HTPC or Xbox 360 or PS3? (not a gaming related debate)

[Twizzle]

This is a question / discussion about multimedia capabilities and not games.

I currently have a PC running Media Portal (yes I know - Windows but Mythbuntu is not quite what I want). I have a large collection of divx and xvid files and want to have a simple, wife friendly system. Media Portal is good but the big box containing the PC is ugly.

Basically, the money I would spend upgrading the HTPC to make it small and very quiet would buy me an Xbox or PS3 (around £300) and I like the idea of good online gaming (and some of the new games about to be released)

I have searched all over the web for weeks and I still can't make up my mind what would be best. Most of the reviews are old and / or mainly centred around the games (I do realise it's a games machine), but here is what I think so far:

HTPC
Good for any format I can throw at it and connectivity
OK for games
Very tweakable
Bad for size / noise and regular crashes!

XBox
Good for games and very good for online games
I don't like the 'blade' interface thing and do not know if you can change this?
Apparently can handle most divx / xvid videos
Not keen on having to use a server running Windows Media Centre

PS3
Good for games and ok for online (getting better though)
Has built in BlueRay (so future proof)
Very easy to upgrade HDD
Can run Linux ( :) )
Would appear to be good for streaming media to

Can any one add to / take away from this?

Does anyone use their Xbox / PS3 for media streaming and if so how good is it?

Does any one know of a good video review (or one with lots of pictures) that covers the media streaming side of the units?

[notwen]

I own a Xbox 360 and I stream XviD/DiVX to my 40in LCD quite often. It can handle most DiVX formats(.avi, .divx, etc). As far as the blade interface goes, pretty sure you'd be stuck w/ that. And the uPnP server I use on my Debian Etch box to stream to my 360 is uShare (http://ushare.geexbox.org/). Very easy to install and configure. Another uPnP server options would be Twonky, but uShare was easy to setup and free. =] Depending on if you're wantiing online gaming or not, I would recommend the 360 over the PS3, simply for the amount of titles available and plus the Xbox Live population is enormous. With that said the PS3 can run other distros w/o being banned from Sony's Play network and has much better hardware and hardware quality. You may want to search the forums to see other users experience w/ their consoles and streaming to their TV sets from Linux.

FYI, the wireless dongle for the 360 runs $99 and generic USB wifi adapters will not work, so consider this if you were planning on streaming over wifi. =]

[intense.ego]

I also own an Xbox 360, but I don't stream videos wirelessly. Instead, I use either my 4gb flash drive or I burn them onto a DVD (I have to do this anyway because I download more than I have HDD space) and play it off there because I've never really liked streaming (I always fear the wifi will go down or it will have to load). It plays almost all formats (avi, divx, xvid, mpeg4, wmv) without problem.

Also, instead of getting a xbox 360 wifi adapter, you could do what I do: connect through another computer (a laptop is ideal) that already connects thru wifi. If you don't want to do that, you could buy a network bridge and connect via ethernet. It would still work out cheaper than the official wifi adapter.

[Twizzle]

Thanks for that both of you.

Streaming is not an issue really as I have ethernet cables running round the house so can just plug them in.

One thing I forgot to ask was whether either will allow you to use coverart for videos in the same way that my HTPC will do?

[gn2]

I have none of these devices, but the only one I would consider buying as a media centre is a PS3.

HTPC = too expensive

Xbox 360 = too fragile, almost guaranteed to break and too noisy

PS3 = Linux friendly and very quiet in operation

Maybe I'll get a PS3 one day, but until my existing CRT TV breaks and I replace it with an LCD TV there's little point for me.

[picopir8]

I have a 360 and would avoid it for HT use. It sounds like a jet engine taking off and nearly 1/3 break for one reason or another. Video downloads take forever as well.

An Xbox 1 hacked to run XBMC is still a very good choice but it only has a DVD drive.

I have considered getting a PS3 myself for blueray (because it is upgradable over ethernet) but I do not know how it handles streaming audio/video.

A wii, is also a good option. Nintendo made their web development kit public and lots of people are writing apps that allow you to stream audio/video to the device. If hacked, it can also play DVDs.

But if you want one device to do everything, a HTPC is still the way to go. The size may be an issue but you can get whisper quiet fans and choose an os that does not crash.

[heartburnkid]

If all you're looking for is a good media player, have you considered an Xbox? Not a 360, an original Xbox.

Load XBMC (http://xbmc.org/) on there, and it does quite well for itself. It doesn't do HD, so if that's important to you you should find another solution, but for SD, it's damn good.