Joystiq compares XBox Live to Apple TV

Fare. You mean "How does the Apple TV fare?" Come on guys, this is easy stuff. Someone needs to read these before you post.

true that, if one downloads torrents of old shows or new unreleased movies then a more versatile media player is needed and for my uses xbox wins there. It's a shame Apple doesn't upgrade those codecs and make AppleTv a truly all-playing media box...

AppleTV is really slick, but you can't play AVI/Divx files on it. The Xbox360 does, and it streams content really nicely from my mac mini (with the help of Connect360). AppleTV is only good if you want to play in the itunes sandbox and nowhere else.

The obvious thing to do would be to put the Apple TV software on an updated Nintendo Wii with better storage space and 1080p video capabilities. Nintendo has shown no interest in getting into the video business and Apple is not good with games. It would be the perfect marriage. It would make the Wii an even bigger competitor for Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's XBox360 and would grow Apple's brand substantially.

The Xbox has beaten Apple TV up until now because of the utter disgraceful quality of the content (no HD, wtf?) on Apple TV. Now that there's something to see on Apple TV (HD, yay!) , it might pick up steam.

Then again, there's no way I'm putting down $229 for an Apple TV when I already have an Xbox and can get HD content through it. Or, maybe it's because I've only once bought something from Xbox Live, meaning it's not something I do much of anyway.

So, I doubt that this week's changes to Apple TV will have much impact on its success.

Cheers,
FL

If they're going to score Apple with a negative on the miscellany (games and such), then why don't they score Apple with a positive on the price? Surely the price is a factor worth scoring?

I've watched plenty of rentals on my Xbox Live. They're OK, take a long time to download. The problem I have with it, and still have with Apple's announcement, is that f***ing 24-hour time limit to watch the movie after you've hit play. I'm a family man and life gets in the way of watching movies. I've lost 3 HD movies on Xbox Live because I had to stop watching half-way through for whatever reason and couldn't make it back within 24 hours. The movie industry is made up of total jerk-asses.

Yeah, well, we'll see how many movies Apple gets. Right now they have less than a thousand total in their library, and that hasn't changed significantly in a while.

The chart reflects the old pricing. The Apple TV is re-priced from $299 to $229.

Also, while charts can be helpful, they can also mislead. Use a chart showing the features of almost any iteration of the iPod and it's current competitor and the competitor would look more impressive (except perhaps the Zune). But it's the ease of use and the convenience of iTunes that makes the iPod go. Similarly, it's not about the numbers with Movies rentals - it's about convenience and ease of use. If Apple can allow people to buy and watch a movie as an impulse - it'll clean up.

The biggest advantage the new Apple TV has over the Xbox (and even it's own first generation) is that every major studio has signed on to provide content. Having an expansive library will be the key to Apple TV's future success, and is why I believe it was the real star of the keynote.