Bleh... I just bought an Elite for $300. I bought a NETGEAR HD/GAMING 5 GHZ WIRELESS-N NETWORKING KIT (WNHDEB111) for just under $100 a few weeks ago. I can hook up the 360 and my Tivo to the Netgear bridge in the Living Room; I already had a cheap N-extender but this kit comes with two units (each one is an access point/bridge). Now I just need to get off my ass and open the box and set up the wireless link.

I'm hoping the TRENDnet 300Mbps Wireless N Access Point TEW-638APB (Version V1.0R) can be used on my upstairs Tivo HD to connect to the Netgear Access Point/Bridge that I put next to my Verizon (FiOS) wireless router (which is "only" 802.11g). The Tivo G adapters are just too slow for transferring HD programming, and I don't believe Tivo has announced any plans for a N adapter (they're still selling the G ones for $50, which I thought was a little exorbitant until I recently found out how much M$ is charging for their adapters).

"Don't call it come back; I've been here for years!" Horace Grant's glasses

Are those authentic Horace Grant glasses that he actually wore in a NBA game?

http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title=Image:Horace_grant.jpg

"Boxzster" obviously has no qualms about adding another box to his set-up. I (and many others) do have a problem with that. I have a Tivo Series 3 (with access to Amazon and quirky access to Netflix), Oppo DVD player (which upconverts over component after hacking it via a home-burned CD-R and is region-free via "programming" via the remote control in the "user-progammable" DVD player "on-screen" settings), and Pioneer Blu-Ray player. I'm not running out to buy any other boxes.

Vudu...

Following in the footsteps of MovieBeam, MovieLink, etc.

The quality may be better than the above parties, but who cares? Hardly anybody is buying these Vudu boxes, and Vudu's future is far from certain. Maybe you want to take a chance on them, but I don't. And it's not because I am cheap. I spent $500 on a Pioneer Blu-Ray player. But you know what, I have a lot more faith in Pioneer being around in a year or two than Vudu, and besides even if Pioneer were to go out of business, their assets would likely be bought up by another manufacturer (i.e. Panasonic or Sharp). And my Pioneer Blu-Ray player will keep on working as all the major studios are releasing on the format (Sony-owned United Artists, Paramount, etc.).

Disney sold MovieBeam to Movie Gallery (which owns Hollywood Video). Movie Gallery is in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection and shed its MovieBeam assets, I believe.

MovieLink lost tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars before the movie studios sold it to Blockbuster for about $2 million. Blockbuster is perpetually losing money.

Great! I can spend $200 for a box that will probably stop being functional sometime in 2009 when the company files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection (and goes out of business for good). Vudu wouldn't have to discount these things so ridiculously if they were selling like hotcakes (which they're not). No thanks!

"And the Vudu box is essentially $99 with the bestbuy deal."

No, it isn't. Paying $299 and then getting a $200 credit which must be used within 4 months is not essentially $99. And I don't think that using part of your $200 credit to "Own" several movies for $19.99 each (the price for the new Star Wars: Clone Wars animated movie) is the best use of the credit (that would provide you the most bang for your buck, which would make it essentially $99).

I just don't get it. My Tivo Series 3's do so much more than this box. They record high-definition cable (or free Over-The-Air via antenna) recordings. I can get videos from Amazon downloaded (and streamed, also?) to the S3. The Amazon videos are currently in standard-definition, but high-definition videos are most certainly coming in the near future.

Netflix will be streaming to my S3, probably by the end of the year. It'll probably only be in SD at first, but HD will be coming within a few months for sure after that (XBox 360's are getting HD this year, I believe). By the way, the Amazon and Netflix stuff is not why I bought the box in the first place, but it is a great fringe benefit.

Tivo will be around in a few years; Vudu's future is all but certain. People who want HD On-Demand are most likely going to turn to their Comcast or Verizon FiOS High-Definition Set-Top Box/DVR.

My second Series 3, which hooked up to a 27" Sony WEGA CRT (SDTV) no longer looks quite so stupid. I already do transfer from S3 to S3, which is very nice (especially with my new N router extender which seems to be giving me better G speed with my Tivo adapters versus my still-in-place Verizon FiOS Actiontec G router which was in G-mode only -- not B/G).

Now you can really hear how crappy those lossy AAC downloads from the iTunes store sound.