Customer Reviews

Logitech Revue Companion Box with Google TV and Keyboard Controller

5 star:		(321)
4 star:		(204)
3 star:		(102)
2 star:		(81)
1 star:		(148)

 

 

Logitech Revue Companion Box with Google TV and Keyboard Controller

While I think the price point should have been closer to $200, I am overall very satisfied with Google TV, using the Logitech Revue box and keyboard. I am an Android phone user as well and the OS used in Google TV is very similar. The set up was easy and intuitive. One note: You do need an HDTV, high-speed internet (wired or wireless), and a cable box with HDMI cable inputs to take full advantage of all Google TV has to offer. And while the box comes with 1 HDMI cable, you will need at least one more. I am not completely sold on using the keyboard to control the DVR, although it is possible. There is a free Harmony app for Android phones (iPhone coming soon, I believe) that is an added bonus.

I won't be getting rid of my laptop, but will be using it a whole lot less! If you use the internet for games, Facebook, searching, shopping, photos, videos, etc., then having quick access to that using the full Google Chrome browser while in your living room, is a no-brainer. I enjoy the integration of my DVR content with internet searching, if I search for "Desperate Housewives" it shows me not only my recordings on the DVR, upcoming shows in the guide, as well as related websites and other references. Neat. I like the Pandora application so I can listen to music through my stereo, surf the web, and watch the local news in picture-in-picture, all at once.

I look forward to having more application options (Google is aggressively pursuing developers to create apps for Google TV like they do for the Android Marketplace). I think a very basic app they should have included out of the box is Weather.com to quickly pull up the local forecast. When an app market is available and as other enhancements are added (updates over the internet), this will soon become the perfect product, until then, it's very fun and I'm glad to have it!

UPDATE: 8/1/11 - Glad to see the price drop to $99.99 (even though I paid 3x that much). This lower price point along with the upcoming update to the OS within a month or two, should make this a no-brainer. Check it out!

I have had the revue for 5 months now and recently the revue hdmi output died (not the boxes fault..it happened during a surge that came from the cable box which also killed the hdmi switch at the revue output...trust me I know exactly what went wrong). I cannot begin to explain how you miss it after you have started using it for a while. Basically your tv is not the same anymore without it.

First off I want to address an issue I have seen on reviews with Netflix. I use netflix on Xbox 360, PS3, PC and the revue. The revue interface has everything you have through a pc with full search functionality and ease of use. The xbox and PS3 are far behind. The only reason people jumped to conclusions about this is because there are two choices to watch netflix. One is on the left menu which is sort fo a preview of netflix and the other is to go to Applications->Netflix and launch the dedicated netflix application. Thats when you have the full featured app. As for quality the revue is at par with the PS3 as the top two. The xbox for some reason decides to lower my quality at times due to bandwidth. This never happens with the PS3 or the revue.

Second I want to address the concern people have about blocked video websites. This has nothing to do with the revue. This is due to sites like hulu blocking android from accessing their content because they want to charge for this. If this bothers you, do not complain to logitech or google, but to the FCC. Tell them to take action because they are allowing sites to block content to charge. This should be illegal. The fake messages you get from hulu saying we are working on bringing hulu to android just means they are "working" on a monthly plan and hulu plus app.

Next ill address the mentions of connecting a pc to your tv to get the same or better results. the convenience of just having the web access at just the push of a button without needing to get up connect your laptop or having a dedicated pc for this purpose is not comparable. Just think of watching a movie, getting that brain freeze of where you saw that actor before, pausing your film, clicking the search button on your keyboard and checking on imdb in an instant and then resuming your film. You cant achieve this with a dedicated pc or bringing your laptop to your tv. Not to mention that not all tv's have a vga input, not all laptops have an hdmi output. Plus the revue is a tiny box that fits right next to your home theater setup without any bulky pc next to it (even a shuttle is bulky in comparison).

