Apple TV vs Playstation 3

[theBB]

Oh, that's easy. Thumbnails.

Oh, that's a nice touch. I like that. I usually like going through whole albums, but it would be a nice option.

See, that's the problem with not doing your homework and working off of assumptions. It takes no longer to set up the Xbox than the ATV--

Why are you so angry? What assumptions? I said "I don't know how easy it is to set them up". Geez, chill out. In any case, a few people chimed that did not like the interface of Xbox, so whateever...

Sure, all up you're looking at $100 to $150 more than ATV, but really, how much is that to the target market of ATV? It's chump change.

Not for me. I'd rather keep my $170, as I don't play video games.

 

[Vapor]

Well I wish someone would tell me what an Apple tv will do that My 360 will not. I know Apple tv will not stream 1080i quicktime movies or MPEG4. I jsut wish they would use there heads.

 

[Trudy]

Not just PS3

Other than, you know, controlling things other than the PS3, like TVs, amplifiers, projectors, and the like. Other than that, a BT universal remote would be great.

Anything that a manufacturer makes Bluetooth enabled will do it. But it's up to the manufacturers to finally come into this century. Bluetooth is very interoperable, remember people controlling their Bluetooth Macs with the early Bluetooth cell phones? There's already a software library out enabling people to control a PC using the Wii remote (it's Bluetooth). It's all just a matter of implementing the standard.

 

[eeboarder]

Well I wish someone would tell me what an Apple tv will do that My 360 will not. I know Apple tv will not stream 1080i quicktime movies or MPEG4. I jsut wish they would use there heads.

Well, the 360 will run up your energy bill and break. I kind of kidding about that, but not really. The 360 is so damn loud, I can barely enjoy my HD-DVD addon. It broke once on me, too. I like several games on it, but the AppleTV interface is much cleaner and less convoluted. The user interface on AppleTV beats the 360 hands down.

Also, I think it streams HD with surround sound with the update today.

 

[docprego]

I am debating the Apple TV vs the PS3 very heavily. The new AppleTV has one shortcoming that I cannot get past. It will not output 5.1 audio on standard definition movie rentals. Being that it is a component in my home theater this is a major drawback for me. Then again the PS3 has no online rental content at all, but it does play SD DVD and BD. I am investigating the MediaLink app by Nullriver which allows streaming of content from my Mac to the PS3, this might be a nice setup. http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/medialink

 

[nordesmic]

I am debating the Apple TV vs the PS3 very heavily. The new AppleTV has one shortcoming that I cannot get past. It will not output 5.1 audio on standard definition movie rentals. Being that it is a component in my home theater this is a major drawback for me. Then again the PS3 has no online rental content at all, but it does play SD DVD and BD. I am investigating the MediaLink app by Nullriver which allows streaming of content from my Mac to the PS3, this might be a nice setup. http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/medialink

Go for MediaLink. Works very well. Can stream all file types that the PS3 can play. Even shows album art for the music.

A wired setup between a PS3 and a Mac would be perfect for HD streaming. I only have wireless which is great but not quite fast enough.

 

[elppa]

Why does everyone want DivX so bad?

 

[eeboarder]

I am debating the Apple TV vs the PS3 very heavily. The new AppleTV has one shortcoming that I cannot get past. It will not output 5.1 audio on standard definition movie rentals. Being that it is a component in my home theater this is a major drawback for me. Then again the PS3 has no online rental content at all, but it does play SD DVD and BD. I am investigating the MediaLink app by Nullriver which allows streaming of content from my Mac to the PS3, this might be a nice setup. http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/medialink

If you have thousands of movies and songs like I do, you should reconsider the PS3 as a media center. Watch this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=h2JZV7LbEZk

The interface is very nice, but handles lots of media horribly.

 

[Vapor]

Please give me a reason to buy a PS3.......I don't need much of one. I would have already done it if someone would figure out how to compress AIC back into AVCHD then I could just burn a regular dvd with the AVCHD video and play full HD back using blueray.

My current fix is to stream quicktime HD 1080 over to my 360 and then play it. the problem is the files are huge.

 

[theBB]

Why does everyone want DivX so bad?

I guess it is due to its prevalence among the video files traded in illegal file sharing networks. If you are going to rip your own DVDs, I don't see any harm in using regular MPEG4 or H264 files.

