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I'd like to take advantage of being able to get movies via the internet and would like to show them on my TV, preferably in HD quality. Watching them on my wife's MBP is easy since I can now stream Netflix a selection of Netflix movies instantly. However, I'd like to have an easy to use solution for the TV. A hacked apple TV sounds almost like a good solution but it currently won't work with the Netflix streamer. I'm not sure the Popcorn Hour will either though it sounds like it'll play almost anything. We already own an XBox 360 so that sounds like a possibility though it does require a subscription to M$ Xbox Live Gold. Another possibility is going a more expensive route and buying a Tivo HD lifetime unit or a Mac Mini. Another possibility is to just comandeer the MBP and plug it into the TV whenever we want to watch a movie...mildly inconvenient but not horribly so. I'd love to hear some opinions on the best setup (preferably one with a straightforward interface and minimum of hacking required. Your thoughts?
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I use the Xbox 360 with Xbox live and streaming netflix. It works great. I've got a stock AppleTV that I use for any media I can import into iTunes.
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Did you mod your xbox 360 to make it quieter? When my son is playing games that thing is LOUD! I've seen several mods on the web whereby you replace the fans and put dynamat/rubber isolators around the DVD drive.
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For NetFlix, some of the new Blu-ray players have the streaming built-in. Also the $99 Roku box is an option.
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I also have both XBox and Apple TV. I like both a lot. Netflix streaming is a great deal. If we get a Blu Ray player, we'll get the kind that streams Netflix, I dislike firing up the XBox to watch movies, would be happier to do it with a hybrid disc player that's more oriented to movie watching.
I wouldn't "mod" the XBox to make it quieter, when streaming movies it's not exactly maxing out the processor and burning up the fans, it's already plenty quiet. When playing games, different story. But for watching passive entertainment, I'm not aware of it being noisy.
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I can't compare the different boxes but I can share my experience with the appletv. I have three in my house and have been very pleased. If I was going to rate the appletv I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.
First the positive. Apple has lots of movies on their website to rent or buy and my wife loves that feature. Streaming our own music, pictures and movies has been a very positive experience also. Using iphoto pictures as the screen saver has been a huge hit at family gatherings. Looking at other family members .mac photo's on the tv is also a lot of fun.
Now for the negative. When itunes is syncing with the appletv it becomes near unresponsive. Ridiculous in my opinion. Video playback is limited to mpeg4 or h264 so vide that I get from sources other than apple have to be converted before they can be played back. This is a minor inconvenience but know the appletv is capable of playing the files, but limited by apple, is frustrating. Wireless playback of video and audio is impressive but if you are picky you will notice little glitches in the audio on occasion.
If I was to do it over again I would still stick with the appletv as I feel it gives the entire family a good experience. Even my 5 year old can go through the menu's and start a movie.
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I went with a nice, mid-size tower home-brew hackintosh for this.
Works like a charm now that the OS is stable
Much better than the mac mini / dual external hard drive setup it replaced.