Other benefits I have. Streaming my media from my networked PC's to the revue. I just power up any pc in the house that contains the media I want and is shared (windows 7 and windows media center make it rather easy..even though im not a MS fan..but thats how it is). Use the logitech media player app and it will see any networked device sharing media. Pictures, music or videos. You can even use one of the two usb ports to connect an external hard drive with media and it supports a wide range of formats.

Another issue people have mentioned is the difficulty browsing websites. I noticed this mainly with scrolling. The on board mouse and buttons do not make this easy. However you can connect any wireless mouse and use that. It makes a big difference. I have a logitech wireless trackball mouse and that is a perfect companion for web browsing. some sites that are flash heavy might be a bit slow and jumpy but the fact that you can view them right on your tv with such ease makes a big difference. The trackball is also great since I do not need to move the mouse around. I just hold it next to me on the couch. I also love that I can go to youtube and show friends any youtube video right there on my tv without having to open up a laptop and everyone crouching in front of it. The youtube app offers the "leanback" experience but I am not really a fan of that.

Another great feature is how you can customize the keyboard to any functions of your various remotes that are not built in by default. For example i chose "fn" key and "I" for tv input source and "fn" and "1" to scroll through my favorites list on my cable box.

I really can go on and on about the features. The more you look into it and customize it (bookmarks, keys, websites etc), the more you find to love. Not to mention that Honeycomb was announced for the revue to be coming this summer. I cant wait to see what that is like.

Finally I have to mention Logitech customer support. They start off with the normal simple questions for ...lets say "inexperienced" users but as soon as you identify yourself as a tech they treat you very professionally and help you all the way. They offered a replacement unit, sent me a UPS return label for free shipping, I sent them an email once I dropped it off at a UPS location and they shipped the replacement before even receiving the defective one. Granted this whole process is taking me a week without my revue...and the weekend went by without it which killed me since I use it so much for everything...but as I said, very helpful, very understanding and honestly, Ive dealt with them before and several other customer service departments of many reputable companies and Logitech is at the top of the list.

So overall, I think that the bad reviews come from people who either do not know how to fully use their revue, or were expecting something the revue is not. Its and addition to your home theater setup that enhances it with several features and I feel this is the future of tv...Google knows what its doing. You can bash them all you want..but that is the plain simple truth. I highly recommend this purchase....especially now that its dropped to 200 bucks..Im considering getting a second one for my bedroom tv.

Background: I have AT&T U-Verse 200, a Sharp 37" LCD tv, Bose Cinemate Series II speakers and I also have a DVD player and an iPod dock connected to my TV. I have always wanted something that enables real time content download from the internet on my TV but never expected Google TV to replace my standard cable connection. At most, I expected to stop paying the extra 10$ I shell out every month for HBO access.

Setup: Bought the device from Best Buy and setup took about 20-25 minutes as the system had to download some updates from the internet. Overall the setup is dummy proof - the device automatically detected my wireless internet and took care of most things on its own except for periodic inputs on location, cable provider etc.I give it 5 stars for ease of use and setup

Initial impression: I have been using the device for 3 days now and am impressed enough. I am originally from India and have been able to watch Indian programming on my TV through YouTube. Additionally, my Netflix subscription allows me to watch streaming videos of high quality on my TV. Are there glitches and hiccups - yes! But nothing that you wouldnt find in a first generation product and nothing that wont be ironed out over time. When Android first came out people were complaining a lot now its overtaking IOS as the operating system of choice for phones - patience is key with new technology.

It took me a while to figure out some basics as the manual is pretty much oriented towards basic setup and configuration. For instance, I realized that the trackpad allows scrolling of windows if you use 2 fingers instead of 1. One big advantage is that the box connects to my AT&T set-top box as well as my TV and thus has helped eliminate both remote controls. I am guessing that if I have an A/V receiver I could also eliminate my DVD remote.

Like other reviews have mentioned the apps are slim but I expect that to grow - again, patience people.

