So I decided to test some of these streaming features.
I tried out the Music and Video apps and they worked perfectly. Also, what I found is that you don't need an Xbox to make this happen. I have a 55" Samsung SmartTV and my Windows 8 desktop picked that up and I was given an option to stream to my TV, which worked perfectly as well.
Next test was to play a YouTube video from MetroTube and I was again, able to send the video directly to my TV without the Xbox.
Another test was play Pandora using the IE (modern) app, again, also played directly to the TV without Xbox being the medium.
So I can confirm that to stream content from a Windows 8 machine, you don't need an Xbox. If you have a SmartTV, then that's enough.
I can also confirm that not all web pages that you browse with IE can be streamed to the TV/Xbox. I tried Yahoo, but wasn't able to do it. I used the same window to use Pandora and it worked, so I'm guessing it depends on the site.
I have a second TV that's in the living room, but it's not a SmartTV, but does have a spare Xbox connected to it. SO I can do everything I did above, but with the Xbox as the medium.
These are some features that needs to be advertised by Microsoft.
Update: I tried the same PlayTo feature on my bedroom's 32" SmartTV and it didn't work. When I look under devices, the TV is detected but it's not "Windows Certified." There's a registry change that can be made, which I did, but did not work for me. Funny thing, my 55" SmartTV is about two years older than the 32" tv.
