Google Cloud TV & The Logitech Revue
The Logitech Revue with Google TV is nothing if not ambitious. Accompanied by a keyboard that incorporates a universal remote as well as mouse functions, this Android-based set-top box brings to your TV search capabilities and an honest-to-goodness Web browser along with solid media-playback and streaming services. With the addition of an optional USB video camera, the Revue also turns your set into a video-chat monitor.
It’s not perfect, however. Key TV-network sites are blocking the Revue’s Chrome browser from playing their content, its Amazon on-demand application doesn’t yet support HD video streaming (an on-screen message says this is coming), and–strangest of all for a Google-based box–its searches are sometimes confusing.
The Revue’s Atom processor makes for somewhat sluggish Web browsing, and the box’s $300 price tag (as of October 25, 2010) seems excessive for a device that has no storage or DVR capability (although it can at least control the built-in DVR of my Comcast/Motorola cable box, as well as search recorded content on a Dish DVR). You might also quibble with the lack of full universal-remote features–the keyboard can control a home theater receiver, but not a Blu-ray or DVD player.
Still, in my tests with a shipping unit, I found more to like than to dislike. For starters, it was exceptionally easy to get up and running. Logitech and Google aren’t fooling around with subpar TV quality: The unit expects an HDMI input from your TV source and an HDMI connection to your set (and it comes with a cable to make one of those hookups). It also has a digital audio hookup for a home theater audio system, if you use one. Finally, you must connect the Revue box (a fairly slim unit about the size of a typical router) to your home network, either via the built-in Wi-Fi or ethernet (I tested it using an ethernet cable connected to a HomePlug AV switch).
Continue Reading… Source: The Washington Post
