With all the ways in which consumers can get video content to their televisions, its sometimes difficult to figure out what way is the best. From Netflix to Google TV to Amazon, Apple TV and more the number of choices has grown a great deal over the last few years.

Now, another player in the race for your living room is upping its game. Roku, which has only been available online, has announced that its media streaming box, the Roku XD model, will be available nationwide at all Best Buy locations. This is a big move fore the company and one that they obviously hope will lead to increased sales.

The Roku box has been doing pretty well as an online-only option (selling over 1 Million units) so getting into stores and in front of more potential buyers has got to help sales. However, as with any device of this type, content will be king. The convenience of being able to stream Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, Hulu and more using one box may appeal to many. Plus, the price of $79.99 is also pretty good.

However, for those who already have other hardware options to stream content (an XBox 360 or PS3 for example) this device may be a non-issue. Plus, there’s no way to get anything on this device from iTunes so that may also eliminate some potential users who prefer to stick with Apple’s offerings.

Still, competition is a good thing and the more players in this space, the better. Good luck Roku.

Check out the full press release from Roku after the jump.

It’s not easy being a consumer trying to cut the cable or fiber cord these days. You’d think with a bevy of hot new set-top boxes like Apple TV, Google TV and Boxee, we’d be living in a Utopian future where television finally does what we want and dumping your expensive provider was a real possibility.

Not so fast, because it’s just not the reality, at least not yet. And predictably, given the nature of content owners, the issues are control and profits.

As thousands of new Apple TV owners plugged in their shiny new boxes, the realization that only a handful of networks were available, slowly began to sink in. With shows from ABC, Fox, Disney, and BBC, Apple TV via iTunes simply does not offer enough diverse content to satisfy most TV-watchers. While that’s a nifty start for Apple’s reboot of Apple TV, certain shows are conspicuously absent.

Are you a ‘Wipeout’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’ fan? Unfortunately, you’re out of luck since iTunes doesn’t carry those shows. And if you think Google TV might be your salvation, it just may be worse for owners of Logitech’s Revue Google TV devices. Upon Google TV’s release, the big three networks as well as Hulu began to block Google TV owners from streaming their shows.

So it’s no shocker that the recent reporting talking about how Microsoft is potentially cobbling together enough network deals to launch it’s own streaming service on the back of its extensive installed base of Xbox gaming systems, has many consumers quite skeptical.

What interesting timing Google has. On a day when many Apple TV pre-order customers are eagerly plugging in their little black cubes and exploring what Apple’s brand of TV-Internet convergence has to offer, Google launches a dedicated site for their own Google TV. While we’ve previously covered the coming of Google TV, details about the forthcoming product have been notoriously scarce. Flash-forward a month and finally, the veil is being lifted on the internet giant’s plans for your living room.

“Your TV just got smarter.” A great tagline and not a bad way to summarize what Google TV will do for the average couch potato. Let’s explore exactly what Google is bringing to the table, shall we?

Befitting a search engine behemoth like Google, a universal search will allow you to query for content across your apps, channels and the entire web simultaneously. Want to browse the web on your ginormous flat-panel? Not a problem for Google TV, as you can browse the entire web in a browser optimized for the ten-foot experience.

However, it sounds like web site owners will need to optimize their sites for the Google TV experience, something that’s in the works at some of the hottest properties across the web. A blog post by Google references some web content producers who are tuning up their sites to offer the best browsing experience on your TV.

With Apple’s recent announcement of the new Apple TV, the competition for your living room is heating up once again with Google set to soon jump fully into the fray. Announced in May, Google TV has officially been given a launch date here in the US.

According to the report, Google will launch its TV service in the United States this autumn and worldwide next year. CEO Eric Schmidt said the service, which will allow users to browse the Internets via their televisions, would be free, and Google will work with a diverse group of content providers and electronics manufacturers to bring it to consumers.

Companies such as Sony and Samsung are already looking at including the service in their devices. More are sure to follow suit, if only to try and secure a better deal for themselves then Apple has traditionally provided.

The real question is do people want to use the Internet on their TV’s? I suppose they do considering I do it every day by watching something like Hulu or Instant Netflix on my TV via the XBox 360 or PS3.

Although, I wouldn’t exactly call me a “typical consumer” so what I do with technology might be more than most people are willing, or able, to do. That said, if Google TV does end up having those features, I might be more interested.

Want to know more about Google TV? If so, check out the official video explaining it after the jump.

As someone who purchased an Apple TV I find the device somewhat useful. Sure, its sorta a pain to have to sync your movies and TV programs to iTunes but it does make a pretty good streaming video server. Although, it does have its limitations, including the rather small size of the internal storage, and is rather costly for what it really does.

Well, according to a pretty well confirmed rumor over at Engadget those limitations, and the high price, are about to change. Apple is reportedly hard at work on developing and rolling out a brand new version of the Apple TV which will resemble, both is form and in specs, the fourth generation iPhone. It will be an iPhone-like box without a screen which will run the iPhone OS and serve content. It will have very few ports — possibly only HDMI and power — and it will reportedly cost only $99.00.

Video output for the device will be up to 1080p, it will have up to 16GB of internal storage and an Apple A4 processor. I know what you’re thinking. Only 16 GB of internal Flash storage? That’s too small.

Well, fear not, Apple has you covered because the device will reportedly store all media on “the cloud” much like other services from Netflix, Microsoft and Amazon do. The difference here is that with Apple’s offering, you will be able to get “instant on” 1080p content delivered directly to your giant plasma TV.

Does that sound pretty cool or what? Oh, and did I mention the thing will reportedly cost only $99.00? Yeah, they’re gonna sell a few of these. . . quite a few. Can’t wait to see how this device stacks up against Google’s upcoming GoogleTV.

Day two of Google’s annual developer’s conference proved to be quite a bit more exciting in terms of new announcements. As I said earlier, day one was all about HTML5, Wave and open-source video codec, VP8.

Today, Google announced the newest version of the Android OS v2.2, dubbed ‘FroYo.’ For some reason, I now have a craving for frozen yogurt, but I digress. Other big announcements included flash support for Android as well as Google TV, their open-source venture to bring the web to your TV and revolutionize your couch-surfing forever.

Android OS 2.2 or ‘FroYo’ offers increased speed and includes 20 new features designed to help the enterprise user, including support for Microsoft Exchange. A demo showed the new OS running faster than previous OS version “Eclair” as well as the iPad. Additional features include tethering built-in at the platform level, better data backup, a new cloud-to-mobile messaging API that allow desktop users to look up directions on their desktop and then send them to their Android device.

Pretty slick, but perhaps the biggest Android-related announcement? Support for flash via Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 public beta. (Take that, Steve Jobs!) The newest version of flash is mobile-optimized and addresses the two top complaints with Adobe’s flash product: resource-hogging behavior and battery-destroying power requirements. Wired.com tested the latest version of flash on Android 2.2 and found no significant problems on either front.