Cons - The price is a bit high compared to Apple TV and while I do not favor either Google or Apple over the other, more apps and content needs to be enabled to justify this price tag. $299 is a bit high to get a web browser on my TV.

BTW - this review is being typed using the Logitech Revue keyboard connected to my TV. I will be taking this device to India later this winter to see if the device works well over there and can enable broader content access for my family.

All in all, I recommend this product to those who are looking to enhance their TV viewing experience not replace their Cable or Satellite provider. The same can be said about Apple TV as well - the industry is still 3-4 years from being completely web oriented.

I've been using the Revue for about 24 hours. Here's my take on it so far:

First, I think it's important to note that this is a first-gen device/release. I'll talk about what is there today, which is good, but you also have to look at where this product can ultimately go.

Setup - Really easy. Connecting it to my DVR (DirecTV) and wireless router took a few minutes. Overall the setup process takes about 30 minutes - primarily because it takes 20 minutes or so for the system to download latest updates once it's on the internet. The system guides you through the process with very clear on screen prompts - I find it hard to believe that anyone above the age of 3 couldn't set this up.

Search - If you've ever tried to search for a show via your Cable/Satellite provider's search prompts, this will change how you look for programming. Here's an example, you know your team is playing today, but not sure what national/regional/conference channel it may be on today. Before the Revue, the on screen search was so bad I only used it as a last resort and it was easier to browse the guide to try to find it. With the Revue, I hit the search key on the provided keyboard, type in "northwestern" and it provides on screen prompts to either search for video for northwestern, search the web for northwestern, or change the channel to the Big Ten Network channel 610 to watch the current game. Done in about 2 seconds.

It's also pretty handy for those more obscure channels, you can actually use search to find a channel. DirecTV doesn't provide any way to do that today. So if I don't remember what channel TBS is, I can just type TBS and go there, rather than scanning the guide.

Webcam - the online webcam experience is awesome with the additional HDTV Logitech webcam. It is a lot more natural to sit here on the couch and chat with someone than sitting facing a computer terminal. The quality is incredible and by mounting on your TV it's easy to have the whole family on camera to chat rather than crowding around the PC/laptop.

Web - the Revue comes with the Chrome browser. It's pretty easy to use with the keyboard. Practically speaking, I'm not sure how often I'll use this, other than if I know I want to find video content, in which case I'd rather watch it on the TV than my laptop, or if I just want to do a quick search for something and don't have my laptop already in front of me.

Picture-in-picture - you can use the browser or applications and keep the TV in PIP.

Applications\Content - This is where the greatest potential for the Revue lies. If you use the iPhone, the apps are what make that device - it has an awesome browser, but 9 times out of 10, if there's an app to do something, that's easier/better than using the browser to achieve the same task. Same with the Revue - as the app ecosystem evolves, the possibilities are endless. Being able to seamlessly stream high-definition Netflix, Amazon video-on-demand, HBO Go, or YouTube directly to my 48" TV screen is pretty cool.

Right now, some key content is blocked from the Revue, which presumably Google is still working out with content providers. It would be really nice to be able to stream hulu, abc, nbc, or cbs content. Most general websites I browsed with embedded video worked fine, but clearly the above media companies are blocking their content from this device. Hopefully that is resolved soon - right now I think that's the biggest missing piece with this device.

Harmony - I downloaded the Harmony app for the iPhone, which is just another cool tool to control my TV, DVR, Google TV. I only downloaded it this morning but it seems like a cool nice-to-have. I did have an issue getting this to recognize the Revue on the network, but after rebooting (Ctrl-Alt-Del) the Revue my phone instantly recognized it and within a few seconds I was able to control all of my devices from the phone.

First, you should know that I'm a gadget/tech hound. I've had everything there is out there, from Amiga to Zenith. Remember the WebTV? I had one some 15 years ago. I bring that up because, frankly, I don't see much difference between that failed attempt at bringing the "web" (as it was called then) to TV and Google's latest try. Sure, the graphics are fancier and, yes, there will eventually be more you can do with Google TV, but for now, it's a disaster.

