set-top boxes

This post was updated with TiVo's announcement.

Potential cord cutters take note: the cheapest and arguably easiest and (for some) long-awaited way to bring Hulu to a TV is now a reality.

Roku today confirmed the murmurings of yesterday that Hulu Plus is coming to its trio of set-top boxes. Starting "later this fall," the $9.99-per-month service that brings on-demand movies and TV shows from NBC, Fox, ABC, and others will be available.

There is no extra fee beyond the standard Hulu Plus subscription.

This is, of course, not the only way to get Hulu on … Read more

Apple inked a deal with Rovi today that could potentially see the firm's TV listings guide make its way to future Apple products.

Rovi, which was formerly known as Macrovision before the company officially changed its name in 2009, provides TV guide listings to hardware vendors. The company's technology allows users to sift through programming, find shows, and record programs to a DVR.

Exact details of Rovi's deal with Apple are unknown, but analysts at Piper Jaffray believe the licensed services will be making their way to the Apple TV and eventually, an all-in-one Apple television.

According … Read more

After several months of delay, the Boxee Box set-top box is now available for preorder.

It won't ship until November, and when it does it will have new chips inside: instead of the previously announced Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, the oddly shaped set-top will feature Intel's Atom processor instead. The switchover was responsible for the delay, according to Boxee.

The device will sell for $200 through Boxee.tv or Amazon.com. Before it was a piece of hardware, Boxee was a software download that put Internet content on a TV screen. The Boxee Box, which was built by … Read more

In an attempt to capitalize on the talk surrounding the Apple TV, Boxee revealed in a blog post earlier this week that it will start selling its anticipated Boxee Box in November for $200.

"We all watched the Apple announcement," Boxee CEO Avner Ronen wrote on his company's blog. "We walked away feeling confident about the space it left for Boxee to compete. We have a different view of what users want in their living rooms."

Ronen then said that the Boxee Box "is going to be $100 more expensive than the Apple TV, … Read more

This is an update to a post from a couple months ago. It reflects some permanent price drops on the Roku line of set-top boxes!

Looking for an easy way to watch streaming Netflix movies and TV shows? Look no further than the Roku HD, a tiny set-top box that streams from not only Netflix, but also Major League Baseball, Amazon Video on Demand, Flickr, Pandora, and dozens more content providers.

Roku just dropped the price of this model to a very tempting $69.99, and if you buy it from Amazon, you'll get a $10 Video on Demand credit. … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Google made a big splash in May announcing its entrance to the TV business, but how the company plans to make money for Google TV and for its content partners is still a bit muddled.

Google TV is the search giant's platform that will allow people to search on their home television to find videos from anywhere on the Web or a channel service provider. At the DisplaySearch TV Ecosystem Conference here Wednesday, Shalini Govil-Pai, the group manager for partnerships at YouTube and Google TV, told attendees that "monetization models are still being discussed. Obviously … Read more

A new Apple TV featuring 99-cent television show rentals is currently in the works, a report from GigaOm blog, NewTeeVee, claims.

According to NewTeeVee, which cited unnamed sources, Apple is currently trying to coax television studios into allowing the company to offer TV rentals for just 99 cents each on the as-yet announced new version of the Apple TV. Currently, Apple offers consumers the chance to buy television shows on its Apple TV set-top box for $1.99 for standard-definition episodes, and $2.99 for high-definition episodes.

Although details from NewTeeVee's sources are scant at this point, the blog … Read more

Are you looking for an easy way to bring Netflix Watch Instantly movies to your TV? Look no further than the Roku HD-XR, a tiny set-top box that streams Internet content from Netflix and a variety of other sources.

This top-end model normally costs $129.99, but today only, Amazon has the Roku HD-XR for $99.99 with free shipping. Plus, Amazon is throwing in a $10 credit for its Video on Demand service.

Roku's other channels include MLB.com, which, like Netflix, requires a subscription, Blip.tv, Flickr, NASA, and Pandora.

The Roku player connects to the Internet … Read more

Ultimate Fighting Championship fans are getting another forum for watching the latest bouts. UFC has signed a multiyear agreement to stream live fights on Roku set-top boxes.

The agreement kicks off May 29 with a match between two former UFC champions. Roku owners will pay $44.99 per fight, the same as on pay-per-view, a Roku representative said.

UFC fans will still have the option of watching games on pay-per-view through their satellite or cable provider.

As part of the new deal, fight fans will also have access to UFC Vault channel on the Roku box. The channel includes pre-fight … Read more