WSJ: Tivo Premier looks good but no new features

by Wirehead

Rightardia has been looking at lot of different options for streaming video from the Internet in our office. Since we already have a DVD Blu-Ray player, we didn't want to buy another DVD player with Internet Access.

We have seen some excellent streaming media products from both Western Digital and Patriot Memory, but these products had no feeds from either Netflix of Amazon Video on Demand, the two big streaming video content providers.

We are leaning toward a Roku Player for the office. The two HD versions display 720p video which is not as good as TIVO, but the box only costs around $100. This is a lot less than TIVO Premier which costs around $300. You may also need a cable card from your cable provider before a TIVO will work.

However, HD TIVO can produce a 1080 HD image, something a Roku player cannot do. The Roku Player also requires that you download shows from your PC while the TIVO can do this from your home HDTV screen with a TIVO controller.

We consider the Roku Player to be a Better Buy than the TIVO and plan to purchase either the Roku HD or Roku HD-SR. The SR includes the faster 802.11n wireless receiver while the Roku HD only supports 802.11g. If you don't have an 802.11n router in you home, you will not need the Roku HD-SR. Both Roku Players also have standard wired Ethernet ports

We would like to hear from our readers on experiences with either player or any other HDTV product that receives streaming video from the Internet.

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