I got the Revue on Friday and hooked it up. I'm running Verizon FiOS with their newest DVR (not nearly as good as my TivoHD, but not bad for a provider). Setup was fairly easy, although the machine froze while trying to update. Had to unplug and reboot. Fine. Set the screen size, signed in, and... well... I was frankly unimpressed. As others have mentioned, accessing Amazon on Demand is lame - you can't search through the app, it's painfully slow to respond, and the picture quality of the video is subpar. Same with Netflix. My RokuHD box is MUCH better at accessing both Netflix & Amazon. And it only cost $79.00. Pandora? Eh. I can get that through Roku, too. Revue didn't provide anything in terms of apps that I couldn't get much cheaper, with better picture and sound quality and a smoother, faster UI.

As for the integration with the internet, it's nice, but nothing revolutionary. So I can open a browser on my TV. So what. It's not worth the $300 sticker price just for that benefit. The device controls the TV and my AVR, and that's it, so don't go thinking it's going to take the place of your dedicated all-in-one remote. All that, AND folks are discovering serious frame rate and audio issues (you can follow the discussions on the Logitech site, [...]).

So, to sum things up:

Cons:
- expensive
- poor video quality with Amazon & Netflix
- poor UI in Amazon & Netflix
- can't access Hulu, NBC, CBS and other major content providers
- Flash loads very slowly and flash video stutters
- can't control more than the TV and AVR
- the whole product - and the Google TV platform - feel very beta
- no killer apps (yet)

Pros:
- Amazon's return policy

Frankly, I'm tired of being a beta-tester for the latest tech. I'll wait for v2 and rethink a purchase. I recommend you do the same.

Finally someone got it right- THANK YOU LOGITECH
As an avid Apple fan and a computer user for over 30 years, I was a little hesitant that this would not live up to the hype. Let me say this product exceeded my expectations. I expected the easy setup and seamless compatibility with the components since this is a Logitech product and they shine with their Harmony remotes, in terms of ease of use. I was surprised with the beautiful user interface and ease of use of the on screen menu that anyone can pick up and instantly start using. The hardware is small and slick; therefore, I was able to locate it behind my wall mount tv with no cables showing. The ultra lightweight keyboard was by far the best I have seen. The split screen and integration with my TV made it simple to navigate. I can watch tv or even watch a game or surf the net with Pandora playing music all at once. Another cool accessory is the video chat camera. It works fantastic and it looks really cool sitting on top of the TV. I look forward to using this a lot more as this will become a regular household item. The preloaded apps come with the best looking version of Pandora and Netflix I have seen on any system, making this a necessity in any house. I'm looking forward to many more apps coming from the Android app system

History has repeated itself! In 1996 when WEBTV came into existence, the internet and computers were not as widespread as they are today. WEB TV was the perfect gift for a person who did NOT have a computer. Now 14 years later, GOOGLE TV is the perfect gift for someone who does NOT have a computer! Many things have changed in the last 14 years. The WEB or INTERNET has become so vast and TV has improved its signal to High Definition. Surprisingly the marriage between TV and the WEB has not been a smooth journey. There would have been no need for Google TV if Mr.Gates who paid half a billion dollars for WEBTV back in the late 90s had only improved and updated it. But no, he let it practically die on the vine. How many people do you know still have WEB TV???? In any event I am happy to say that GOOGLE TV is the answer to my prayers. I did take a couple hours setting it up, but only because I had 3 DVD Players hooked to my HDTV! Please learn from my mistakes and either unhook most of your connections or make sure all of the cables are labeled before you hook up your logitech revue unit.

