
Originally Posted by
Nooomoto
Ok, the Revue box goes inbetween your TV and your set-top box. They are daisy-chained via HDMI. So HDMI out from your set top box to the Revue box, the HDMI out from the to your TV. It gathers information via your set-top box. The difference between having a laptop plugged into your TV and this is mainly that you don't have to switch between inputs. Everything (google search, internet browsing, applications, etc) is all run on the same input. The Google TV system acts as a UI for all content provided from your cable/sat provider and the internet. So say you search for a TV show using the provided keyboard, it will search your guide as provided by your content provider, and the internet, and deliver to you all the results. There's also picture-in-picture and a lot of other features. Your TV becomes an all-in-one information/entertainment center without having to switch between inputs, and it is all integrated.
As for your question of "free tv"...some cable network websites (ABC, NBC and one other which I can't remember) have blocked the Google TV units from accessing their sites. They figure you'll just go to the website and stream content instead of watching it live via your cable/sat provider.
But there is a demonstration done live by Engadget of it streaming 1080p content from the internet. A lot of computers have problems doing this.