old, Microsoft's Xbox 360 is a veteran entertainment powerhouse, combining high-def gaming, hands-free control with Kinect, Internet video from Netflix and Hulu Plus and live streaming video from ESPN.

What more can you ask for from an aging console? Well, how about Live TV integration and Skype?

"This is only the beginning," said head of Xbox Live Mark Whitten at E3 2011.

LIVE TV COMING TO XBOX this FALL:

Microsoft announced on June 6, 2011 that Live TV is coming to Xbox 360 this fall via Xbox Live. Head of Xbox Live Mark Whitten failed to give concrete details on Live TV but in an interview with The Seattle Times, Microsoft’s vice president of global marketing Mike Delman shed a little more light on the service.

"It will be tied to either a satellite broadcast company or a cable company. So in international markets, you'll just have one provider. In the U.S., it will be bifurcated by region, by market. You'll be a Comcast guy [in Seattle], for example," Delman told The Seattle Times.

Other soon-to-appear features were unveiled at E3. In addition to Live TV, Xbox is getting YouTube, Bing and complete voice control through Kinect.

Xbox Kinect was introduced in Q4 2010. Since its inception, Kinect has helped push Xbox 360 sales and offer a new way to game, to control and to experience living-room entertainment.

According to Reuters, Kinect has sold 10 million units since its launch last fall, becoming the fastest-selling consumer electronics device. The motion device allows users to control Kinect-compatible games and applications via gesture and voice commands, completely controller-free.

"You no longer have to navigate through the menus to find content," Whitten said of Kinect at E3.

According to CNET's Erica Ogg, when Bing is introduced, users will be able to use its search function to find more content to watch by searching the web, YouTube, Live TV and all the services on Xbox Live including existing services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. The Kinect's voice control will also allow users to search for content with voice commands.

Microsoft Acquires Skype 

Skype is coming to Xbox 360's console via Xbox Live after Micrsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype in May. The pairing of Kinect and Skype makes perfect sense, and moves Microsoft's Xbox to another area of our lives: business and communication.

"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."

Microsoft's acquisition of Skype must still reportedly receive regulatory antitrust approvals before the deal is finalized.

Xbox Live is the center of it all

Behind every announcement, every acquisition and every new feature is Xbox Live. Microsoft clearly has big plans for its Xbox Live service.

According to WinRumors.com, Xbox Live will be built into Windows 8, Microsoft's next operating system. The service was recently introduced on Microsoft's Windows phone.

"Live has been successful on the Windows Phone. Live will be built into the PC," Microsoft’s vice president of global marketing Mike Delman told The Seattle Times. "It will be the service where you get your entertainment."

A subscription is required to access Xbox Live and its growing list of services. Namely, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Live and On-demand video content from ESPN and some of the best streaming news content available anywhere with NBC News.

NBC News on Xbox Live

With the NBC News channel on Xbox Live, users have on-demand access to today's news in a variety of categories, most of which contain 15 clips from the most-recent episodes or topics.

NBC News Content:

• Top News
• Most Viewed
• NBC Nightly News
• Today Show (25 of the latest clips)
• Entertainment
• US News
• World News
• Politics
• Space/Science
• Meet the Press
• Dateline NBC (Preview of next TV episode)
• MSNBC TV
• Weird News

NBC News on Xbox Live offers on-demand, up-to-date news content, allowing users to pause, fast-forward and rewind commercial-free news content. It's by far some of the best streaming news around, second only to Roku's Newscaster.

I've told you before that if I had to pick one streaming box it'd be Roku. I still feel that way. But if I had to pick one gaming system, it would be Xbox 360. Apparently I'm not alone.

Xbox 360 sales on the rise

In the console's sixth year on the market, Xbox 360 sales continue to increase at an unprecedented rate.

Source: DigitalTrends.com

We may one day look back on 2011 as the year that video game systems became more than a simple toy. Microsoft has successfully launched and maintained a true home-entertainment hub. Games. Video. Kinect. Search. Live Streaming Video. And now Skype. 

Xbox 360 has far surpassed the normal shelf-life of video-game systems. And with sales still on the rise, Microsoft seems to have the game figured out: Innovation. With Kinect and streaming video from Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN and NBC News, Microsoft is not only following the movement; it's leading it.

When will PS3, Xbox, Wii incorporate Internet TV?

Netflix and Hulu Plus have both taken advantage of the internet connectivity of videogame systems -- Sony's Playstation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii (still waiting on Hulu for Wii) -- when it comes to streaming video content on our TV's.

But when will Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo enter the game themselves? Doing so would offer another bit of differentiation, another perk for owners of each console. It might also further shift the demographics from what was once a teen obsession - playing videogames - to what is becoming a family pastime.