 

[eeboarder]

I guess it is due to its prevalence among the video files traded in illegal file sharing networks. If you are going to rip your own DVDs, I don't see any harm in using regular MPEG4 or H264 files.

This is true, but if you convert the same DVD using DivX and H.264, there is a significant difference. The DivX encode looks slightly better. Ripping my own DVDs, I noticed this and now choose DivX over H.264.

 

[decadentdave]

Gotta go with PS3 on this one.

Plays Blu-rays in full 1080p with uncompressed TrueHD audio. I'll take Blu-ray any day over H.264 compressed resolution. I can transport media to my PS3 and play divx movies I've downloaded vs. paying iTunes to "rent" a movie for 24 hours. Talk about eating money. If I want to "pay" for a movie, I want to "own" it. AppleTV is just a dedicated vending machine to make money for Apple. They might as well put a slot on the front of it to insert coins or bills.

Oh, and, I could install the Mac OS on my PS3 if I want. But then, why would I even need to buy a Mac?

 

[AppleFan360]

I have both the PS3 and Apple TV.

While I agree with you guys that the PS3 is more versatile, I must give a nod to Apple TV. It's easier to use. Let's face it, most people are not geek heads like us. The Apple TV makes it easy for the average person to partake in what can be a very complicated process downloading movies and TV shows.

Yes, the PS3 is a big part of my home theater system for movies, games and downloads but the Apple TV fills the void for a quick way to access a huge library that can be viewed in my living room instead of on my computer screen. Also, browsing YouTube is fun.

My advice would be to look at what each system does and decide what is right for your own situation. Comparing the PS3 and Apple TV is kind of hard since they are aimed at different audiences.

 

[tronic72]

Wow this this the dumbest thread I've seen on here for quite some time.

Congratulations!

I thought I'd have a thread to compare the Apple TV with a Spoon. What do you all think?

 

[ansalmo]

Well, the 360 will run up your energy bill

It's well worth thinking about - the power consumption figures I've seen for each device when playing movies are rather variable:

tv - 20W
Xbox360 - 125W
PS3 - 175W

Save the planet - buy an tv

 

[pilotError]

Wow this this the dumbest thread I've seen on here for quite some time.

Congratulations!

I thought I'd have a thread to compare the Apple TV with a Spoon. What do you all think?

Hey, go for it...

Can't be any dumber than jumping into a thread with absolutely no input into the conversation but to say its dumb...

It's a perfectly valid question. In the end, its what your looking for. I use my PS3 for Blu-Ray and DVD playback as well as games. It's the best Blu-Ray player out there as it's software upgradeable. It does do a limited amount of media center stuff, but I'm finding it's too quirky to use on a regular basis. If you have a large library, the interface is too limiting. I hate having a video work one day and not the next. It's happened too many times to be reliable. It takes forever to scroll to the bottom of a large list and it sometimes stops in the middle for no apparent reason. Hopefully the media center stuff will improve over time.

ATV is used mainly for Music and Photos. I love the screen saver with the flying photos. It works very well with iTunes without having to buy additional software. Not the best for Movies, we'll see what ATV2 software brings.

 

[jfr8614]

ps3

I see your reasons for comparison. I personally have a ps3 in my living room. PC with vista(with wmc) in the bedroom and a mac mini in my truck. They all have great qualities including many strengths and weaknesses.
You can now get a usb ir adapter for the front of the ps3 to control it with your universal remote (this is a huge step for a media hub setup http://schmartz.com/main.sc)
The ps3 for me is a must have 1 because it's a great blue-ray player held back previously only by the lack of universal remote support. I love it as a game system and it's updated constantly. There were rumors sony was going to launch a itunes like store for the ps3 buy i'm not holding my breath. The media streaming capabilities are good but would be even better if it fully supported windows media center and not just wmp because you could then add tuners and have direct downloading of certain content.
I would actually love to pick up an appletv given the low cost but I can't yet justify it as I already have the ps3.

 

[HotRodGuy]

I bought this and then synced it with my harmony in order to control my PS3. Just doesn't have on/off capability which i'm fine with.



sorry, didn't put in the link:

http://www.nyko.com/nyko/products/?i=113

 

[jaw04005]

Just took the time read through all of this thread, and I must say unless you actually own a PS3 you really can't truly understand its limitations as a media device.

