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Windows 7 Media Center + Extender vs. Mac OS X + AppleTV = not a fair fight.

I am a long-time Apple TV user, stubbornly making Apple's "hobby" useful in my home theater with an array of hacks and community developments -- despite their efforts to keep it locked up. I found that, once hacked, it was the most flexible and elegant thing out there for getting my media from my computer to my TV. With Windows 7, and my unabashed enthusiasm for it, I decided to give Windows Media Center another try. What I discovered puts my hard-hacked Apple TV solution to shame...

OS X + AppleTV

To start with, the Apple TV is a good iTunes Store device. If you're happy consuming only the content Apple offers through their store, and want a way to get it on your TV, its a good solution.
No one gets all their content through iTunes, though, so enter the Patchstick. With it you can unlock Apple TV's OS X potential, allowing SMB or AFS file sharing with your computer, run an app called Sapphire to put a pretty face on your media library, and even install Boxee to get access to a number of additional Internet-delivered content providers.

Hacked, the Apple TV is a very useful device, and as long as you don't mind trailing Apple's updates by a couple weeks to a couple months, using it along-side a Mac and an iPhone/iPod touch its a elegant and cohesive solution -- most of the time. Add an Airport Express or two in some other rooms, and you have a whole-home music and video set-up.

The biggest complaint I had is that the FrontRow experience pales compared to the Apple TV. In our set-up the computer doubled as the bedroom media center, and while it was nice that both the home theater and our bedroom could share the same media, the experience lost cohesiveness at the computer...

On the Mac -- the more powerful device -- we'd frequently be switching between FrontRow, the Finder and iTunes to manage content. I couldn't imagine using a Mac as a home-theater-only device; you constantly need to pick up the keyboard and mouse. The Mac itself was essentially unaware of the AppleTV, save for syncing content. And FrontRow is essentially unaware of the iTunes Store. Its like Apple isn't really sure where an actual computer fits into the scenario.
I used a Rube-Goldberg device of RSS > Google Reader > Google Reader Notifier > Transmission BitTorrent client to get my subscription-delivered content -- a fragile chain that broke not infrequently -- and an AppleScript scheduled via iCal to keep the file system clear of stale content.

Updates on the Apple TV became a management nightmare -- the device is under-powered to begin with, so every couple months it would need a wipe and restore. When that happens, expect to carve out a couple hours to get the hacks back into place. On top of that, the stinking device doesn't have an On/Off switch, so I had to co-ordinate timers and CRON jobs to keep it healthy and prevent it from sucking through my power bill.

Don't get me wrong. Its workable. Its lightyears ahead of what your cable company offers. And it is pretty slick when its all working - no one can accuse Apple of making ugly UIs. It looks good. If you already have a Mac, you can pick up an AppleTV for pretty cheap, and get started at a reasonably low cost. But since you can't do much without hacking, this isn't a solution I'd expect my parents to use.

WMC 7 + XBox Media Center Extender

The reason I've stayed away from Windows Media Center, and its Extenders, in the past, is that I'd constantly hit a brick wall trying to use content not natively supported. It felt cludgy, and its use of what was essentially Remote Desktop Protocol just seemed like a half-hearted attempt.

A lot has changed in Windows 7. It natively supports MP4, and DivX AVIs, so right out of the box it plays almost anything you throw at it -- no hacking needed. Its still pretty much RDP under the hood, but that technology has matured to the point where you don't even notice it any more. In fact, because it ensures a consistent experience between the Extender and the PC, its actually a good thing.

The approach is different than the Apple TV -- the Extender is a function of the computer. While the AppleTV can do things that FrontRow can't do, in the Microsoft scenario, the Extender is somewhat dumb. Turns out, this is fine. I expect my PC to be more powerful than my TV. But there's not a whole lot of compromise. Some of the Extras don't appear on my TV, and a few menu options are left out when shown on the Extender. Otherwise, the experience is the same.

The two most important things about Windows Media Center are that it's consistent across devices, and it's extensible across devices:

• It's so consistent that I can pause a movie downstairs on the big TV, go upstairs and resume the show where I left off from the bedroom.
• It's so extensible that I don't have to hack it to add plug-ins, or new functionality -- I just run an installer on my PC, and both it, and my Extender device are instantly upgraded.

A low-end XBox costs less than an Apple TV, is way more powerful and responsive, has an Off switch, and oh ya... it plays great games too. Everything "just works" together: you plug it in, follow a pairing process no more complicated than the Apple TV requires, and within seconds all your content -- regardless of source -- is available. There are dozens of online content providers built right into Windows Media Center, and others can be added on simply by even a novice computer user.

I use a uTorrent on the PC with the RSS functionality built-in for my subscribed content, which shows up in the "Pictures + Videos" section of WMC instantly. And best of all, I put the keyboard and mouse away, because I can do pretty much all common media management tasks on the PC right from my remote.

Not a Fair Fight

Apple really only has their toes in the water here, and Microsoft has been working up to Windows 7 for quite awhile. But while Apple has the iTunes Store and the devices, Microsoft's only real asset in this arena is the XBox. Apple could, if they chose, offer a cohesive PC/TV/Mobile media acquisition and consumption strategy, but I think they're genuinely unsure of where the computer should fit into the picture -- they prefer a locked-down environment, but a full computer gives the user more control than they're comfortable with -- so they've moved timidly into the living room.

Microsoft has chosen a more open path, with any number of Extender devices, (you don't have to buy an XBox -- other devices will do the same job) a broader array of native media types, and extensibility offered to other content providers besides their own store. Windows 7 is really good, and Windows 7 Media Center trumps everything else out there, hands down.

Full Disclosure

Despite being a Microsoft employee, my job has nothing to do with Windows Media Center or XBox. Aside from employee pricing in the company store, there's no perk for me to use the Microsoft offering over anyone elses, and no job expectation that I will do so. I choose freely what technology goes into my home, and I have a very heterogenerous network, with Macs, PCs and other devices playing happily on my WiFi -- check out my tag cloud: I like Apple stuff!

For a long time I stuck with the Apple TV because, once hacked, it was the best solution out there -- regardless of who I work for. That is no longer the case. Windows Media Center 7 with an Extender is a better, more elegant, more flexible and more cohesive solution. Don't believe me? Try it out -- I think you'll see, as I did, that in this round, Windows is the clear winner.