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}

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: $200

What to enjoy:
After connecting to your tv, viewers get the easy to use Boxee menu system that plays content partners (Netflix, MLB, Wired, Clicker and even Suicide Girls).

Third-Party Features:
The Boxee Box has an HDMI output, an analog RCA audio, two USB ports, and a SD slot. It also has Wi-Fi, Ethernet and can be used anywhere in the house.

What can’t you get with Boxee? Primarily, it does not support DRM files”files protected by Digital Rights Management. This includes iTunes downloads (prior to Apple going DRM-free earlier this year), and downloads from MSN Music and Audible.com.

The big site not found on Boxee is Hulu. Both companies are in the midst of a battle and the much-ado, which really is about nothing more than the right to display content, can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Sales Info & Figures:
Video Business (08/13/2009): Boxee streams in $6 million for funding – “Internet TV software startup Boxee — which is hoping to score partnerships with cable and media companies — closed $6 million in financing led by venture-capital firm General Catalyst, with participation by prior investors Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures.” {Read more}

Latest Press Releases:
08/12/2009: Boxee gets a $6M catalyst

08/03/2009:

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: $150

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.

News & Updates:
PC Mag (09/08/2009): Review: Netgear Set-top Box Connects Web Video, HDTVs – “On Tuesday, Netgear launched the Digital Entertainer Live (or EVA2000), a small set-top box that connects an HDTV to a local or networked hard drive or to Web video services like YouTube or Hulu.” {Read more}