Jonathan Takiff: New, cheaper devices deliver Internet shows & movies to your TV

SEEN ANY TV shows on the Internet lately? If so, you're in good company.

According to a recent eMarketer study, almost 59 million U.S. adults have watched full-length television programs online, mostly on laptop or desktop computers, or mobile smartphones.

How many of these viewers have economically "cut the cord" from their cable or satellite TV provider? Not sure, though testimonials from folks I deal with suggest that number is significant and growing.

"I just run a cable from my computer to the TV and watch the Internet channel feeds on the big screen," said one colleague. "Picture quality's a little soft, but it'll do."

Here's another staggering figure, courtesy of the broadband equipment/services company Sandvine: Between 8 and 10 each night, 20 percent of the download traffic to broadband-serviced U.S. households is now carrying Netflix-delivered movies and TV shows to subscribers watching on a variety of Internet-connected devices. Truth is, if you don't mind the time warp (this is 2009, right?), there's always something good on Netflix, and the basic $9-a-month fee - with one DVD loaner disc - is reasonable.

BIG THINGS IN SMALL BOXES: Want to plunge even deeper into the new world of bargain-priced, broadband-based entertainment? Buzz is building for a new crop of magical boxes that likewise connect to a TV and the Internet (either via Ethernet or Wi-Fi) to serve up an array of Web-based video and audio channels.

You may not know Roku or Boxee, but doubtless you've heard of Apple, Google, Logitech and Sony. All are players in this add-on product category that some are calling "Over the Top" boxes. It's a playful term meant to suggest these devices soar a lot higher than your traditional cable or satellite "set-top" boxes.

FUN WITH TECHNOLOGY: Even if you only have passing interest in Internet TV, the $59.99 starting price for a Roku Player, or the $99 price tag on the new Apple TV make either streaming video (and audio) device worth the splurge.

Roku's versatile little boxes, pioneers in the field, even connect to ye olde standard-definition TVs and analog sound systems, as well as today's high def-sets and digital audio sound makers. The Roku Player delivers a huge array of on-demand channel/podcast offerings on a newly spiffed-up menu. Added to a favorites list, they're accessed with an ultrasimple remote.

Calling up a Netflix movie takes a few seconds more on Roku than on other boxes, but the picture quality is just as good and, on some channels (like techies' delight Twit.TV) achieves 720p high definition. (The most feature-laden, $99 Roku XRS box will even output a 1080p HD signal, if you can find one. The model also boasts a USB flash drive connection and a 15-second instant replay feature.)

Also among Roku's pay offerings are Amazon Video-on-Demand movies and TV shows (99 cents and up), MLB.TV baseball games, MOG music-on-demand and, soon coming, the $9.99-a-month Hulu Plus service, which offers current and past seasons of shows from ABC, Fox, NBC "and more."

Freebie fun is provided by the likes of podcast aggregators Blip.TV, Mediafly and Revision 3, on the vintage (public domain) movie channel Pub-D-Hub, with the newly launched African culture service PowerBling TV and from two excellent repositories of Internet radio and audio podcasts, Tune-in Radio and SHOUTcast.

A JUICY BITE OF THE APPLE: The Apple corps snapped up 500,000 of the second-generation Apple TV boxes its first month out.

Not too shabby.

This tiny tot (and companion remote) shines with classic Apple polishing: sleek product design, slick and easy operation and controlled content.

Apple is hoping you'll also acquire movies and TV show streams from its iTunes store, priced at 99 cents to $4.99. (I suspect the company is just about giving the Apple TV hardware away, hoping to profit from content sales.)

The box also delivers YouTube and a modestly sized but nicely curated collection of free video and audio podcasts that jump-start in a snap. Gotta love that A4 processor - the same one that's in the iPad and iPhone 4.

Streaming audiovisual content already stored on your Mac computers is easily done on Apple TV - a major selling point. A feature called Airplay will soon allow "enabled" video and audio content to be transferred wirelessly from an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to an Apple TV and connected gear.

Be forewarned: If you don't have modern sight and sound equipment, Apple TV is not for you. Signal outputs are limited to HDMI and optical digital audio.

GOOGLE TV: The bar and the price tag ($299) are set considerably higher with the Logitech Revue, the first stand-alone box and keyboard package that fulfills the mission of Google TV.

The idea here is to mesh cable or satellite content with Internet content for the ultimate in search and conquer missions.

For starters, your cable or satellite box's signal is fed (via HDMI cable) through and then switched by the Revue. So, too, are a connected audio/video receiver and HDTV, all using Logitech's smart, unifying Harmony remote control technology.

When you enter a search term like "comedy" on the slim, full-function wireless (RF-enabled) keyboard remote, the Google TV search engine summons up a list of appropriate shows and shorts playing now or soon on your pay TV service provider, on Web sites like Comedy Central and on ever-prominent YouTube (which Google owns).

Near the top, this instant-access menu also will show the Wikipedia entry on comedy and listings of local comedy clubs. With pickings from a pay TV provider, you're just a click away from setting up a future recording. And if it's a DISH Network satellite receiver/DVR you've connected, the Revue also can locate and list appropriate content already recorded on the hard drive - say, the recent Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity.

Insane!

Netflix is available on Google TV, too. Oddly, it's the "old school" version (Roku originally offered) that requires users to preselect movies for the "Instant Queue" on a separate computer.

Oh, and with the Google TV-spotlighted HBO Go channel, only customers who have HBO through Comcast and Verizon FiOS currently get a pass to watch selected shows on demand.

Clearly, Google and Logitech have bitten off more than they can chew (just yet) with the all-encompassing product promise: "If you can think it, you can watch it." Another case in point, while Google has made deals with several basic cable networks to share Web-based content, ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking Google TV access to video on their sites.

Here, too, the work-around will be to offer customers a Hulu Plus subscription.

On the upside, Google TV lets you watch a live show from cable/satellite (or a broadcast tuner) in one corner of the screen, while you're surfing the Internet on the rest of the display.

Even 8 feet away, my Outlook e-mail was quite readable on a 50-inch Panasonic screen.

Video sources sometimes look more like film on Google TV. The company is "aware of a frame-synching issue and working on an firmware fix," said a representative. A week later, I've seen improvement already.

FYI: Sony also has just introduced a full line of Internet TVs and a Blu-ray player with integrated Google TV technology.

NEXT TO EMERGE: Already boasting several million users of its free, online Web video search engine, Boxee is about to introduce its first stand-alone Web tuner, a $199 gizmo that promises the graphic appeal of Apple TV with the search power of Google TV.

No, the Boxee Box won't integrate content from a satellite or cable receiver, but the D-Link-manufactured device will spotlight streaming content from the likes of Vudu (now owned by Walmart), MLB.TV, Pandora and Last.FM.

And this over-the-top box stands apart with an added component of social networking.

That's right. Boxee-fied friends can follow what you're watching and, if rights allow, you can send them a link to watch it, too. A great way to spread the word that Web TV is happening - and the price is right.

Send e-mail to takiffj@phillynews.com.