Could a games console sit at the heart of your lounge room?
Some people think consoles are just for playing games, but if you look a little closer you'll find Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 are very powerful entertainment devices. Even Nintendo's Wii has a few tricks up its sleeve. Movies, music, television, surfing the web - your modern games console lets you do it all, although there are a few catches.
The PlayStation 3 is obviously the home entertainment leader thanks to its built-in Blu-ray player. Along with this, Sony sells the PlayTV adaptor that turns the PS3 into a Personal Video Recorder for recording digital TV broadcasts. The icing on the cake is access to the ABC's iView service, with other services expected to follow as Sony expands its Bravia Internet Television platform.
At the moment the PS3's Achilles' Heel is the lack of a movie rental service, which is scheduled to come to Australia this year. Surprisingly this is where the Xbox 360 steps up to the plate - with Microsoft introducing an impressive Australian movie rental service for the Xbox 360 late last year. It's not as slick as using the iTunes store on an Apple TV, but it still runs rings around TiVo's mediocre CASPA service and Telstra's woeful Bigpond Movies.
Of course the Xbox 360 falls short in many other areas. Not surprisingly Microsoft has discontinued the external HD DVD player, but the real surprise is that the Xbox 360 lacks a web browser - so you can't access Catch Up TV services such as iView. One work around is to use the Xbox 360 as a media extender box to take control of a Windows media centre elsewhere on your home network.
Both consoles have one more trick that opens up a world of possibilities - the ability to stream content from a DLNA server, whether it be a DLNA-enabled network drive, a Windows box running Windows Media Player or any computer running third party DLNA server software such as TVersity, PlayOn or PS3 Media Server.
If you've got a large download library courtesy of uTorrent, combining a DLNA server with a games console is an easy way to watch your downloads on your television. If you run a US-based Virtual Private Network on the computer running the DLNA server, you can easily access a wealth of US-only online content such as Hulu.
Even the Nintendo Wii can get in on the action if you install the Internet Channel web browser, which is available for free from the Shopping Channel, and point it at your DLNA server. Sadly you don't get the same video quality as you would from one of the more powerful games consoles with more graphics grunt and HDMI video outputs.
Is there a games console in your lounge room? Do you use it for more than playing games?
Some people think consoles are just for playing games, but if you look a little closer you'll find Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 are very powerful entertainment devices. Even Nintendo's Wii has a few tricks up its sleeve. Movies, music, television, surfing the web - your modern games console lets you do it all, although there are a few catches.
The PlayStation 3 is obviously the home entertainment leader thanks to its built-in Blu-ray player. Along with this, Sony sells the PlayTV adaptor that turns the PS3 into a Personal Video Recorder for recording digital TV broadcasts. The icing on the cake is access to the ABC's iView service, with other services expected to follow as Sony expands its Bravia Internet Television platform.
At the moment the PS3's Achilles' Heel is the lack of a movie rental service, which is scheduled to come to Australia this year. Surprisingly this is where the Xbox 360 steps up to the plate - with Microsoft introducing an impressive Australian movie rental service for the Xbox 360 late last year. It's not as slick as using the iTunes store on an Apple TV, but it still runs rings around TiVo's mediocre CASPA service and Telstra's woeful Bigpond Movies.
Of course the Xbox 360 falls short in many other areas. Not surprisingly Microsoft has discontinued the external HD DVD player, but the real surprise is that the Xbox 360 lacks a web browser - so you can't access Catch Up TV services such as iView. One work around is to use the Xbox 360 as a media extender box to take control of a Windows media centre elsewhere on your home network.
Both consoles have one more trick that opens up a world of possibilities - the ability to stream content from a DLNA server, whether it be a DLNA-enabled network drive, a Windows box running Windows Media Player or any computer running third party DLNA server software such as TVersity, PlayOn or PS3 Media Server.
If you've got a large download library courtesy of uTorrent, combining a DLNA server with a games console is an easy way to watch your downloads on your television. If you run a US-based Virtual Private Network on the computer running the DLNA server, you can easily access a wealth of US-only online content such as Hulu.
Even the Nintendo Wii can get in on the action if you install the Internet Channel web browser, which is available for free from the Shopping Channel, and point it at your DLNA server. Sadly you don't get the same video quality as you would from one of the more powerful games consoles with more graphics grunt and HDMI video outputs.
Is there a games console in your lounge room? Do you use it for more than playing games?