Sage vs Boxee vs Netcast vs ???

[valnar]

CES has brought a deluge of new Internet streaming toys in the form of mostly TV's and Blu-ray players (and while the old Boxee is not one of them, it's the main point of my post).

What am I missing by sticking with a pure Sage setup and not integrating Boxee or any other products? Is there more to life outside of Sage?

I know what Hulu, YouTube and Netflix are, but not CinemaNow, Vudu or Netcast. I assume, maybe incorrectly, that a lot of these services have some similarities? Do they offer the same content, or are each unique?

I downloaded Boxee to my PC but I don't want to sign up for all the various options unless they provide some value or content which I cannot get with basic SageTV.

So...what other services do people use here besides Sage? And more importantly, why?

[PLUCKYHD]

The main differences are going to be netflix, vudu and soon hulu plus.

Netflix is a subscription based streaming services. It has allot of movies some in "hd" quality, don't expect allot of newer movies on here quickly.

Vudu is a ondemand of sorts, but all the movies are hd quality. They have the best picture of any internet based on demand i have seen. They are a pay per movie/view service.

Hulu plus is basically hulu for a fee moved onto a box.

None of the other options allow for pvr currently though like sagetv.

[mayamaniac]

If you don't care for live TV or specifically live sports in HD, then hulu plus and netflix is very attractive option to SageTV as you don't need a computer to access the content, plus you can cut the cable/satellite bills.

Until a service comes out to replace live sports in HD, there's no way they will replace SageTV for me.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

If you don't care for live TV or specifically live sports in HD, then hulu plus and netflix is very attractive option to SageTV as you don't need a computer to access the content, plus you can cut the cable/satellite bills.

Until a service comes out to replace live sports in HD, there's no way they will replace SageTV for me.

ESPN3 is getting close to that on xbox 360.

[SWKerr]

I have to say I like the ESPN option on the Xobx360. Shows you that you could easily replace Cable\Sat and get a better experience if the content was there.

I added a Kinect this Christmas and it is an impressive piece of technology. Navigating with a remote is still faster than the hand gestures but the voice recognition for pause stop and fast forward are actually pretty useful. I would guess this is on the roadmap for Media Center at some point as well.

I would love to see the voice recognition added to SageTV as a plugin some day. With the Kinect hacks I have seen I would expect this will be possible before tool long.