Testing Connected Devices in Consumer Reports' New Lab
I'm Amber Tentoff, and I'm here with Chris Andrade in a new lab that's been built to test connected devices. This lab is designed to push the boundaries of what we can do with smart technology, and we're excited to share our findings with you.
The First Test: Streaming Media Players
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The first thing we tested in this lab was streaming media players. These boxes are meant to be plugged into older legacy TVs that don't have smart features. When you want to watch Netflix on one of these TVs, you need a device that can actually do it. We tested various streaming media players, including the Google TV box, which has some impressive features.
The Google TV box is one of the streaming media players we tested in this lab. It has a functionality that's actually showing up in TVs, and it can control your cable box and pass through cable boxes. You'll also see an advanced guide and a remote control that allows you to control both the TV and your cable box while navigating web pages.
This setup is quite cool, and we're excited to explore its potential. The lab has its own internet coming in via wireless hub and wired hub, allowing everything to get connected at once. We can see how all these devices interact with each other and how they can be controlled using the TV's remote control.
The Lab: A Central Hub for Connected Devices
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This set up is actually the central hub of our lab, and it showcases some of the latest technologies we're exploring. We have three top-of-the-line smart TVs from regular TV projects lined up in a row, which allows us to test some of the more advanced features that we can't usually see during our usual testing cycle.
One of these features is the ability to control apps on tablets and smartphones using the remote control app. This allows you not only to control the TV but also share media between your tablet and TV. We're also exploring another up-and-coming connection called NFC, which allows you to load an app with just one tap and connect it to your TV.
The Comparison: Blu-ray Players and TVs
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We're also bringing in a bunch of Blu-ray players to see how they compare to the TV platform. Many of these Blu-ray players are showing off some impressive features that we usually only see on TVs, such as remote control apps from tablets and smartphones.
Overall, our new lab is working out really well so far. We expect a lot more to come as we continue developing this space. It's been an exciting experience testing connected devices in this lab, and we're looking forward to sharing our findings with you.
Conclusion
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We hope you've enjoyed learning about the new lab where we're pushing the boundaries of what we can do with smart technology. We'll be back soon with more updates from this lab as we continue exploring the world of connected devices.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni'm amber tentoff i'm here with chris andrade in a new lab consumer reports that was built to test connected devices chris can you tell me a little bit about what's going on in this new lab sure the first thing that actually took place in this lab we tested the streaming media players these boxes are meant to put on your older legacy type of tv that doesn't have the smart features when you want to watch netflix and you don't have any device that can actually do that and what's going on over here i see there's another kind of box yeah this is one of the streaming media players uh google tv box and it has a functionality that's actually showing up in the tvs and everything also it can actually control your cable box and pass through the cable boxes you see up there so and it gives you an advanced guide and it has the advanced remote control so that way you can control the cable box change the volume on the tv itself while navigating web pages and everything else very cool now tell me a little bit about this setup well right here is the central hub of the whole lab pretty much we have our own internet coming in here wireless hub and wired hub so that way everything can get connected at once and we can really see how they all interact okay and this set is um set up how this is actually to take a look at mhl which is a new connection that showed up mostly in cell phones where you can power them and also can control the cell phone but roku is using it with their streaming stick and pretty much i can use the tvs remote control to control the device that's connected in that special port that looks like an hdmi port that's pretty cool and here i see three television sets all in a row what's going on with that these are actually the top of the line some of the top of the line smart tvs from the regular tv project they're in here so we can take a look at some of the more advanced features that we normally can't look at during our usual test cycle one of them being their ability their remote control apps from tablets and smartphones which allows you to not only control the tv but also share media between the tablet and the tv and i see that there's a cell phone over here is that a similar sort of technology another up and coming connection is the nfc which pretty much this allows you with one tap to load the app and make the connection to the tv a lot simpler than having to load up the app on your pad and find the tv through the menu absolutely and here i see a bunch of blu-ray players right a lot of the functionality we see in tvs is showing up on their blu-ray players too so we're bringing them in not only to see how they connect with the tvs but also how they compare to the tv platform so how would you say this new lab is working out so far i was working really well but expect a lot more to come from this lab as we keep on developing it that's awesome we look forward to checking back in thanks so much thank you i'm amber tenta for consumer reports youi'm amber tentoff i'm here with chris andrade in a new lab consumer reports that was built to test connected devices chris can you tell me a little bit about what's going on in this new lab sure the first thing that actually took place in this lab we tested the streaming media players these boxes are meant to put on your older legacy type of tv that doesn't have the smart features when you want to watch netflix and you don't have any device that can actually do that and what's going on over here i see there's another kind of box yeah this is one of the streaming media players uh google tv box and it has a functionality that's actually showing up in the tvs and everything also it can actually control your cable box and pass through the cable boxes you see up there so and it gives you an advanced guide and it has the advanced remote control so that way you can control the cable box change the volume on the tv itself while navigating web pages and everything else very cool now tell me a little bit about this setup well right here is the central hub of the whole lab pretty much we have our own internet coming in here wireless hub and wired hub so that way everything can get connected at once and we can really see how they all interact okay and this set is um set up how this is actually to take a look at mhl which is a new connection that showed up mostly in cell phones where you can power them and also can control the cell phone but roku is using it with their streaming stick and pretty much i can use the tvs remote control to control the device that's connected in that special port that looks like an hdmi port that's pretty cool and here i see three television sets all in a row what's going on with that these are actually the top of the line some of the top of the line smart tvs from the regular tv project they're in here so we can take a look at some of the more advanced features that we normally can't look at during our usual test cycle one of them being their ability their remote control apps from tablets and smartphones which allows you to not only control the tv but also share media between the tablet and the tv and i see that there's a cell phone over here is that a similar sort of technology another up and coming connection is the nfc which pretty much this allows you with one tap to load the app and make the connection to the tv a lot simpler than having to load up the app on your pad and find the tv through the menu absolutely and here i see a bunch of blu-ray players right a lot of the functionality we see in tvs is showing up on their blu-ray players too so we're bringing them in not only to see how they connect with the tvs but also how they compare to the tv platform so how would you say this new lab is working out so far i was working really well but expect a lot more to come from this lab as we keep on developing it that's awesome we look forward to checking back in thanks so much thank you i'm amber tenta for consumer reports you\n"
