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Is the Xbox the living-room winner?

Started by mathewi · 11 months ago

Netflix and Microsoft announced a deal earlier today that allows Xbox 360 owners to download movies through their game consoles, which appears to be another step in the software company’s Trojan Horse approach to winning the living room/media-server wars. Will this give it an edge ov ... Continue reading »

4 comments

  • MG Siegler

    11 months ago

    I've long been with you on the apple tv/mac mini/roku/xbox decision/debate. I have been very close to getting an apple tv, mac mini and roku numerous times over the past several months. Now i'm really glad I waited, since I already have the xbox.

    To me this makes the apple tv rather pointless, who would spend about the same amount of money to get a device with less content than the 360 -- and lacking the entire gaming aspect? but certainly an argument can be made for the mac mini - i would use it as a dvr and also to surf the web, watch hulu, etc on my tv. most consumers will never do that however.

    roku could get interesting again depending on who else they add to the service mix. if it's hulu, that would be huge. even joost would be cool.

    i think apple needs to cut a deal immediately and get nbc content back on apple tv - maybe even one to get hulu on the device. microsoft i would assume is going to stop them from getting netflix (hastings is on msft's board), but if they could match MSFT, i would consider an apple tv again.
    reply
  • mathewi

    11 months ago

    It certainly makes the decision easier if you already have an Xbox. But what if you didn't -- would you still go with the Xbox because of Netflix? It definitely adds a lot of content (even if the bulk of those movies are crap that no one would watch even for free).

    I would agree that if Apple can get Hulu or something like that on there, it would even the score somewhat -- although of course as a Canadian, I am apparently constitutionally prevented from consuming Hulu content :-)
    reply
  • whydowork

    11 months ago

    Hey Mathew,

    I am in t.o. and use hulu all the time. Install http://www.hotspotshield.com/, an extremely small plugin that gives you a US based address through a VPN.
    Hulu works just fine with it.

    I already have an xBox so I'm a little biased, but if I didn't I'd get the mac mini. A PC has tremendous advantage over both the xBox and AppleTV in terms of flexibility.
    reply
  • mathewi

    11 months ago

    Thanks -- I've actually used Hotspot Shield as well, and it works great. And I would agree that the Mac Mini is more flexible and allows you to do a lot more than just a media server. Of course, it's also twice as expensive :-)
    reply

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