Five Ways To Get YouTube On Your TV
Jun 19th, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: General
YouTube has announced that it’s going to test out hosting long-form videos and even full-length movies, with its new site feature The YouTube Screening Room.
As Internet videos get longer, though, viewing them on your computer starts to look pretty lame. Fortunately, there are a growing number of ways you can get YouTube and other Internet videos onto your TV.
Here are five options for watching YouTube videos on your television:
- Apple has helped pioneer the idea of turning Internet video into Internet television with its Apple TV set top box. It gives you access to millions of free videos, including the top featured, most viewed, and top rated. Apple TV also lets you rent and purchase movies from iTunes, and play your own media.
- TiVo has introduced YouTube support also. In March, it announced that YouTube support will be available later this year to broadband-connected subscribers with TiVo Series3 DVRs, including the new TiVo HD, which retails for around $299. This offers DVR features missing from Apple’s solution.
- Sony’s Bravia Internet Video Link is a small module that attaches to the back of a selection of the company’s BRAVIA LCD flat-panel television models, giving them support for Internet television, including YouTube. A broadband connection of at least 2.5 Mbps is recommended. The Bravia Internet Video Link retails for about $300.
- HP MediaSmart TV is sort of like Apple TV for Windows users, except that it’s integrated with HP’s HDTVs. It lets you access content on PCs, shared with Windows Media Player 11, and lets also access free and commercial Internet video content, including YouTube. Other HDTV manufacturers, including Panasonic, have introduced solutions based on this concept.
- Finally, there’s Verismo Networks‘ PoD. It’s sort of a poor-man’s Apple TV. The $99 device uses your broadband connection to deliver Internet television to your HD TV. It can play videos from YouTube, BitTorrent and other sources, without the need for a PC.
What to buy?
If your budget is tight, you should check out Verismo’s PoD.
Otherwise, your two best options are probably Apple TV and TiVo Series3 DVRs. Apple TV’s emphasis, is Internet video, while TiVo’s is DVR. They aren’t integrated with specific televisions, so, as technology changes, you can swap out a relatively inexpensive box and add better capabilities to your Internet TV solution.
Update from the Comments: Dave notes that you can use the WII, too.
Hi, I’m really confused about the new layout of the site. The old site was so much more interactive with others and here it seems that we are at the mercy of the only the authors and people who may comment back. What about the forums / chats? I LOVED those!! I got so many ideas from people and was able to share so much myself as well…..and speaking of sharing, I would like to add more podcasts to the directory here, but like I said, the new layout of the site is totally throwing me off…..Help??!!!!
You forgot about the Wii. You can watch YouTube and Google Video through the Wii browser.
Dave - thanks for the feedback about the site. We had continuous problems with spam in the forums & directories, and we’re in the process of reworking them. Sorry about the inconvenience, but we’re trying to make the site more useful overall.
[...] over on Podcasting News, James has written a little summary of a 5 ways you can get these internet video’s back on to [...]
[...] YouTube on TV Five ways to see the laughing baby on the big screen [...]
Found another $99 device — the Kiwi from Behind The Set (www.behindtheset.com). Seems to have a larger feature set than Verismo’s VuNow (photo sharing, fantasy football, lots of internet content formatted to TV) — looks pretty cool.