Cost: $39.99 with free shipping

What to enjoy:
Nero’s LiquidTV offers everything that TiVo offers…straight to your PC. It allows viewers to watch live TV on your PC with the TiVo experience, experience all the familiar TiVo functionality, including using a TiVo remote control, export your shows to iPod, PSP, DVD, or transfer shows from your TiVo box to Nero Liquid TV, and burn TV shows to DVD. You’ll need a subscription to TiVo to do all these things but the LiquidTV offers a free 12 month subscription as well as support for HD viewing and timeshifting.

News & Updates:
Variety (4/29/2009): It’s not like TiVo for your PC, it is TiVo for your PC – “To long-term TiVo users, most other personal video recording solutions, whether they’re PC-based or provided by your cable or satellite provider, just fall short. TiVo takes a complex task—recording your favorite TV shows for later playback on-demand—and makes it simple, easy, and even fun. As officially licensed TiVo software for your PC, LiquidTV delivers all the TiVo features you know and love in a PC-friendly software package.” {Read more}

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Editor’s Assessment:
An excellent, somewhat inexpensive way to watch television on your computer. The Nero LiquidTV has the same TiVo user-friendly approach (it even comes with a TiVo remote!) and it even allows you to record programs and transfer them to a iPhone or PSP.

Cost: License for the Pro Vesion is $29.95

What to enjoy:
Bridging the PC to the television, TVersity is a software package that allows a personal computer to stream content to UPnP devices, such as the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Their Pro edition brings content from Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Joost, CBS, NBC, The WB, ESPN, TV.com, NFL, Comedy Central, South Park, Marvel, The Discovery Channel, Nation Geographic Channel and more to the television where it belongs. That is, of course, if you don’t own a mac cause, sadly, TVersity is not mac compatible.

News & Updates:
Engadget (07/30/2009): How To Turn Your Gaming Console Into A Media Center – Networks and studios are finally getting wise to the fact that consumers want on-demand access to their favorite shows. Many media outlets have put video of recent episodes out on the Web, and the Web is a better place because of it. {Read more}

Cost: Free

What to Enjoy:
Orb allows both Mac and PC users to stream music, videos, and photos to their laptops and PDA (including Android and iphones) for free. If your computer has a television tuner card, Orb can stream live TV to any of the previously mention devices. This includes local channels and sporting events.

Third-Party Features:
Orb offers an iphone application for 9.95 that streams live TV (if you have a tv tuner on your computer) in wireless, edge and 3G. Strange that Apply won’t allow Slingbox to stream in 3G but they may be currently flying under Apple’s watchful eye of Mordor.

News & Reviews:
PR Newswire (11/5/2009): Orb opens its platform for Mac — “Orb Networks today announced the availability of Orb for Macintosh, delivering media anywhere functionality to Apple Mac users. Orb enables anything from iTunes to be enjoyed on any internet-connected device, without downloading titles beforehand or uploading anything to the cloud. Streaming media leader Orb, which released its media solution for Windows PCs in 2005, and developed the first streaming media player for the iPhone in 2008, boasts more than 10 million users.” {Read more}

Cost: $100

What to enjoy:
Connect this media player from your computer through two available USB 2.0 Ports to your HDTV to allow networking for easy access media. However the EVA 2000 only supports 720p.

Features:
Netgear’s EVA2000 gives the viewer access to Hulu, YouTube and Netflix, as well as pay-per-view content, such as CinemaNow.

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Editor’s Assessment: While most new Blu-Ray players have Netflix capability, the main allure of this box is hulu and all the additions of PlayOn. For people who are interested in cutting the cord to their cable bill, this could provide a great way to get content to the tv without paying the high prices.

Cost: WD Live $149

What to enjoy:
The cute compact WD TV pushes home media up a notch, offering an inexpensive alternative to showing your pictures, playing music, and viewing a movie or television show on your HDTV.

Features:
WD TV HD Media Player: WD TV allows easy integration with your USB or external hard drive and has a crisp menu for easy access. While it doesn’t have Internet capability, the compact size makes it an easy item for travel and it plays all forms of unprotected media.
WD TV Live Media Player: All the easy integration of the WD TV HD Media player plus a HD 1080p display, Pandora Radio built-in, Live365 channel and YouTube channel.

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News & Updates:
CrunchGear (12/14/2008): Review: Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player – “For months now, I have been trying to play .MKV and other video files on my living room front projector. At first I tried to connect a laptop directly to the TV. But this didn’t always work, the audio was crappy, and it was awkward to have a laptop connected to the projector.” {Read more}

Editor’s Assessment:
While the WD TV HD has a very easy to use interface and displays 1080p on the tv with built in Pandora and an ability to view flickr feeds, the high price tag of 150 and lack of hulu and Netflix may put a lot of viewers off.