Apple have just released Apple TV, essentially a device used to wirelessly bridge the gap between iTunes on your computer (Mac, PC) and your TV set in your living room.
Apple added video downloads to the iTunes service a while back, by getting several Hollywood studios on-board. These videos have so far only be available to watch on your computer screen or on your iPod video. Apple TV aims to fix this, by allowing your iTunes library to be wirelessly streamed to your HDTV.
Xbox 360's Media Capabilities
Microsoft on the other hand have similar strategies on invading peoples' living rooms with digital content, theirs though, is in the form of the Xbox 360, which as well as being a high definition games machine is also a very capable Media Center Extender.
As a Media Center Extender it wirelessly streams content from Windows Media Center, or Windows Vista (Home Premium and Ultimate editions) computers. If you don't have a Media Center edition of Windows you can still stream your music, pictures and just recently WMV videos too from the Xbox console using Windows Media Connect.
So How Do Apple TV and Xbox 360 Compare?
Ok, here's a matrix comparision table between Apple TV and the Xbox 360, so you can make your own mind up.
Feature
| Apple TV
| Xbox 360
|
HD Games Machine
|
No
|
Yes
|
Stream Audio
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Stream Video
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Stream Photos
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Component Video
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
HDMI
|
Yes
|
No
|
Audio Out
|
Yes (optical and RCA analogue)
|
Yes (optical and RCA analogue) |
Ethernet connection
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Wireless capabilities
|
Yes (built-in) (pre-n)
|
Yes (sold separately) (a, b, g)
|
HD Resolution capabilities
|
1080i, 720p, 576p, or 480p |
1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480i,480p
|
DVD player
|
No
|
Yes
|
HD DVD player
|
No
|
Yes (sold separately)
|
iTunes compatibility
|
Yes
|
No
|
Remote control
|
Yes
|
Yes (sold separately)
|
HD drive
|
40GB
|
20GB (premium package only, not needed for streaming)
|
Video formats supported
|
H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps
iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels
MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps)
|
WMV only, although a Windows 3rd party app called Transcode360 will allow most other formats to be streamed
|
Audio formats supported
|
AAC, protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3, MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV |
MP3, WMA, un-encoded AAC, CD, DVD audio
|
I signed up to test the new Windows Home Server Public Beta a while back and received an invitation to download and review it.
Like a lot of people I am frequently running out of storage space on my machines and needing to upgrade. I am also fairly concerned about data backups too, so much so that I upgraded my main machine a while back to include a SATA RAID 1 mirror for my core data over 2 x 320GB drives.
Most people however don't have the need or knowledge to set up a decent backup or redundancy solution, so Windows Home Server when purchased installed on a piece of purposely designed hardware should fill this gap in the market.
When I get a spare few minutes I'll download the DVD and test on an un-used machine. I'm particularly interested in the usability of the software since it will mostly likely be bought by and used by people who are not particularly technically minded.
From what I've heard it does not include Media Center (since it's a headless OS), but it features Windows Media Connect, so I'll be able to stream my music and video straight to my XBOX 360 without having to have my main machine running.