On my own again and looking for insight

[lowonthe456]

This is a wide ranging question so hopefully this is the right spot.

I'm getting my own place again...pretty excited and I'm not getting any younger (soon to be 38).

I have a place to stay while I re-acquire things so I've been listing out things and then trying to get a setup that is minimal techwise but that does all I need it to.

I will land in a 1 bedroom apartment with roughly 600-800 sq ft and people all around me.

This is what I've been thinking:

Airport Extreme for wireless
older airport express in bedroom (tunes)
Apple TV or maybe PS3 in living room for TV (I have a 42" Sammy Plasma)

I have iphone4 and will be buying a Mac (though torn between iMac or MBP)

I'd like to:
Stream movies from computer to TV
Have good range wireless in my place
be able to throw tunes from the phone to the bedroom and/or the main room.
I will be picking up my daughter an older imac for her own to use (if that means anything)

Critique, offer suggestions, tell me what you have etc...I'm wondering if Im on the right track

 

[rpenzinger]

Sounds pretty good

I push music around my place from iTunes and iPod. Now with airplay more from iPod through airport express.

You said AppleTV or PS3...not mutually exclusive. I have both. PS3for gaming obviously and ATV for video rentals from apple and Netflix. I prefer Netflix on ATV.

I also converted the kids DVD library onto our iMac and stream to ATV.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

I'm getting my own place again...pretty excited and I'm not getting any younger (soon to be 38).

I have a place to stay while I re-acquire things so I've been listing out things and then trying to get a setup that is minimal techwise but that does all I need it to.

I will land in a 1 bedroom apartment with roughly 600-800 sq ft and people all around me.

Congrats...

Been there a few years back... sort of neat fixing up a high-tech home from scratch.

This is what I've been thinking:

Airport Extreme for wireless
older airport express in bedroom (tunes)
Apple TV or maybe PS3 in living room for TV (I have a 42" Sammy Plasma)

Went the Airport Extreme with my iMac. My Airport Express is used in the kitchen for tunes. Before that it was in the bedroom. Now my ATV2's in the living room and bedroom handle videos and tunes.

Thought about the PS3 route a few years ago... but not a gamer here...

I have iphone4 and will be buying a Mac (though torn between iMac or MBP)

I'd like to:
Stream movies from computer to TV
Have good range wireless in my place
be able to throw tunes from the phone to the bedroom and/or the main room.
I will be picking up my daughter an older imac for her own to use (if that means anything)

Critique, offer suggestions, tell me what you have etc...I'm wondering if Im on the right track

Do think you are on the right track there.

As for a computer... some insight as to what you need to use it for would be helpful.

 

[lowonthe456]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm not a gamer either but with the PS3 handling many more codecs than ATV it seems like its useful....though honestly the ATV will do what I want it to do (doesnt the ATV also work with air tunes?)

As for computer, ugh. I debate this constantly. It would seem an iMac would be the best way to go for the money, but iMacs dont excite me the way MBP's do.....and really, the only reason I am contemplating the iMac is becuase I have iPhone....so laying on the couch surfing the web is more or less taken care of...but I don't know lol

I was also pondering hard wiring the ATV, but not sure how that works while having it be on the same wireless network as everything else

 

[dvh13]

The PS3 has in my opinion a number of strong selling points. First it plays blu rays. Everybody says that streaming is the future of media consumption, and I agree, but neither netflix or HD downloads from iTunes can match the picture quality of watching a blu ray on my 50" Samsung. Second, as has been mentioned the PS3 supports far more codecs than the apple tv, plus it has a hard drive on board, so if you decide to go with the macbook pro, you won't need the computer on to watch your movies, which is a huge plus for me. I have two laptops and turning the on, or waking them up was annoying when all I wanted to do was watch a movie. With the iMac this is not really an issue. Third netflix on the PS3 supports 1080p playback. Granted not many titles are available in 1080p and it requires a screaming internet connection, still the functionality is nice. The apple tv is only capable of 720p. I'm not much of a gamer either; I've played games for maybe 3 hours in the two months I have owned the PS3, but I find it to be a phenomenal media hub.

 

[lowonthe456]

and thats why I'm fond of the PS3....as a media hub. And good point about the laptop/waking up to watch a movie thing...I hadnt thought of that