Devices Lead the Way to a Smarter TV

These devices are like portals to a parallel universe of television programming, one that is getting bigger all the time. They provide access to all the episodes of the Emmy-nominated “House of Cards” and stockpiles of timeless black-and-white films, courtesy of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, as well as to the Web comedies and endless viral videos on YouTube. This year, Netflix cited the proliferation of these devices — “inexpensive smart TV adapters,” it called them — when it predicted that on-demand and mobile TV would replace the older, scheduled way of watching shows. - Brian Stelter

via Streaming-TV Devices Lead the Way to a Smarter TV http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/technology/personaltech/streaming-devices-lead-the-way-to-smart-tv.html?_r=0