Netgear NeoTV NTV200

If you're on a budget and you want to add online media features to your HDTV, the Editors' Choice Roku LT ($49.99, 4 stars) is your best budget option for a media hub. It's not the only $50 set-top box you can buy, though. Netgear's NeoTV NTV200 is also $49.99 (list) and offers some features the Roku LT lacks including access to Vudu on-demand 1080p video, but its sluggish and awkward controls keep it from meeting the standards set by the 720p, Vudu-less Roku LT.

Design
The NTV200 looks like a Netgear-branded Roku box or Apple TV ($99, 4 stars). It's a 0.9-inch-thick, 4.4-inch square with the Netgear logo on the top and HDMI, Ethernet, optical audio, and power ports on the back. The remote control, on the other hand, is a different beast from Roku or Apple's remotes. It's full size, rather than a tiny slab with simple navigation buttons. It looks like a simple Blu-ray player remote, with a four-way navigation pad, full playback controls, and even four color buttons. The remote feels a little too thick with its large, rubber keys, and doesn't quite mesh with the simplicity of the NTV200's design.

Like Roku, the NTV200 relies on various channels for content accessed through the device's built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) or via an Ethernet connection. All of the usual streaming suspects are here, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and Pandora, along with social network services like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, and more specialized channels like Crunchyroll, Funny or Die, and G4. ?It doesn't have quite as many different channels as Roku offers, but Vudu on-demand and Vudu Apps support are useful advantages Roku and Apple TV lack. It also has a few games like poker and Connect Four, but it doesn't quite has the selection of the Roku 2 XS ($99, 3.5 stars) motion-controlled Angry Birds and Pac-Man Championship Edition. The interface, however, feels sluggish, and the remote control isn't very sensitive. Both navigating menus and playing games can require you to aim the remote carefully at the NTV200 and press the button hard.

Most of the minor video services, like Blip.tv, Crunchyroll, and TV Guide, use the Flingo interface, and you can queue any video from YouTube and Vimeo over the Web using the free Flingo Web service. The Flingo interface doesn't need any setup, and automatically finds the NTV200 over a network. Outside of that convenience, the Flingo system isn't very good. Category and search functions seem limited, I couldn't find any of my favorite channels on Blip.tv, and navigating Crunchyroll offered no major anime series outside of the featured episodes; I had to manually search for them.

Video Quality
Unlike the Roku LT (or Roku 2 HD), the NTV200 supports full HD 1080p video. It's a boon if you have a larger screen that supports the resolution, but you can't take much advantage of it without a fast connection. I watched trailers for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance through Vudu in the service's HDX 1080p quality, and both looked very sharp. Of course, if you watch a YouTube video recorded on a low-quality webcam, the 1080p video won't make any difference. Connection speed and quality of the origin video mean much more than the peak resolution of the device, but having the possibility of?1080p for just $50 isn't a bad thing.

If you want an inexpensive way to access streaming media services on your HDTV, the Netgear NTV200 is a dirt-cheap box that can show 1080p video. Its sluggish and clunky interface keeps it from being quite as good a choice as the Roku LT. But with the LT, you're limited to 720p resolution. If you have more to spend (double, to be exact), our high-end Editors' Choice media hub, Apple TV, offers a superior user experience and feature set. Apple TV doesn't have Vudu or Hulu Plus, but it's much more flexible in letting you watch media on your home network, either networked computers or over your iPad or iPhone through Airplay.

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