Media Machines

The PS3 wins hands down. It ticks all boxes, the only thing it doesnt make is toast but im sure next year we will have that usb add on we have all been waiting for :-)

This is from a user that was never a sony fan, but I just love the PS3 it streams with no problem, just tell windows media player to act as a server and the job is done.

Easy peasy japanesy (is that PC ?)

In that review i agree the George Forman wins. I have an XBOX 360 and the noise issue is barely acceptable playing games letalone movies!

However, I have been using media players since the first decent device was available. That was a modded XBOX running XBMC and it was a long time before something better (read - handles HD formats) and more consumer friendly came along last christmas in the form of the TVIX 6500A. It's tiny, quiet, plays all formats, has internal HD, ftp server, and more importantly looks half decent on your TV stand unlike a games console. Sure it doesn't have a movie download service but let's be honest who actually uses these services in the UK?

Owning both the 360 and PS3 i have to say that the sony media centre PC seems the most attractive option. reading this article has just burnt £900 in my pocket because now i must get one. im tired of using mkv 2 vob for the ps3 to make avi files from mkv's and ogg's or using tversity or transcode 360 for the xbox. thinking about it the flexibility is unrivalled

There's one option you missed, the Mac Mini, its what I currently use. It has none of the codec restrictions that AppleTV has, and none of the noise either. The PS3 has nasty nasty navigation, and the 360 I find is too slow to bring up the list.

The other option that seems to be the rage at the moment is Popcorn Hour, naff name maybe, but the hardware spec is impressive!

While the PS3 looks like an attractive option, it still requires a Media Center enabled PC to be kept running 24/7. Does there exist a NAS enclosure with a Media Extender option built in? This would be the ideal solution - record TV shows locally on the PS3 hard disk, and stream the rest of your media from a NAS...

i've been using my xbox as a media centre since i got it, the noise levels are usually fine and the joys of living ones lonesome means i can always kick the volume up a notch when i start to notice the fans whirring up. But the NXE has made things a damn sight better, i could never stream divx previously which meant having to copy, paste, unplug, plug in.... now i just need to have the right directories set and can leave my laptop in the corner feeding my TV with great content (screenwipe anyone?).

but there is one thing about this whole media streaming and media players that bothers me; once upon a time we would just hook up our PCs to our TV with a long composite cable and had two devices running (plus the amp and all that if we were lucky enough not to have to make do with telly speakers) but now we need one device to hold the content, one to get that onto the TV, the TV itself, router to allow them all to talk to eachother and a multichannel receiver with possibly a powered sub. Alongside selling us all that though, shops will constantly remind to save the environment and use less power.

it all just seems a little strange

Media centre on the 360 is very slick but is flaky because of the wireless connection. The easiest thing by far is to just stick in a usb drive and watch from that.

Play TV sounds brilliant and so useful. Can't wait to try it when I eventually get a PS3. Wish they'd integrate it in when they eventually release the PSthree (or whatever they call the redesign) but I doubt there's much chance.

I have a PS3 & 360. For me the PS3 just about wins (if nothing, just because of the noise issue). But the PS3 is far from perfect. I the GUI is no annoying and limited - you have a huge screen and yet it displays (and ONLY displays) everything in a single vertical list. I want to be able to see a full screen of thumbnails or album art. OK, it keeps the GUI consistent with everything else, but just seems lazy to me.

The other problem with the PS3 is that when you connect an external drive you either have to put the data in the exact directory structure defined by Sony or be forced to use "Display All". This again is just plain annoying.

I used to use an old Xbox with XBMC and compared to that the software on the PS3 (and 360 as well) is pretty rubbish. I would build a dedicated HTPC, but I just don't want another device in the lounge and to do it properly (no noise, nice looking case, etc) is quite expensive.

nanite - the PS3 will happily talk to any uPNP or DLNA enabled NAS device and will stream music, video and photos in any file format supported by the PS3. Just make sure the NAS you purchase has got a uPNP server built in and you are sorted.

"I just wish that I could play mkv and vob files on it though!"

Precisely the reason I went with a seperate TVIX. All decent HD content is in MKV and it also plays DVDs in ISO containers and a single file for a whole DVD makes things much easier than messing with VOBs.

Games consoles are still way off the mark when it comes to a media device people actually want that works with everything. My 360 is great for COD4 but not Desperate Housewives in HD!

Yeah, the PS3 does work quite well, though it does sometimes return with the "unsupported media type" message. I don't think any console quite compares to the Xbox with hacked firmware though. That worked perfectly.

My setup is practically identical to Riyad's, HomePlugs and all (Devolo).