Anyhow I must say that after several hours of playing around with my logitech unit that this is the REAL DEAL! Having the power to display the WEB in all its glory on an HDTV is the ultimate thrill! And to do it with just a few clicks with the mouse key is so convenient! And an added bonus for me is that the mouse key is on the extreme left of the keyboard which I prefer since I use a lefthanded mouse anyway! But I digress. This is the best integration of TV and the net. I did use a wired connection and my download speed is in the high 20's believe it or not! I have only watched a few videos but they looked damn good! YOU TUBE is beautiful on Google TV. I could spend all day on that website. Anyhow I am typing this review on my logitech unit and having very few problems. I would suggest that you should magnify the text by hitting control key and the "+" key if you are having any problems reading. It works like a charm.

There are a lot of things you can do with the logitech unit and more apps are promised so what is not to like? I just don't understand the 1 star ratings some reviewers are giving this gadget. Look it takes up very little room and the keyboard is a work of art and if you dig getting on the internet in a second or two while a commercial is running how could you possibly hate it?

I remember the early years of WEB TV and I have recaptured that feeling again with TV and the WEB available to me with the control of my fingertips. WEBTV is dead, long live the new king GOOGLE TV!

Probably like many of you I have tried many a TV set-top box that promised to change my TV viewing experience forever. Countless "digital media adapters" from many different vendors. Inevitably they failed to live up to the promise--of the "god box"--one box that will play any media from anywhere. Often they more than failed to deliver on this promise, they were impossible to use or simply too buggy to keep in my living room.

The Revue, on the other hand, while not perfect yet, has largely done what none of these boxes could do. And we are at the early stages of GoogleTV and what it will be able to deliver.

Setup was fairly simple, taking me through a few screens to connect to my home network, do a software update, and then link up to my DISH Network ViP622 DVR. The $4.00 charged by DISH is just silly...but I do give DISH credit for bringing this product to their subscribers ahead of anyone else.

Having to use a keyboard to interact with my TV took a bit of getting used to, but is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. The keyboard is very small and lightweight. The logitech iphone remote control app is interesting also and the right vision in terms of two screen interactivity, but for now I think I like the keyboard better.

Searching for content across the internet and my dish DVR is simple now. There is a bit of an adjustment period of getting used to TV as just one of many applications the Revue can deliver on. I have been enjoying a variety of content on the web from amazon VoD and many other sites.

Integration with the DISH DVR is OK, although I have found that some recordings are not setup correctly when done via the revue. But overall the integration is good, you will never pick up the dish remote control again.

BTW, actually one of the best features of this product is that it is "transparent" to your TV watching unless you pick up the keyboard and interact with it. If you have someone in your house who is not so interested in using the Revue, they can continue using the dish DVR the same way as before.

The logitech vidHD camera is cool, but at this point I don't know many people that have one. Disappointingly, the built-in camera on my laptop seems incompatible and I need to purchase an external camera to be able to call my googleTV. If they could make my iphone 4 front facing camera work with it, that would be very cool feature.

The built in media player app (for playing content off the HDD) is a nice addition, although I would say not a mainstream feature. Although it is marked as "beta" it was able to play most of the video files from my collection.

All in all I highly recommend this product. As a 1.0 product I think Logitech and google have done a remarkable job in delivering on the vision of bringing the Internet and TV together.

The Logitech Revue is a very flawed device. Even if it were at a more comfortable price point (it's better suited at $99), I wouldn't recommend that anyone buy it. It's disappointing even from the perspective of having yet another gadget to play with.

I've set it up to Verizon FiOS, connected to a Motorola Non-DVR Set Top Box, and connected to FiOS Internet. It's connected to a Sony HD TV over HDMI.

First, the good:

* I was initially sceptical that the keyboard would be anything but a disaster for controlling my STB, TV, and the Revue, but it's actually what I like most about the device. Once you get used to it, it's powerful, a lot quicker than using numerous remotes, and text entry is obviously very easy. The integrated track pad is also perfectly fine for what it does. It's actually so good that I wanted to hook it up to my home theater PC, but I think it uses some non-Bluetooth radio interface. That's fine, and not a shortcoming of the Revue. You have to hook up an IR blaster to control your various devices, which feels a bit hacky and inelegant to me, but it does work, so I don't mind.

