PS3 or XBOX360 - Which one floats your boat?

[acSlayta]

As you mentioned cooper, the PS3 seems like a great media hub. Does the 360 serve as one too? For example I found an article about how to pull your music off of WMP off of a computer connected to the same network (which I think it a fabulous idea); can 360 do this too?

Another question: I stopped into EB games today to get some more perspective and the sales guy (who made it clear both were great in their own right, so he wasn't a fan boy of one) said that with titles on both systems, the 360 tends to have great anti-aliasing but only good texturing, while the reverse was true with the PS3. Anyone observed something similar?

[MathGuy314]

Yes you can stream media from your media collection on your PC (or Mac) via a network. You can also rip your CD collection to the 360 hard drive and play it directly from the console.

[Eluder]

Both consoles are really good for media streaming, I do like the fact that I can copy my movies/etc to the PS3's HDD, but I have found that the 360 will play more formats than the PS3, at least from a DivX/XVid standpoint. The PS3 on the other hand will generally play mkv rips after using a tool such as mkv2vob, so again, both consoles have some + and - when it comes to media playback.

Regarding the texture/AA comment, I've definitely seen the AA being on the better side with the 360, but I haven't really noticed the texture differences. I guess I'll compare demos of the same game on the 360 and PS3 since I'd never own the same game on both consoles.

[MathGuy314]

One more note on media. You can also plug your iPod directly into your XBox 360 and play your music collection that way although you do have to download a free update from the marketplace first. Not sure if the PS3 can do this as I don't own one but I imagine it works much the same way.

[acSlayta]

That's great to hear the 360 will stream and man, that is a fantastic feature to be able to hook up your iPod! It's funny, when I started this thread I was completely set on the PS3 but the more I read here and elsewhere, the Xbox seems like a good choice. I must admit, the fact you can get 5 free games with the elite at FS right now is huge incentive. Sure, they may not be the coolest, but it's something! I just don't get why there are no PS3 bundles to compete with that.

[PokerChip]

That is because Sony clearly is on a major upswing and games are coming out in droves, which is clearly not the case with the 360. Just look at the recent price drop. They had no choice but to do that to keep up with their sales numbers and compete harder.

The Blu-Ray feature is the killer app on the PS3 as it allows you to kill 2 birds with one stone.

I think the 360 is a great system as well. A LOT of hardcore gamers own it, which tells you something about tue quality of games. I would also admit their online gaming is better, but since I don't spend 30 hours a week online, the PS3 experience is good enough for me.

I am playing COD5 these days and the online experience isn't perfect, but it's a blast. And as others pointed out it's free.

I think you need to ask yourself whether you can afford a stand-alone Blu-Ray player on top of the 360 (or if you want Blu-Ray in the 1st place). You also need to figure out how much time you'll be gaming online and how many of your friends and family own what system. Those 3 questions should yield a pretty reliable answer.

[dunlop]

I would definatley go with the 360 over the PS3. You just get more bang for the buck and a much better overall gaming experience.

Unlike last year, the BluRay capabilities is no longer a real selling point as you can pick up a dedicated player for around $200.

I recently picked up a PS3 and if you were to only own that one system you would be quite happy, but compared to my 360 I was surprised at how lacking the over all experience is.

To top it off, I want to use it as my main media hub but I find it does not play 20% of the media that my 360 does (I'm tlking DIVX or XVID stuff).

Bottom line, not worth $400 atm, Sony really needs to knock $100 off the system. With the currently financial situations, they are in a bind.

[prufrock]

Rumour has a significant PS3 price cut coming in March 09. Details at ign on the PS3 front page.

I am happy with both machines, although my enjoyment of the 360 took a dramatic downturn when it 3RLed and my replacement came with a very, very loud disc drive. I hadn't actually played much on it until Gears 2 came out.

I have streamed media on both and find the PS3 a little more awkward getting to the files but both have played almost anything I throw at them.

I think my biggest issue with the PS3 is that, Rock Band aside, there has been nothing on it that has sucked me in for dozens of hours. I might have done so with Oblivion, but it was out for the 360 much earlier and I put hundreds of hours into it. Mass Effect has sucked up lots of hours as well. All the PS3 games I play are good but relatively short.

I honestly think MS has won the exclusive game showdown to this point.

[Eluder]

MS definitely has won the game showdown to this point, you can see that by many long running PS franchises moving to the 360 as well, such as the FF, or Tekken series.

[dignatec]

Guys,
This is what I don't understand when you talk about 360 playing divx etc... If you really want a HTPC, why not just have one of those instead? I have a dedicated PC for my living room, hooked up to my 42" LCD via dvi-hdmi. My tv acts as my desktop, so I can basically run whatever on it, and play music etc...

I never got the idea of streaming music/video from a MCE PC to your 360, it will be slow, most likely choppy as well (if you do it wireless).

Xbox live is amazing and runs very well, when you talk about costs, its only $70 per YEAR, so what $5/month roughly? It's a moot factor.

Like others have said, there are many more titles on 360, and many are the big blockbuster ones (halo/gears of war etc..). The ps3 is awesome for blueray and I'll pick one up in the near future, but for gaming it's 360 all the way.

See what type of games you like, I think PS3 has more titles in the RPG genre, while 360 is more about action oriented games, but others can chime in on this as well (don't quote me on it).

[bucketo]

Originally Posted by dignatec

I never got the idea of streaming music/video from a MCE PC to your 360, it will be slow, most likely choppy as well (if you do it wireless).

Just wanted to note, I stream all kinds of video formats from my PC in the office over WiFi to the Xbox using Tversity. It transcodes on the fly. My PC isn't that powerful by any means and it works really good (old dual core, 1 gig ram). The advantage is you don't have a PC sitting in your living room...And if you happen to have multiple xboxes in multiple rooms you can stream to each one.

[Tezster]

Does the XBOX 360 play HD media (divx/AVC/VC-1) content as well?

[cooper83]

when you talk about costs, its only $70 per YEAR, so what $5/month roughly? It's a moot factor.

That's still $70/year more than the PSN. Average lifespan of a console is what...3yrs+? $210 is hardly a moot factor, considering the Arcade can now be had for less than that.

[QuickSilver]

Originally Posted by cooper83

That's still $70/year more than the PSN. Average lifespan of a console is what...3yrs+? $210 is hardly a moot factor, considering the Arcade can now be had for less than that.

I would pay twice that to have xbox live compared to PSN.

[g011um]

This is what I don't understand when you talk about 360 playing divx etc... If you really want a HTPC, why not just have one of those instead?

I think a lot of people don't want an HTPC. It's too much trouble/work. For me, it's far easier to use the 360 to play content shared from my Desktop machine (not streamed via Media Center, but shared using the Video Library options of the 360). An even better idea, one which I'll jump at as soon as I convince the wife we need it , is something like the Popcorn Hour boxes. Small, simple, plays everything.

Does the XBOX 360 play HD media (divx/AVC/VC-1) content as well?

There are limitations on what containers and codecs are supported, and it depends on whether you're talking about the Media Center integration with your PC (which streams) or the Video Library features of the 360 (which accesses shared material from a PC and plays it directly). But, in general, yes the 360 can play HD material.

This link outlines what's supported by the 360.