The only advantage the PS3 has over the Apple TV is its wider array of codec support. However, even that is flawed. Sony purposely limited both WMV and DivX playback to 2GB. I would assume this artificial limit was imposed to prevent playback of pirated HD files.

The media interface on the PS3 is archaic. You have to navigate a directory-like structure of files in each category (Music, Photos and Video). Thumbnails for music and video are not available unless you copy your media files to your PS3's internal hard drive.

The PS3 supports FAT32 external drives only. Therefore, all files must be 4GB or less and have shortened file names.

Media streaming is limited, and wasn't even reliable until the latest firmware update. There's no automatic media syncing support.

The PS3 lacks an RSS aggregator (no podcast support). There's no movie rentals or TV shows available from the PlayStation Store.

I could seriously go on.

You would think Sony who owns Sony Pictures (Jerry Maguire, Jumanji, etc) and Sony Pictures Television (King of Queens, Seinfeld, The Shield, etc) could come up with something.

Not to mention, Sony Computer Entertainment owns a tons of software properties even iTunes-like applications (SonicStage, etc).

The PS3 is the best Blu-ray player you can buy, and has some cool game titles that are coming soon (Little Big Planet, Metal Gear, wahoo) but the notion that the PS3 even remarkably competes as a media center-like device is a complete joke.

The problem is not the PS3's hardware, it's a powerful device. It's the software. I mean do these divisions talk to each other? What's with the lack of integration?

 

[luis138]

Topic change: iPod vs. Sweet 'n' Sour Shrimp.

Discuss.

This has been the funniest thing I have read in a looong time. I actually laughed out loud. People were looking at me like if I am mad.

Luis

 

[omni]

I mean do these divisions talk to each other? What's with the lack of integration?

I used to work on the playstation side of things and no...they don't talk to each other at all. We used to joke that we were all surprised the PS3 ever got a blu ray player. That's seriously how bad it is.

 

[smiddlehurst]

The media interface on the PS3 is archaic. You have to navigate a directory-like structure of files in each category (Music, Photos and Video). Thumbnails for music and video are not available unless you copy your media files to your PS3's internal hard drive.

*Ding!* This is exactly the reason I didn't buy a PS3 as a media player a few weeks ago. I have a PSP and have already found the interface on that device extremely annoying when browsing through a few GB of data on a memory stick. I cannot imagine the horror of trying to use a derivative to go through close to a couple of Terabytes of data (targeted space based on the number of DVD's I have to rip).

I did briefly consider using my Xbox 360, to the point of paring it with Vista. Much nicer interface however even my Elite is too loud to want to use it full time as a media player and, more importantly, it's fiddly to use (fire up 360, wait for boot, go to media blade etc).

Currently I've got my Macbook doing front row duties and it's damn near perfect. Well thought through interface, fast(ish) to respond and offers podcasts, photos etc as well as movies. At some point the Macbook will get moved to the second bedroom where it can live a nice quiet life ripping DVD's and it'll get replaced with an TV. Hopefully by the time it does there'll be a suitable solution to handle organising a few hundred movies in a suitably funky way...

 

[jaw04005]

I used to work on the playstation side of things and no...they don't talk to each other at all. We used to joke that we were all surprised the PS3 ever got a blu ray player. That's seriously how bad it is.

That's what I figured. It's really unfortunate that a big conglomerate like Sony can't get their media assets together to make a nice box for the living room. Sounds like a company in dire need of restructuring.

 

[theanimala]

Wow this this the dumbest thread I've seen on here for quite some time.

Congratulations!

I thought I'd have a thread to compare the Apple TV with a Spoon. What do you all think?

Wow, this is one of the dumbest replies I've seen on here for quite some time. Glad you didn't read through the thread to see how the two products do overlap in their ability to be a media server. I wish someone would take a Spoon and shove it down your throat.

 

[Scarpad]

The GUI on the Apple TV is much better as a Media Center than the PS3. The PS3 plays Media fine from it's drive and streaming, and it does handle more formats AVC and Divx, but the implementation of how to sort all that media is slipshod at best. The PS3 is a Game machine first and formost, and as a Plus it can stream and play media. But the ATV with it's menus are better suited for the task