"So let's pretend for a moment that these players are exactly the same in every way except for how you get music on them. In that scenario, we think Microsoft's angle has some real advantages."

Exactly, what I said.

Let's pretend the hardware is apples to apples
(multi-touch, beautiful 3.2" 480x272 OLED screen, Tegra chip, 720p video output, touch better battery life, HD radio, thinner, 50% lighter)
and lets say the software is comparable.
(I don't think it is.... beautiful backdrops, transistions, music, movies, TV, Zune.net website almost as good and feature rich as Zune software)

That leaves one item, subscription music. Your call $14.99/month+10 free songs vs $0.99/song.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1451594&page=2

WIN7 and HP TouchSmart, nice...

$592.93 as a matter of fact. With LG drive.

w1retap's Small Form Factor HDHTPC Build

Jetway JNC62K (nvidia 8200 HDMI onboard)
Apex MI100 Case
Athlon 5050e
HDD
Vista Premium
Hauppauge 1600

Definately under $1,000 probably under $750 and alot better HTPC.

Yes, please.

Best of luck, Ryan.

Maybe now we won't have such Apple biased news.

this feature stinks! i mean "test".

Enough with the fat American jokes already. Don't blame America, blame fast food. We're looking at you McD, who has been in America since 1940. McD has only been in the UK since 1974 while McD just came to Japan in 1997. So soon enough the rest of the world can be a bunch of fatties like "all of america, fat and stupid".

Wii fit ought to be great; kind of like DDR without all the club music and floaty flourescent symbols.

I think the reason they couldn't/wouldn't is because of the ongoing "monopoly" and lawsuits regarding embedding software within Windows. If the EU would back off, then maybe we would see thing come together a little better.

There is no real reason the Zune can't sync with WMP.

Mandatory Network Connection
Networking provides a limitless dimension for filmmakers and viewers to keep discs up-to-date with fresh content.
From http://www.thisishddvd.com

Also, means the firmware is upgradeable. From bink.nu:
“With Microsoft’s HDi technology, Toshiba is able to offer consumers a consistent movie- watching experience in a way that simply isn’t possible with today’s DVDs or available with any other format right now,” said Jodi Sally, vice president of marketing for Toshiba America Consumer Products. “Advanced navigation using Microsoft’s HDi technology has been offered on all of Toshiba’s HD DVD players — from the models introduced last spring to our third generation of models that are shipping today.”