* Searching TV on the Revue is much, much nicer than using my set top box's unresponsive, ugly, poorly designed user interface. My biggest complaint about cable TV are these STBs that feel old the moment you get them. When you want to find out what's on TV, you can tap the search button on the keyboard and start typing, and get a very fast list of results that show you when the show is next on, and on what channel. If I had a DVR the Revue would probably program it to record the show, but I can't test this.

* You can also browse live TV by genre, which is great if you don't have a specific show you want to watch. Granted, it doesn't make cable TV any better (commercials, crap that crawls over the bottom of the screen, edited content, edited-for-time formats, etc.), but the functionality is very welcome.

Now the bad. And there is a lot of bad.

Web Browsing:

Web browsing with the integrated, light version of Chrome is miserable for three reasons:

* Blocked content. After the lengthy but successful setup of the Revue, I immediately wanted to try out watching Internet content on demand. I used the search function and tried "The Office." The Revue brought up some information about when it was next on TV, and then a website that showed me how I can access the show. I could either buy it on Amazon.com for some expensive price using the built-in browser, or get it via streaming. I believe it took me to Hulu.com, which simply told me my device was blocked. I tried NBC, which did the same thing. This happened again and again, for about four shows that I tried to watch, each of which were on separate networks. Everything was blocked. No Hulu, no NBC, no Fox, no ABC, no CBS. In fact the only streaming service that I got to work was YouTube, which of course doesn't have full shows from those networks. When I sit down to watch a show, I don't want to have to recall if the politics between Google and the network mean I'll be able to watch it or not. It needs to just work. (Changing the user agent also doesn't work, as it uses the Flash Player to determine what device you're running on.)

* Laggy browsing experience. Scrolling websites is painfully slow. It's not unusable, but it reminds me that I'm having a second-rate web browsing experience. Combined with the numerous, un-blockable Flash ads, and the site gets even slower. If you use the trackpad and accidentally click on an ad in your attempts to use the slightly unfamiliar device, you'll end up wasting even more time, as the browser struggles to load the new site and deal with your attempts to go back to the previous site.

* No ability to block ads or otherwise control the browsing experience. This occurs on all smartphones today, but it's possibly even more important on the Revue. I want the ability to install an adblock and run it on sites that have visually distracting ads or play audio by default. I want to be able to click to start Flash, not have to choose between allowing or blocking all of it. Beyond this, I don't want the browser to feel like I'm using a crippled device. It should have access to my Delicious.com bookmarks, or allow me to import my own from Firefox/Chrome. It should be very obvious how to enter private browsing mode (is it even possible? I never found out), and it should be obvious how to clear cookies, cache, and Flash cookies. Ideally, I'd also be able to have tabs, multiple windows, and all the other niceties of modern browsers that I found I was missing. On smartphones it's not as important because you don't have the screen real estate, but on the Revue I felt like I was using a crippled browser.

There are also major problems that go beyond the web browser:

* Non-consensual updates. Google loves to shove updates onto your devices (Chrome, Chrome OS, Google TV), and I'm sad to see Logitech allowing this. Updates even for mature products invariably break something, and often that error will occur in something you depend on. In this case, Logitech pushed out a firmware update for the very immature, unstable Google TV platform, which completely broke DLNA streaming for my computer setup, which I very carefully installed to work around the numerous limitations in the Revue's ability to stream media without lagging. One day my library of movies and music worked, the next day it was absolutely broken. You can't refuse updates, you can't see when the Revue has updated, and you can't roll back to previous versions. This is not an issue that's isolated to a few Revues...if you look online, there are already people complaining on the Logitech forums that the latest update broke their DLNA streaming. This failing is so great that I would return the device on this alone. There's nothing better than sitting down with friends to watch a movie, and finding out a silent update trashed the slight modicum of usefulness in your expensive Revue.