Of the current generation of systems, more than 162 million units have been sold. But neither is personally taking advantage of its online content or users.

Playstation has a subscription service, called "Playstation Plus" that offers game discounts, game demos and free offerings; but no streaming movies or tv episodes. There are options to purchase such episodes, like "A Colbert Christmas," a special for the Holidays at $6.99. Colbert dubs it as the "Greatest Gift of All." That's about as VOD as it gets for PS3.

So Playstation obviously has a desire to attract monthly subscribers. That is the point to its Playstation Plus. One year will cost you $49.99, or you can try a three-month subscription for $17.99.

That works out to a little over $4 per month for the one-year plan. With both Netflix (for the streaming-only option) and Hulu Plus at $7.99 per month, if Sony were to include streaming videos its Playstation One membership, I'd have to believe more owners would take advantage.

[Vudu is a VOD service, acquired by Walmart in 2010. Vudu offers movie rentals, like an online version of a video-rental store. Today's Pay-per-view. There is no subscription available. Vudu is also available through Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii.]

To this point, Playstation, Xbox and Wii have been sitting on the sidelines, watching other services take advantage of their systems. Fight back, I say! Game on!

Xbox 360 has a subscription plan as well, two tiers actually, in the same price line as Playstation Plus. Xbox is doing a better job with streaming features, as part of their plan includes ESPN content, streamed to your TV. I have a Playstation 3 and a Wii in my household, but no Xbox. I also have a Sony Blu-ray Player. And my Roku Digital Video Player is on the way.

Before we see PS3, Wii or Xbox 360 offering streaming movies or TV episodes, watch for systems to develop internet applications or apps. How about Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo apps, available via free download? That's probably the first move for any system. Sony already has apps on its line of Blu-ray Players (free with purchase), as do every other manufacturer of Blu-ray or Media Players. I won't even get into those... GoogleTV, Roku, Boxee Box, Sony, Vizio...all have their own set of  internet "apps" like Fandango, Amazon Video on-demand, Rhapsody, WikiTV, Vudu, Pandora, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Revision 3, the Weather Channel or Yahoo News, Sports, Weather (a sample of Vizio Internet Apps). Or take Roku, which offers many of the same apps as Vizio, but adds NHL, MLB, UFC, Mp3 Tunes, Break.com, NASA, Flixster. My point is, each media player is offering its own set of internet apps, all free with the purchase of a player. Why not offer these on the consoles themselves? Playstation Apps, Xbox Apps, Wii Apps... Nintendo's Wii has a version of this, which it calls "Channels" on the main screen. (As far as I'm aware, the Wii Channels have remained relatively the same since their launch.) Xbox has its ESPN internet app/channel. But this is as close as any are getting to developing their own applications.

In addition to Movies and TV shows, these systems could offer rentals of their own games, possibly within the same subscription plan or on a tiered plan.

That would merge these two successful methods of video and game rentals: Netflix and Gamefly.

Gamefly is a game-rental service, currently available only by mail, no on demand. But the vidoegame systems are already capable of game downloads via the internet. You can purchase full games or game demos without a disc.

To be fair, Blockbuster recently announced a change to its by-mail rental service: they are now offering movies and games by mail.

If Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are do this, the time is now. By implementing streaming video and/or Internet apps and possibly Games on Demand (GOD?) to boot, they'd have a great shot at competing with services like Netflix and Hulu Plus on their consoles, and could really take a chunk out of game services like Gamefly and Blockbuster.

It's been clear since Xbox (the first go-around) that videogame systems are attempting to become not only a source of gaming, but a part of our entire home entertainment system. Implementing Internet TV is the next logical move.

As of the second quarter of 2010, Sony has sold 41.6 million Playstation 3 units. Xbox 360 tops out at 44.6 in the same time period. And Nintendo Wii, 75.9 million. For a grand video-game total  (among PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii) of 162.1 million and counting...

Who will be the first to fully embrace streaming content or Internet apps?

Because it's going to happen, and whichever is the first to act will only begin the next trend in video games and possibly home entertainment as we know it.

Messages to Microsoft's PR firm Waggener Edstrom were not returned by press time. Sony Computer Entertainment US R&D could not be reached for comment. And Nintendo Communications PR, well, didn't answer our phone call.

Links of interest
Netflix: http://www.netflix.com/Default?loms=abcd&mqso=80001347
Hulu Plus: http://www.hulu.com/plus
Gamefly: http://www.gamefly.com/Features/HowItWorks/
Blockbuster: https://www.blockbuster.com/signup/m/plan

UPDATE: Amazon has announced that its Amazon Prime membership (a little over $3/month for free 2-day shipping) will now include a library of TV shows to stream to your TV.