We talked about the Apple TV as a home media centre. It’s great if you’re happy to convert movies to the Apple TV format and buy all your content through iTunes.
That’s not going to be a the right thing for everyone… so what are the alternatives?
Who needs a TV? … how about a Mac Mini with a nice monitor and loads of drive space? — Plex running on a Mac Mini is a lot more versatile than an Apple TV (aka ATV). Add an EyeTV and you’ve got a really great media centre that’s relatively inexpensive.
Another option worth considering is XBMC (formerly named Xbox Media Center). It’s a free open source cross-platform media player as well as home entertainment system software. Interestingly, it also runs natively on the Apple TV. Wikipedia has a good summary page.
XBMC can also integrate with Control4 systems – show in the pic in the sidebar.
It really depends on what you want to do. For this research, I set my goal as being able to play any video in any format.
Sounds simple… but ATV can’t do it. Neither can PS/3 or Xbox 360.
The overall best appears to be the Asus O!Play – it handles all the popular video codecs and reads both Mac and PC-formatted drives.
Here are some more options:
- Plex
- D-Link Media Lounge
- Netgear EVA2000 Digital Entertainer Live or the EVA9100
- The Popcorn Hour C-200
- WD TV Live
- Seagate FreeAgent Theatre+
- Patriot Box Office
Let us know your thoughts, share your experience in the comments below.
