@politicalslug
I don't own a 360, so I don't have a really good frame of reference to answer your question. I have tried Boxee and think it has a LOT of potential. I've had it since fairly early on in the alpha testing and it has come a long way. But I still use XBMC as my primary medial player on the HTPC. Can't wait to get my hands on the Boxee beta, and see if that changes things. In general, I'll say this. It is all about the interface. You should try out Boxee ( and XBMC ) on your desktop. Really use it. Set it up with a remote if you've got one. Then decide for yourself if it is better than the 360. It is free, so why not give it a shot.

Sigh. Like the CEA is going to come up with something so much better. All they will come up with is a new scheme that generates some new type of subscription fee. How about we take away the cozy little local monopolies. Separate the broadband provider from the content provider. There is no reason with today's infrastructure why traditional cable needs to exist at all. The entire business model is built on suppressing competition.

@Bamboo
I see where you are going with that, but if you want DVR like functions from a TV tuner, then you are also going to want a huge capacity hard drive in there, which limits you the 3.5 inch drives, and I'm pretty sure that case can't handle it. Unless you go with external storage, at which point, why bother with this tiny underpowered machine. Also, if you plan to do any on-the-fly compression on the DVR (analog cable), then this CPU won't help you. If you only want to get digital channels, then you don't need the CPU, since the streams are already encoded, but you are limitted to OTA or clear QAM, which a pretty small set of channels. But if that is what you want, pair this guy with an HD HomeRun tuner, and you are set.

@suaspont

Not sure, but I think you are misinterpreting that regulation. The notion there is to separate high voltage and low voltage in-wall wiring inside the box, because the low v. wiring is not properly insulated for high voltage, and in the event of a short, the low v. wiring could catch fire a spread along the in-wall wires. In this case, the are no in wall low v. wires. It is all contained inside the box. IANAE, but IAAL, however TINLA (hehe)

"Broadcast content on Hulu, cable stuff on TV Everywhere". See now, that is a pretty ambiguous statement. Because SyFy (ug, hate the name change) channel, and some other cable shows ARE on Hulu. They just are not premium cable shows. So does this mean they would move those shows to TV Everywhere, or leave them alone? I really hate the idea that the same company that owns the pipeline into my home also owns so much of the content that can come over that pipe, and wants to charge me twice to access it, while at the same time having the ability to impose bandwidth caps that limit my ability to access the content that they don't own, and even locking out 3rd party apps like Boxee which let me access it in different interface than the Comcast/NBC/Hulu one (Cthulu-cast ?)

@ArbitrageMan
Hey, I hare Comcast as much as the next guy, but to call then the 'worst run company ever' is kind of...well...wrong. They may be a pain to deal with. They may be a-holes. They may be evil. They may be a lot of things. But one thing they definitely ARE, is extremely profitable. So strictly based on their bottom line, I would have to reluctantly say that they are a pretty well run company.

@pax copia
Can I get a harumph. HARUMPH!!!

+1

@eeekthesneak

I said they are 'less likable'. Not sure how you got from that to 'evil'.

@CtrlBurn

I think you are correct. The TV does not matter, unless the TV itself is pulling in youtube using the API. Otherwise it is just a monitor. And besides, I will soon be moving to a front projector without a tuner in it, so that does not count as a TV. So I can thumb my nose at google/youtube and say "Oh, you think my screen is too big. HAHAHA, I'm going to make it even BIGGER to get around you silly rule."

(Why do my comments now show up as 'unverified' even though I am logged in?)

This is why I am happy I built an HTPC. Google became a little bit less likable today.