I was really surprised to see this change in Leopard, especially remembering the large segment it got in the Tiger keynote address.

And I’m sorry, but CoverFlow is a sad replacement and useless in this context — I love browsing my album art like LPs, but I sure don’t want to browse my file cabinet in this way! (this one? nope, flip. this one? nope, flip, etc.)

SHEEP BUTT

Are you using the PS3’s wireless connection? I always get dropped frames with 802.11g regardless of the platform. Both my PS3 and 360 are hard-wired (ethernet) to an 802.11n base station and I make sure I stream from an n-supported computer. I’m able to stream HD content with no dropped frames on either system.

My first 360 was never this loud but since the red ring experience; admit it you have all had one, or known some one who has, the replacement box is even louder.
I’ve tried MediaLink for the PS3 but the caching does not appear to be as good and it is forever dropping frames.

@James Bayliss: I use my 360 wired at the moment, but an alternative is to get a cheaper wireless extender with an Ethernet port on it, and just run a short wire from that to the 360. That said, even if you buy the expensive MSFT wi-fi adapter, it’s still less expensive than an AppleTV, and you have one-less item to manage/worry about.

And yes, even *I* can’t believe I’m favoring a MSFT product to an Apple one. Strange days…

So far Connect 360 has worked flawlessly. I really wish it could see videos in places other than iTunes or my Movies folder. The majority of my video files are on an external drive. I tried putting both an alias and a symbolic link to my movies in my Movies folder, and neither one worked. I emailed Nullriver about this, so maybe they’ll add the feature sooner or later.

So far though, it’s $20 well spent.

I don’t have a PS3 but I have seen the menu system and I agree with you, it is really fast in comparison to the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360’s HUD is slow for everything though, even accepting game invites. Either way, for $20USD I’m a really happy camper.

Patrick Haney: I’m surprised that you’re having issues. Have you tried just a straight up .MOV file? Sometime really simple with default codecs that, maybe you record yourself with iMovie or something? What type of error are you getting?

Maybe someone from Nullriver can help Patrick out?

So if you plan to buy a next gen system primarily for playing media, I’d recommend the PS3 (+ it has bluray). The 360 is definitely the better gaming machine (at the moment) and has a much better online/social presence. The only thing the 360 has over the PS3 in the media department is the large library of rentals and downloadable content, which is actually a pretty big plus if you don’t mind spending the money.

I agree with Matt about the CPU usage when rescanning, it’s a bit insane (and I’m trying to use an old Pismo PowerBook G3 as my media center, so it’s even worse), but since Rivet requires OS X 10.5 (and I’m attempting to use an old G3 that can only run up to 10.4) I’m quite happy to stick with Connect360.

Thanks for chiming in!

I had a wireless connection from my iMac in the basement, then my 360 was wired. But it wasn’t enough to allow streaming of HD content. So I’ve had to wire my iMac, which wasn’t a huge deal. As Jeff does for AppleTV, I convert the files via VisualHub to AVI, since the 720p videos are usually encoded as MKV. Every show I watch now is available in HD, which is just great!

When Rivet was released, it touted a few features that Connect360 was lacking. Primarily, rescanning media folders and maintaining directory hierarchy. I emailed the Nullriver guys and asked if they could add said features, and within a week and update was released that did just that. I’m sure others tipped them off as well, but that’s pretty rad that they churned it out so quick. So much for competition.

@Jeff Smith: I’ve just started playing with VisualHub to solve my “convert things to iPhone” problem, and I’m wondering if there’s a way to automate processing with it? If so, it could be slick to set up a script (Automator?) that automatically converts any .AVI files that appear in a specific watch folder. This would remove the tedium from having to convert everything by hand, which is one of the main downsides of using AppleTV over the Xbox 360.

Of course, I haven’t seen the connection drops you experienced, which would definitely be more than an annoyance.

One of the reasons I like Connect 360 so much is because I do not have to convert any of the video I download. It all just works. This saves a huge step for me, especially since I don’t have a lot of computing power to spare.

After receiving a gift certificate to my local Apple dealer for a gift, I decided to pick up an AppleTV and I have to say, I watch a lot more downloaded content now than I ever did with my 360. Picked up a piece of software called VisualHub (http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/) which allows me to convert anything I download to h.264 and automatically imports it into iTunes which then syncs it to my AppleTV. This definitely turned out to be a better option for me. So I guess it really depends on what you’re looking for and how much money you want to spend.

http://www.justwhatisee.com

great stuff devroe!

G

But, it’s also not nearly as bad if you switch to cover flow view. It’s not the same as tiger, but better than a plain list of files. Combined with QuickView, it’s nor horrible at all.

Chris Harrison: Who is saying that he doesn’t? Ha!

Chris Clark: You may live vicariously through us anytime.

Side note: What is with all of the Chris’ in a row!?

Jesse: If I worked in this office everyday you could be sure that I’d pimp it out. I don’t know how he and Jason, who has now moved back to Phoenix, worked in this drab thing everyday.

Eliza: It is! I whipped a frisbee at him!