There are lots of clients that can connect to a media server or play digital media from local storage. Since this blog is about streaming, that will be the focus.
Just a general comment. Most of these are devices that let you hook up something other than a computer to your TV or Home Theater. Many people have an old PC they could use and that might be tempting. Some reasons NOT to do this: 1) Size. These devices are SMALL and fit in your TV cabinet. 2) No mouse or keyboard needed. Use the remote from the couch. 3) Your old PC has a noisy fan that annoys me. I want to hear the movie, not a jet engine taking off. 4) Most TVs don't have VGA input and you might spend more on the right cable or adaptor than these boxes cost.
TV DEVICES
(devices you can attach to your TV screen and bundled with software)
AppleTV - AppleTV has a groovy interface. It can access your iTunes library or stream from Netflix. However, there isn't much this can do that Roku can't for a smaller price and it only plays a couple media formats.
Blu-ray players - A lot of networked Blu-ray players are out there now, and many can connect to DLNA servers and Netflix. Like network enabled TVs, these are expensive. Eventually there needs to be convergence and most of the devices here will be obsolete. I'd rather have my $60 devices become obsolete than a $400 or $1500 device.
Boxee Box - Originally, Boxee was a software package (based on XBMC) for your computer and that software is now available for free. Today, you can purchase the Boxee Box, an oddly shaped device to plug into your TV. It can stream Netflix, Vudu, Youtube and more and connects to your computer via SMB share (aka Windows file shares). I found good content (full length movies and TV shows) available online through Boxee that I hadn't discovered elsewhere. Boxee is expensive compared to the Roku, but I do like that you can download the software free to your Mac or Windows machine to try out exactly what the experience is like and what you can do with it, before you commit to buying the box.
Iomega ScreenPlay - It is interesting that the companies known for storage devices (Iomega and Western Digital) have entered this space with about a half dozen products each. This seems to indicate they don't really have any idea what consumers want, so they try multiple things and confuse everybody. Not building WiFi into their devices is another clue. The 1Tb model from Iomega at $99 might be the kind of thing I'd buy for my parents who still haven't figured out too much about the whole Interweb. I'd load it full of enough content that they never feel the need to go online for more.
Logitech Revue/Google TV - The first iteration of Google TV was not terribly well received. So much so that Logitech may not stick around for the 2.0 version. This is probably a matter of overhyping and putting a little bit too many desktop-like features into the set top device. While you don't need to use it very much, there is a mouse pointer. And to enter text you need to use a remote control with a keyboard. My main frustration is I cannot use it in the dark because I cannot see the buttons on the remote. Also, the text displays are too small too read from more than a couple feet away, especially in the Media Player app. However, it functions well for streaming Netflix, Qriocity, Pandora and is a good little DLNA device for streaming from your local network. I did have trouble streaming from local network at 801.11g speeds, however, even though it was working fine on my Roku devices.
Patriot Box Office - I've never seen one of these devices or talked to anybody that had one, but from the technical description is is comparable to the WD TV Live client boxes. This is made by a company known for producing memory products (RAM and storage devices, mostly) and history has shown these companies don't do too well on consumer user interface design. At the moment, the price is pretty good, though, which might be a sign it is soon to be discontinued.
Popcorn Hour - The C-200 is the latest device from this manufacturer that hooks up to your TV and acts as a media center and also a server. At $300 you get everything you need except the storage and it doesn't appear to be able to stream Netflix or media from your local network. Someone needs to sell me on what this thing can actually do.
PS3 - The Sony has been a bit of a pioneer in local network streaming with the PS3. However, the device doesn't play very many formats of video so you'll most likely need a Media Server that provides transcoding to play local media. Most of the major internet streaming providers support PS3, but the player is very basic in terms of navigating content.
PS3 - The Sony has been a bit of a pioneer in local network streaming with the PS3. However, the device doesn't play very many formats of video so you'll most likely need a Media Server that provides transcoding to play local media. Most of the major internet streaming providers support PS3, but the player is very basic in terms of navigating content.
Roku - Originally, the Roku Player's only job was to connect Netflix to your TV. Now, it has dozens of channels and hundreds more hidden (or "private") channels to choose from. You can get Hulu Plus, YouTube (log into your Roku account online and add private channel "youtube"), Crackle, etc. To access your local network media you can use Roksbox or NokNok. The first generation has a USB port and there was a way to play from local storage, but the second generation seems to have gotten rid of it. The various models mostly vary by how high resolution the output is, so the trick is to get it to match your TVs capabilities. No point paying more for 1080p when your TV only does 720p.
