to Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, and MLB.TV; TiVo connects to those, plus cable and over-the-air offerings; and the AppleTV hooks you into the iTunes Store.

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii
These game consoles can all stream Netflix and play discs. Heck, they can even play games!

SERVICES

Hulu
This show-streaming service is particularly good for content produced by the networks in the consortium that formed it (NBC Universal, News Corp, Disney). So, Family Guy: yes; Breaking Bad: no. Now in beta and coming soon to TVs, Blu-ray players, and other devices: Hulu Plus. In addition to the handful of episodes you get on regular Hulu, you can access the full season and the back catalog for $10 a month. The resolution will be better, too.

Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, iTunes
Netflix and Amazon stream movies and TV shows to your connected TV, Blu-ray player, TiVo, game console, or Roku box. iTunes offers content through a computer, iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Netflix is the cheapest option ($8.99 per month), and of course you can also get discs in the mail. Amazon and iTunes are more expensive—from about $1.99 per episode to $2.99 for HD—but they have newer stuff. If you want to stream True Blood or Hung, it’s Amazon or iTunes for you.

Vudu
This Walmart-owned video service streams in 1080p with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound—a proprietary format the company has dubbed HDX. (Rent a flick for $1.99 to $4.99; buy for $9.99 to $19.99.) To access it though, you’ll need to buy a Blu-ray player or HDTV that has Vudu baked in, and you’ll need a decent Internet connection for streaming: Vudu recommends 2.25 to 4.5 Mbps (the average for a cable connection is about 3.9 Mbps).

SOFTWARE

Boxee, Plex, Xbox Media Center
Known as aggregators, these applications serve a double function. First, if you’ve got any movies or TV shows “backed up” on your hard drive, the aggregator will go out, grab cover art and metadata from places like IMDB and TVDB, and serve up the content in a handsome graphical interface. Aggregators also act as a home base for your streaming video: Plug-ins connect you to everything from MLB.TV to Hulu to Netflix Instant, so you can flip through the Web’s array of streaming content sources without having to surf manually from site to site. The software will work directly on your PC if that’s where you’re watching. Or you can install it on your home theater PC and take control with the TV remote. Boxee also works on the Apple TV, letting you browse movies that live on your computer’s hard drive from your TV. (Caution: This is a hack, and non-iTunes hi-def content will look juddery.) Aggregators don’t ask too many questions about where your stuff comes from, so if you’ve accidentally acquired any BitTorrented material, they’ll organize that, too. Boxee works with everything; XBMC works on Windows and Linux; Plex is Mac-only.

LISTINGS

Clicker.com
In Internet TV Land, there’s no TV Guide. But there is Clicker, which will tell you whether a given show is available from Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, or the network Web site.
—Bryan Gardiner

Authors: Wired Magazine

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