Set-top boxes have been poppin’ up all over the place this past year. You can’t swing a dead LOLcat without hitting some newfangled device being built or upgraded to bridge oldteevee with the newteevee. To help you keep up with the growing number of options, we put together this Set-Top Scorecard. It rounds up the major STBs we’ve covered over the past few months, and gives you a quick overview on each product.
Apple TV

Gist: Rent or buy movies direct from Apple, or wirelessly beam content from your iTunes library to your TV.
Partners/Titles: All major movie studios, most TV networks (except NBC). Over 800 TV shows, 1,500 movies
Web Video: YouTube / Podcasts
Price: $229 – 40GB / $329 – 160GB
Availability: Now
HP MediaSmart Connect

Gist: Stream video content downloaded to your PC to your TV. Works with UPnP formats, but not DRM’d Apple formats.
Partners/Titles: CinemaNow for downloadable movies and TV shows.
Web Video: YouTube / Microsoft Internet TV Beta
Price: $349
Availability: Pre-order now
Netflix LG
Gist: TBA
Partners/Titles: TBA
Web Video: TBA
Price: TBA
Availability: Summer 2008
Netflix Roku

Gist: Streams movies that Netflix offers as “Play Now” to your TV.
Partners/Titles: 10,000 movies and TV shows
Web Video: No
Price: $99
Availability: Now
Netflix’s 2 Other Boxes
Gist: TBA
Partners/Titles: TBA
Web Video: TBA
Price: TBA
Availability: TBA
Sezmi

Gist: Wants to be a replacement for your cable. Uses over-the-air broadcast for major networks, pipes in the rest over broadband. Will be sold as an add-on to broadband service.
Partners/Titles: TBA
Web Video: Yes
Price: TBA
Availability: Trials start later this year
TiVo

Gist: Primarily a DVR, but offering content through Amazon Unbox, Jaman and CinemaNow.
Partners/Titles: Movies and TV shows through Amazon Unbox, Disney movies through CinemaNow, indie movies through Jaman.
Web Video: YouTube (coming), and select partners
Price: $99.99 – $599.99
Availability: Now
Verismo

Gist: Watch web video on your TV, no PC required.
Partners/Titles: YouTube, BitTorrent, vTap to search anything else. Can play Windows DRM (Amazon, CinemaNow).
Web Video: Yes
Price: $99
Availability: Late Summer 2008
Vudu

Gist: Dedicated box for downloading movie content.
Partners/Titles: All the major Hollywood studios, has 6,000 titles to choose from.
Web Video: No
Price: $299
Availability: Now
Xbox

Gist: Game console’s Marketplace offers movie and TV show downloads.
Partners/Titles: “3,500 hundred hours” of entertainment from 35 studios.
Web Video: Some select partners.
Price: $349 + $50/year Live subscription
Availability: Now
ZeeVee

Gist: Connects your PC to your TV through existing home wiring and plays content on an unused channel.
Partners/Titles: Anything on the Web.
Web Video: Yes
Price: $499
Availability: 31-Jul-08
Before your fire off comments, this list doesn’t include everything — there are dedicated Windows Media Center Extenders out there, companies like Boxee are creating open source solutions, consumer electronics firms like Sony and Panasonic are putting set-top functionality directly into their products, and even Time Warners Cable is mulling a PC-to-TV box.
This list will evolve and we’ll update accordingly. We already had to remove SanDisk’s TakeTV from the run-down, and we know that won’t be the last one to bite the digital dust.
Are you using any of these devices? Leave us a comment and tell us whether you love it or loathe it.
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