TiVo - Oh, I remember my first TiVo fondly. The sound effect were my favorite part and I miss the way it backed up 3 seconds when you stopped fast-forwarding. You can now stream NetFlix and other web sources, including Amazon Instant Videos, to your TV via your TiVo. No confirmed reports of streaming from the local network, unfortunately.
WD TV Live - This is often compared to the Roku, despite being quite a bit more expensive. There are several models, including WD TV Live Hub which is also a server. Some don't come with WiFi, however. All can stream from Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, Pandora, and Blockbuster On Demand. It has good file format support, DLNA client support and can play from a local USB storage device. Why can't it play Amazon Instant Videos?
Wii - The Wii has an application to stream Netflix videos and you can watch YouTube videos through the web browser. However, with only Standard Definition output and almost no other support for streaming videos, this isn't a product to buy for streaming. If you have one, use it for what it can do.
XBox 360 - You can access Netflix ONLY with an XBox Live Gold account. The Gold accounts cost about $50/year and this makes little sense to me at all. I think the XBox is only designed to connect to Microsoft's servers and everything that goes through the XBox, goes through Microsoft, so they need to add a charge on top of Netflix. Well, if you have a XBox Live Gold account, it works well and you can get good quality output. It also works well as a DLNA client for accessing media on your local network, and it can connect to Windows Media Center for media stored on new versions of Windows. Works well if you are an all Microsoft home. My complaint about the DLNA client is that it doesn't display metadata, not even the thumbnail images.
OTHER DEVICES
(devices with built in screens)
Android - Android tablets and phones can connect to DLNA servers as well as Netflix and some other services.
iPod/iPhone/iPad - I'm not quite sure what the point is in streaming video to these portable devices. They are great for storing a few videos and watching them while traveling, but streaming requires a high bandwidth network connection which for most people means...home or work. Ok, maybe you want to stream Netflix to these at work, which you can do, although I found the interface slow. You can stream from other Media Servers, too.
TVs - Select televisions from Sharp, Vizio, Samsung, Sony, Philips and Toshiba have built in WiFi and support for an Internet Streaming Service of some kind. Some might even support more than one source. Unfortunately, there are few standards and not all of these will get firmware upgrades to support the new protocols and file formats they will need to support in the future. That can be said of all of these devices, but even more-so than with Blu-ray players, these TVs are expensive items to throw away.
SOFTWARE CLIENTS
(client software for computers, HTPC or other devices)
NokNok - Software that runs on the Roku box that can, kind of, get it to connect to a DLNA server. Roku apparently doesn't have the hardware, even in the second generation, to support uPnP. NokNok provides other means to stream to your Roku player, including an alternative Netflix player (not as good as the default) and the ability to stream from your "friends" servers. Getting it to access a DLNA server requires a Windows PC to sniff out the server information, then uploading that to your NokNok user account, then going to your Roku to see if it is there. The folks at NokNok are doing a lot of work but frankly, it is hard to see where it is going. But, for now, if you have a DLNA server and really want to get to it from your Roku, this is the only way I know of.
PlayOn - Software that works as both a client and a server, and in fact can be both at once. You can set it up so PlayOn accessing Amazon Instant Videos or Netflix, and then streams that to other devices on the local network via DLNA. Or, so I've heard. This may be a way to get Amazon Instant Videos on the WD HD Live device as well as Netflix on XBox 360 without a Gold account.
Plex Media Center - Diverged from XBMC a while ago and functionally very close to XBMC with minor differences and a different support team. Runs on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Roksbox - This nifty channel for Roku connects to a web server to access your media library. On either Windows or Mac, turning on a web server is pretty easy. I really like Roksbox because of the way it displays metadata. Most other players only show a thumbnail and a name, or maybe a duration. But, setting up the metadata is not very easy. Roksbox has you store a thumbnail image (not too high resolution or Roksbox slows waaaaay down) and an XML file. Roksbox can also use .NFO files from a program called Thumbgen, but the .NFO files from XBMC will cause Roksbox to crash. You can rename the .NFO files from XMBC to have an XML extension, but only some of the information will translate. Or, you can create a single XML file which tells Roksbox where every piece of media is. There are some tools that help create that single XML file, but not for Mac and not very easily on Windows, either.
XBMC - XBMC provides client applications that run on a variety of devices to access streaming content from the internet and local network. It is commonly used for HTPCs and plays almost all file formats for music and video. There are multiple "skins" so that you can choose a look and feel you like best. Most of the current development is focused on XBMC as a client rather than a server.
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