* No app store. I've heard Google is going to have an update that adds an app store, but right now that doesn't help this overpriced device be any more useful. I can't install new apps. I'm stuck with the crummy selection of default apps. The only useful one I found was the Pandora app. It's nice to be able to use on your TV, but nothing extraordinary.

* The so-called Netflix integration. The Revue ships with a Netflix app. It's a little odd to set up, as you don't just log in, but have to get an authentication code that you then have to copy and paste into a field in the browser, after navigating to Netflix.com and authenticating again. It was odd, but that's not really a problem, and you only do it once. The problem is that the application is next to useless. It presents you with a single way to interact with Netflix: A non-editable, non-searchable, non-organizable cover-flow-like presentation of all the movies that are in your Netflix instant queue. You can go left or right, and play the selected movie. That's it. You can't see reviews, remove it from your queue, search for something to add, etc. If you want to do that...tough luck. You have to open the browser and go to Netflix.com, authenticate, add a movie, go back to the app, log in, go through your queue to find the movie (if you're not at the first item by default), and play it. I was so frustrated by this experience that I simply gave up and used the laptop that was sitting next to me to watch what I wanted to watch. You also can't play Netflix content through Netflix.com on the browser, because it requires Silverlight, and there's no plugin for Google TV.

* DLNA often can't decode video quickly enough. I felt there was one last hope for the Revue: DLNA. DLNA is a series of streaming protocols and codecs that allow you to stream content from one device to another; simply put, you can turn your computer on, attach it to your network, and your TV can access its movies. I set this up with Windows 7 and Windows Media Player, put a very low-definition movie into it (V for Vendetta, actually, with H.264 video content at ~480p inside of an MKV, and 48 kHz 128-bit audio probably, with a total file size of only 400 MB), and tried to stream it. I know my network is up to the task, as it's 100 Mbps, one hop away, and both the Revue and the host computer weren't using WiFi. The Revue did play it, but it would drop frames and little segments of audio, making the trial a failure. I repeated the process with even lower def content (AVI containers with MPEG4 I think, with about 10 min. of video at about 20 MB or so), and it did play it, but it isn't powerful enough to play even a low-def movie.

It's a failure of a device at $99, and it's a waste of money at $300, its current price. I like how you can search TV, and it's a better interface than my set top box, but the Revue simply isn't good enough to add any value to my home theater system. In fact, it just adds another device, the use of which for anything other than a universal remote control results in frustration.

I got my Revue hooked up a couple days ago and my family is having a blast with it. My kids and I can't watch TV now without the Revue cordless keyboard on our laps.

Think of the Revue as turning your TV into the Internet while simultaneously watching TV. Check email or watch a video during the commercials. I can't get me kids off of YouTube. They love watching videos on the big screen. It also allows you access to photos and music stored on your computer. The keyboard allows you to quickly click between the Internet and live TV or do both at once with Picture in Picture (PIP).

The Revue was simple to set up. Just an HDMI cord between my cable box and the revue and another from the revue to the AV receiver (or TV). The on-screen set up was also very easy. Just follow the on screen directions and log on to your network.

Access to Google TV really is "seamless". A click of the button on the keyboard brings up the menu. No changing settings or inputs. A track pad on the keyboard makes it easy to click on menu items. The interface is quick and easy to use.

It has several apps preloaded, such as Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, etc. The Netflix app allows you to stream movies to your TV from your Netflix queue. Future updates and app development will make Google TV much more attractive.

I also got the optional Revue TV Cam ($150). This is a cool feature that adds video chat to your Revue. Again, click a couple keys on your keyboard and you can make an instant video call, on your big screen, right from your couch and without having to break out your laptop.

I'm not sure what the expectations were of this product before it was released, but after reading some of the negative reviews, I think some buyers' expectations may have been high. I don't consider myself a "techie", so I like products that are user friendly. Logitech has always fit the bill. For $300, I believe the Revue is a good buy that will enhance your television experience and provide a lot of entertainment.