Introduction
Call me obsessed with getting internet and hard-drive content to my TV, but the day I heard the Apple TV would offer movie rentals from the internet, I not only ordered one but bought a 52" HDTV to go with it! I am ready go digital with movies like I did music back in the 90's since it's so much more convenient! However, as great as the Apple TV is, it and all other media streamers on the market suffer from the same problem: lack of broad format support.
What about the TV I record with Windows Media Center? What about the DVD's I have ripped to my hard drive? What about the streaming media I get from the internet? If I wanted to play all of these, I might need several different devices but then I'd certainly still have to deal with many unsupported formats and websites.
The ZvBox, however, takes a different and very powerful approach that ends up solving the format limitations! It hooks up to your computer and sends whatever is on the monitor to your TV screen (and in HD)! Perfect! If the ZvBox delivers on its promises, it means I will be able to watch my recorded TV, my ripped DVD’s, the movies I downloaded via iTunes and any bit of video I can find on the internet!
Well, I got my eager hands on a demo unit last week, so let’s see how it fared!
Installation
I heard mention elsewhere about how daunting the ZvBox installation was and about the true problems of it not working well with satellite cable, so I was a little worried about the difficulty of setting it up myself. I also worried about and the possibility of screwing my cable service up. Fortunately, I discovered the installation horror stories were overblown and the ZvBox didn’t interfere with my TV, phone or internet services, all of which run over cable.
Basic hardware installation consists of hooking up a few coax cables, a channel filter near one of your home’s splitters (you’ll need to figure out where they are), and then plugging your monitor into the VGA ports of the ZvBox.
If you’re like me, one of your first questions about the ZvBox is, “Why VGA?”. Many if not most newer computers have moved to the newer DVI or HDMI standards. Well, according to my contact as ZeeVee, the reason is that along with the newer outputs comes DRM. Since VGA is analog, you get around any restrictions.
Unfortunately, what you don’t get around is the fact that a DVI-to-VGA adapter isn’t included with the ZvBox, which the majority of customers will have to purchase separately. Lame! Add another $20 to the price for that omission.
Functionality/User Friendliness
Once performing a channel scan and tuning into the “ZV” channel, a press of a button launches the “Zviewer” interface, which acts as a streamlined portal to sites like Hulu.com, an online service offering ad-supported on-demand movies and TV shows. That feature is a pleasant surprise with the ZvBox! I hadn’t previously used Hulu.com, mostly because I like watching TV on my TV, not my computer monitor (go figure), but since the ZvBox bridges the gap between PC to TV, Hulu is a compelling service that has me questioning if I really need to pay the extra dollars for on-demand cable service. ZvBox gives me a free alternative with a (slightly clumsy) graphical interface and about the same selection!
Hulu.com movie selection as seen through Zviewer.
ZvBox broadcasts any PC application like Windows Media Center, which can play recorded TV and ripped DVD's.
The included RF remote (which lets you control your computer from pretty much any room in the house) is mostly familiar in terms of its controls. You have your standard play/pause/rewind buttons, directional arrows to navigate around, the easy-to-overlook “full screen” and “back” buttons for enlarging video and going to the previous screen respectively, and then a feature unique to the remote: an electrostatic touchpad mouse like you’d find on your laptop.
The touchpad is used mostly when you leave the “Zviewer” interface to utilize the “PC-to-TV” functionality that is the primary selling point of the ZvBox. Unfortunately, there is about a half second lag between any computer input and the time it hits your screen, so anytime you have to use the touchpad, it’s a bit of an annoyance. So too is the remote’s method for keyboard input, which simply provides a number pad where you can enter text similar to the way you’d send a text message on the cell phone.
The good news is that it’s usually possible to keep the touchpad and text interaction to a minimum since most of the programs you’ll want to use (iTunes, Windows Media Center, etc.) are supported by the arrow keys and play/pause/rewind buttons. If you want to do something like surf the web, which is more input intensive, you’ll either want the expensive and not-yet-released ZV keyboard, or a Bluetooth keyboard presuming your computer is in Bluetooth range of the TV(s) you want to watch.
I noticed some other quirks with the system, like sometimes having to restart the ZvBox when I restart my computer, but since the ZvBox lets me watch Hulu, iTunes, and my ripped DVD’s and recorded TV in Windows Media Center, I can forgive some of the system’s quirks, especially when much of the important nuance like automatic resolution changes to fit your TV, turning off the screen saver, and diverting audio solely to the TV is handled perfectly.
Performance
The performance of the ZvBox is mixed, but acceptable overall. The resolution is quite good (I could read 6 pt. font in the ZV channel in my experiments), I noticed no skipping (aside from when an overloaded website is buffering video), but I did notice some pixilation in darker scenes and gradients because of the signal compression, as pictured below.
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| How a gradient looks on a PC monitor. This is the way it should look. |
How the same gradient looks when localcast via ZvBox. Notice the pixelation near the color transition. |
'Chronicles of Narnia' looking good when localcasted via ZvBox!
Most of the time you won’t ever notice the issue and the picture looks as great as the pictured ZV channel screenshot of “Chronicles of Narnia”. because of the compression and 720p resolution, however, I wouldn’t recommend streaming 1080p sources like Blu Ray from your computer to the ZvBox.
Also, because of the noted input delay the ZvBox is great for video and music streams, but it’s not meant for gaming or applications requiring fast response to mouse and keyboard actions.
Conclusion
The ZvBox has its warts, but I’ve been waiting for a device that can play all of my media regardless of the source or format. In that regard, the ZvBox delivers! The interface isn’t quite as smooth as other streamers I own, but then it’s not optimized to play only the handful of formats those devices support. The fact that ZvBox lets you stream from Hulu, navigate Windows Media Center, plus support any website, program or file format you can throw at certainly makes it the most versatile media streamer on the market, and if you can get over its quirks and the $500 price tag, I’d recommend it!