Vizio’s new Co-Star LT stream player lets you watch live TV while browsing Internet apps

By Caleb Denison Published October 16, 2013

Vizio is on a roll this year. Its latest M-series televisions look excellent and offer some incredible value. (And if we know Vizio, the deals will really heat up come this holiday season.) Now Vizio is introducing a new version of its Co-Star streaming media player, which comes in at $80.

What differentiates the new Co-Star LT from the previously-released Co-Star is that it doesn’t rely on the Google TV platform and comes with a scaled-down remote control. Like the Co-Star, the Co-Star LT offers an HDMI input and output, which lets users pass their cable or satellite signal through the streaming set-top box so that live TV can be viewed while browsing content available through video-on-demand (VOD) apps like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Instant. The Co-Star LT’s app interface is said to be similar to that of Vizio’s M-Series Smart TV’s, offering a full-screen browsing experience loaded with app choices.

Recommended Videos

The Co-Star LT is capable of 1080p resolution and can handle 3D streams from VOD services that offer it. A USB port allows users to stream media from external devices without having to switch inputs on their television. The system comes with a simplified remote control, but users can also control the box with their mobile devices, which in turn can simultaneously act as a second screen.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first set-top box to offer live TV pass-through that doesn’t rely on the Google TV interface (the Xbox One isn’t out yet). That makes it a competitive option to both Roku and Apple TV devices.

The Co-Star LT is available now at Vizio’s website, and it is expected to be available at Amazon, BestBuy.com, Target.com, Walmart, and Walmart.com later this month.

Former Editor at Large

Caleb Denison is a sought-after writer, speaker, and television correspondent with unmatched expertise in AV and…

Audio / Video

Stop joining group projects with a blurry laptop webcam and buy one of these instead

Your laptop webcam is sabotaging your first impression. These five can fix it

I'm holding my Logitech C920 1080p webcam in my hands.

The webcam built into your laptop might be good enough for a quick call with friends and family. But its shortcomings become much harder to ignore when you are presenting a semester project, interviewing for an internship, or maybe if you're planning to stream for fun.

Laptop cameras also tend to sit far too low, especially when the computer is placed directly on a desk. Meanwhile, a dedicated webcam lets you position the camera closer to eye level. This improves the framing and brings larger sensors, better microphones, and more effective low-light processing.

Audio / Video

I desperately want a new classic Walkman, but Sony probably can’t give me one

Tech minimalism is begging for a new Walkman. Though rebuilding it may be close to impossible

Sony Walkman WM2011

Every few months, another piece of tech that seems obsolete crawls out of a drawer and becomes cool again. The age of minimalism has revived the popularity of iPods among younger buyers. Dumbphones have become an escape hatch from endless notifications. Similarly, digital cameras are dangling from bags again. Physical media keeps attracting people who want something they can actually hold instead of another frustrating subscription.

All of this makes it the perfect time for Sony to bring back the classic Walkman, which was a phenomenon during the 80s and 90s. I would love one. Give me a compact cassette player, physical buttons, and wired headphones. Keep the apps, notifications, and algorithms that shape your taste of music. No more AI assistants or personalzied feeds, just you and your Walkman. There is only one problem though. Recreating the Walkman that people love and remember, would be far harder than putting an old design back into production.

Audio / Video

Proton reveals how smart TVs track you and the escape situation is pretty grim

Modern smart TVs fingerprint your screen content at the chipset level.

Google TV applications on the Sony A95K TV.

Your smart TV may know far more about your viewing habits than you realize, even if you rarely use its smart features. In a new privacy explainer, Proton warns that many modern TVs quietly collect data about everything displayed on the screen and share it with manufacturers, advertisers, and analytics companies.

The worrying part is that escaping this tracking is becoming increasingly difficult because many privacy controls are buried deep in settings or enabled by default. Proton argues that buying a smart TV today often means accepting a level of surveillance that most people never knowingly signed up for.