@N900

None of the PS3 BluRay games I've played has allowed complete installation onto the hard disk without requiring the disc to be in the drive while playing. Were you suggesting otherwise?

How can you compare an Apple TV with XBMC? The Apple TV plays only DRM infested, highly specific video files that you constantly pay for, and at best it does maybe three other things (music, photos and Youtube). Both music and photos requires a running instance of iTunes on the network, so server type or local media sharing is out the question. Which is all fine if that's all you want and enjoy giving Apple your money for music and movies.

For people that want more, and want to enjoy the media they already have (downloaded, ripped, whatever), there are applications like XBMC. Nobody that uses XBMC can even imagine using the ATV as an alternative. Obviously it's more complicated than the ATV's, because it does way more things. Most importantly, the point you're missing is that XBMC is user driven, not driven by a business model like the ATV.

"..crack-addicted things like SMB, file sharing, opening firewalls.."

SMB and file sharing are the same thing FYI. Yes, if you want to share files from another computer, it won't magically read your mind and make it happen, there is definitely some action needed on your end (just like you've to enable media sharing in iTunes and select the albums in iPhoto that you want to share, not including the process of keying in a bunch of numbers to pair the instance of iTunes with the Apple TV). Regarding firewalls, unless you're sharing from outside your own network, something not common at all, you won't have to configure anything. Your firewall is obviously badly misconfigured if you can't share files on your own local network.


"But with XBMC, you gotta work pretty damn hard to browse bad content on Hulu"

Yeah nobody uses XBMC just for Hulu. Especially since it takes hardly a dozen keystrokes and a few clicks in a browser.

"...is like Second Life, only with the risk of rootkit."

Sony already has root on your PS3.

@JerkfacedFed

That's not accurate. The primary difference between the two lines is the QA and features that go into the drivers. In terms of hardware they are very much alike.

Yes, XBMC supports HD on non-Xbox platforms i.e. Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. If you have a fast enough CPU and a decent graphics card, you can play most of your 1080p content in XBMC.

Looks like the link is dead. Still, it can be read from:

http://xbmc.org/

XBMC for Mac OS X is now supported on Tiger and Leopard:

http://xbmc.org/download/

@JD

"great games still manage to fit on the discs (oblivion, gears, whatever)."

They have to because they don't have a choice. Why do think textures in Oblivion on the PS3 are a little sharper, the graphics slightly better and it comes with the Knights of the Nine add-on? Because they didn't have to "fit" the game on the media. They have the luxury of using higher quality assets without worrying about filling up the media. The game developers have more space to play with and will be able to deliver more content. I'm only trying to explain the logic behind choosing an HD media format over an SD one, I'm not saying PS3 has better games or anything because currently it doesn't.

"so far, we haven't seen games maxed out above 8.5 gigs affecting their presence on the 360"

We haven't seen that happen yet because the PS3 is the first console to use HD media and it's hardly 8 months old. We might see it in the future though, where a game made for the PS3 cannot be ported to the 360 due to lack of storage capacity. The same situation already applies to the Wii, you will never see a game like Gears of War for the Wii.

There IS an option for the PS3. It just doesn't happen to be the Blu-ray part of it. Why?

Because Blu-ray on the PS3 is the GAMING media, it's not just some drive they threw in for people to watch flicks.

The PS3 is about high def gaming. You can't fit high def content on DVDs period (nothing worthwhile at least). The difference being that for the Xbox360, no games will EVER be made that exceeds the capacity of what a DVD can hold. That limitation is non-existent for the PS3, a limitation that is critical in the long run when it comes to high definition content. Hell, there are games on the regular Xbox that maxed out DVDs with SD content.