[APPLE TV] Apple TV versus Xbox hardware?

It also lacks a CD drive right ? and is currently limited in what it can play (h.264 Hidef wise) compared to a htpc

But its great for streaming media, which is mainly what I want to do with it. And yes, it can only play videos up to 720p, but the skin can be in 1080p. But my question is whether
XBMC is just as good on a ATV, over an HTPC. Like does it support everything.

Rekoil Wrote:we can successfully run Linux on the aTV with hardware accelerated video

There is currently no hardware accelerated video decoding support in XBMC (on any platform), all decoding is done on the CPU.

Then the aTV is just as crippled as any other HTPC Sorry, I just don't see why the aTV can't have HTPC status.

CD drive can be achieved through USB as well, been there, done that. As for the content, yes it has a weaker processor, however the actual limit is in software and can be overcome by installing a full OS X or a flavour of Linux.

I think im still going to buy an ATV. It supports 720p and thats all that my movies are in. Is there any way currently to OC the ATV processor?

CASHMON3Y Wrote:I think im still going to buy an ATV. It supports 720p and thats all that my movies are in. Is there any way currently to OC the ATV processor?

Even if there is, not sure you would want to, the box gets pretty hot just sitting there.
I put some little rubber feet under mine to give it a bit of air circulation underneath (normally sits flat !?!).

I just wanted to mention I bought an Apple TV over the weekend, and all my H264 stuff plays perfectly compared to the Xbox which crashed. Mediastream is a little bit more sluggish than an HTPC in its navigation, but not so bad you'd notice without comparing side by side. It was a very useful upgrade from the Xbox.

I haven't searched for answers yet, but the one thing I wasn't able to get working easily was the web interface, but like I said, I haven't searched, so off I go...

yzeyze Wrote:Even if there is, not sure you would want to, the box gets pretty hot just sitting there.
I put some little rubber feet under mine to give it a bit of air circulation underneath (normally sits flat !?!).

The AppleTV does get hot, it's designed to get hot, the case is one big heat sink. This is normal.

Couple of tips, Nothing on top and nothing underneath that also generates lots of heat. It can be placed vertically without problem too.

I forgot to ask, can the Apple TV be networked to my pc running Vista? or do I need a mac. Thanks!

hoagieh Wrote:I forgot to ask, can the Apple TV be networked to my pc running Vista? or do I need a mac. Thanks!

Yes the AppleTV can be networked with a Vista machine without problems.