The Battle for the Digital Living Room has Begun with Apple TV

With Apples recent announcement of the Apple TV, the battle for the digital living room has officially begun. Although overshadowed by the announcement of the iPhone, the Apple TV is going to change this whole market. What the Apple TV offers is the ability to pull your video content off of a PC or a Mac from iTunes and play it back on your HDTV via HDMI and component outputs. This is Apples strike back at the Xbox 360's media connectivity. (And the PS3 to some extent) Apple needs to get a foothold in the living room beyond the iPod and this is a great way for them to do it.

But is it better than the Xbox 360? Chris Lanier doesn't think so; actually he says it 'sucks.' And over at Xbox 360 Fanboy they aren't too impressed either. Here are the stat comparisons between the two:

• Apple TV: a 40 GB hard drive, built in 802.11 wifi, digital audio out, HDMI and component video output all for $299. It can output both 1080i and 720p but 720p is the max resolution you can get from the iTunes store. Currently limited to video only from iTunes.
  
• Xbox 360: a 20 GB hard drive, an add on wifi adapter(included in my listed price), digital audio out, and component (no HDMI) out for $499. Can download video content from Xbox Live Marketplace or stream video from a connected PC.

First, there is a big cost difference. For the Xbox 360 to get wifi you need to add a $99 adapter and the hard drive is another $100; that's $200 more than the Apple TV. And the Apple TV works with both PC's and Macs. The Apple TV is limited to iTunes content but someone will find a hack soon enough. The Xbox 360 can connect to your Media Center PC and pull in live TV; and with the announcement of IPTV support in the future it will be able to record TV directly.

Apple has been taking a very low-key approach to getting into the living room; first they announced the Front Row media center application and now they have the Apple TV. But they are in the download service so I don't expect them to be offering PVR functionality in the near future.

Right now I think the Xbox 360 has the best solution, especially if you have a Media Center PC. Even if you don't, I think the Xbox Live Marketplace has just as good video content for download as iTunes. Also remember that you can get a HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 but with downloadable HD content that might not matter in the long run. The Apple TV is a cheaper solution out of the box and has HDMI which is a big plus for future compatability.

But in the long run I can see the real potential of the Apple TV as a cheap media extender that Microsoft might not be able to compete with but we wil have to wait and see.