Logitech Revue w/Google TV -VS- WD TV Live Hub, Compare Google TV with the Live Hub. Options

[Steve-WDLIVE]

Okay so, I'm going to do my best to compare my experience with the Logitech Revue (Google TV) with the WD TV Live Hub media player.

First, a little history. I've been a WDTV Live owner for well over a year. I've always felt that the WDTV Live was lacking in several features and for a long time, wished for something better. The WDTV Live + is nice to have netflix but has left the WDTV Live in the dust.

One important note, I do not have cable/sat as I have cut that cable from my life. My goal is a set top box (STB) that can handle all my movie/tv/internet needs.

So, about 3 weeks ago I bought the Revue. Best Buy has it for $250 so I thought I would give it a shot.
First impressions were: Very easy to setup, nice clean interface, easy controls, the Logitech keyboard is the BOMB!! After about 30 minutes... I realized the Keyboard was the best part. I plugged in my External USB with all my movies on it (2tb - about 300 movies). It seen the drive and all looked promising but, with the exception of a few low quality AVI's, it played NOTHING! The layout was terrible, no thumbnail support, really nothing. The media player was useless for movies. I even tried it with a media server from my PC. That played a couple more formats but that's about it. Netflix is Netflix.. works fine just like anywhere else. The web browser felt very stripped down and not very user friendly. It did work but just not great. I have to say that YouTube was awesome on there. You can play YouTube, set Hi-Def and just let it play from one video to the next. The Keyboard made it easy to search.

So I returned it for the WD HUB.. I love the Hub over the WDTV Live by far and any WDTV over the GTV for sure!!

Here is a list of the features and differences between the Hub and the GTV:

Netflix - About the same
YouTube - GTV wins this round. Hi-Def and continuous playing
Web Browser - You get none with the Hub and a crappy one with the GTV
Pandora - This one is a TIE for me, they both handle it well. Although GTV you can have only one account while the HUB, you can have as many as you want.
Controls - The Revue's keyboard is awesome! The Hub remote is an improvement over the older WDTV models.
Movie Files - The Hub plays EVERYTHING and graphically presented with info. GTV is useless
Music Files - The Hub plays everything and graphically presented with info. GTV it'll play some stuff.
User Experience - WD got it right this time plus you can customize the themes. GTV is just OK.
Usablity - By FAR the WD wins here. By playing all movie types, you can literally have hundreds of hours on the Hub actually using it.

FUTURE USE - Okay, I'll be honest here, I'm SICK AND TIRED of wondering what the future holds for these products. The GTV is running Android so it could potentially have thousands of killer apps and really change the face of EVERYTHING... Maybe... some day... possibly... only IF... OMG!!!! I'm sick of it!
The truth of the matter is this - You get what you get when you plug it in. If it's not worth the price, return it and wait or get something else.

The WDTV Live + is pretty good for the $100 price tag
The WD Hub at $200, is a bit pricey but it's because of the 1TB internal HD. I would honestly like it better with no internal HD and about $120 (but that's just me).
The Logitech Revue at $250 is a waste of money. The only worthwhile piece of equipment is the keyboard. The rest of the unit and GoogleTV is maybe worth about $25-$50 tops.

That's my two cents.

[WDUser]

Hmm, thanks for the comparison, Steve. Like you said, maybe it's early days yet for the Google TV platform and devices, and maybe one day it'll be worth it. With the power of the Big G behind it, I wouldn't bet against that happening, that's for sure. Guess being an early adopter in this case is not for everyone!

P.S. That Revue keyboard with trackpad etc. does indeed look slick, but then again, the WD TVs support USB/wireless keyboards as well...

[Steve-WDLIVE]

Yes, the early adopters are likely to be left in the mud on this one. Google has announced that they are dropping the Intel CPU's and going with ARM chips (like the Apple TV), so we'll likely see the $99-$199 price tag happen on GTV's in the next year.

Getting a wireless keyboard for my Hub is next on the list. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[neverlift]

Hey Steve nice review. I fully agree with you on the WDTV Live HUB without the enclosed drive for just over 100 bucks, that would be sweet. And here I thought Google TV was going to be the end all of media players, seems I might of thought wrong.

Cheers!