The PS3 does play .vobs although it can't switch the audio stream or pull out subtitles, which is annoying. If the PS3 could play .mkvs and wasn't so fussy about divx .avis, I think it would be unbeatable.

As an aside, I bought a WD tv media player recently and am extremely impressed with it. It plays every format you could imagine (sd or hd) and fast forwarding/rewinding is flawless, unlike a lot of other media players I've tried. Unfortunately, it doesn't stream from a network so I am just plugging in a usb key at the moment - fine for playing files that the PS3 baulks at. If WD bring out a network enabled/dlna capable version, I'll jump at it.

Tvix is too buggy and the firmware upgrades aren't fixing simple things like reliable audio through hdmi. Also hardware limits decent support of h.264 above lv4 so HD output is limited.

The sony looks good, but at twice the price of a mini mac......

Once again a really good feature. I think you guys should this features round up again in the next couple of months. This could have easily been a round up DLNA enabled tellys.

@Riyad nice set up, I am planning to get a HomePlug/NAS set up soon. I may have to email you for some tips! By the way you can play VOB files directly from drive/usb and over uPNP on PS3 works, although if I recall streaming from WMP 11 I had to rename the VOB files with mpeg2 extensions.

I have a 360, PS3 and AppleTV.

I tried using the 360 for media and it was just too much hassle. The PS3 handeled everything I threw at it but the misses wouldn't use as the interface was a bit clunky for her. I then got an AppleTV. WOW, superb bit of kit, we use it all the time even the misses loves it. For ease of use it can't be beat, especially when used with a USA iTunes account. Excellent product!

Another option: have the best of both worlds by installing linux on the PS3 (e.g. Ubuntu 7.1 for the PS3), and dual-boot as necessary :o)

I used to have a mac mini as my media center, running Vista MCE, but never used the thing. So, I sold it and just bought a normal DVD player with DivX support, which has had more use in the past few days then the mini had in its lifetime. And if I can't get a film on DVD, I can always use the DivX functionality (which lets me watch movies off a USB stick). If only it could play mkvs off a USB stick - then it would be perfect.

@Pbryanw

Sometimes the cheaper option is the way to go! I bought a £20 Medion DVD player from Lidl a few years back and it happily plays my Divx files from either DVD or the SD slot. Not as slick or full featured as other options but does what you need.

@ravmania - Yep, I made a tidy profit from selling my mini and buying a fairly cheap, but upscaling, DVD player. In the end a Media Center PC wasn't for me (although it will be for some people). I did convert all my movies to vobs, but just didn't watch them once I had them on the Hard-drive. Now I just switch on the DVD player, put in a DVD and watch, and no more fiddling with FFDshow to get the best picture. As you say, it may not be as versatile but it does what you need.

I have had a Magic Gate MG-35 Media Drive for about 3 years - it will stream over a network or play from the hard drive I added, and it works very well. It might not play MKV but it will play everything else - including ISO's which I find handy. I might upgrade when I feel the need to move from component to HDMI and maybe MKV's - it does everything else including dig coax and Optical out which is useful for me as I don't yet have a HDMI audio capable amp. Its cheap, simple and effective, and my girlfriend uses it all the time.

Along with a modded Apple TV (mostly used for podcasts and streaming of itunes music, yes I know I'm a geek) it gets used all the time - and with stuff that is on the hard drive its ideal for taking away on holidays with a backpack of cables to make sure it will plug into TV of any vintage. I'm sure there are a heap of other similar options, like Popcorn, Dvico Tivx and the Western Digital that work as well if not better for most that have been overlooked. And also the media extenders have been ignored - like the ones from D-Link and Netgear...

PS I use a 85mb Ethernet over Power adapter and it works fine, streams video smoothly as if it was coming of the local hard drive no matter the size file.

IMO PC are the best media machines around hands down, but since consoles are included in the mix, the PS3 is the worst by far, it can't even find our music library, can't stream avi video from a flashdrive, can't communicate with our Sonos set up (knows it's there but that's about it). The 360 on the other hand picked everything else up straight away to the exception of Sonos thanks to the Media Center extender I guess.
If you're looking for a heart to your digital media world, choose a media center PC.

TVersity and Windows Media player are fine if your stuck with Windows. For Linux I use fuppes or mediatomb. Both will happily transcode on the fly, are free and do a rather good job (but i prefer fuppes).
I always liked a hacked x-box for networked media, especially how it reads and decodes .rar files and can browse network shares, however no HD, and its ugly as sin so its replaced with a PS3, some Homeplugs (Zyxel 200Mbs) and a media server. I have never had an issue which cannot be fixed with some trascoding trickery.