Mathew Ingram notes that MS is making a good play to have the XBox become the media server of the future:

Netflix and Microsoft announced a deal earlier today that allows Xbox 360 owners to download movies through their game consoles, which appears to be another step in the software company’s Trojan Horse approach to winning the living room/media-server wars. Will this give it an edge over Apple TV? MG Siegler seems to think so -- he’s dropped his earlier championing of Roku’s media server box and is now calling Microsoft the winner. I’m not so sure just yet, however.

We've given that path some thought - my wife has an (XP based) Media Center PC she's mostly hapy with, and combining it with an XBox might make some sense. The downside? The upgrade path runs through Vista and its DRM from hell. Still, most people aren't going to decide on that basis (as much as I wish they would).

Personally, I plan to buy a new Office Mac and move the mini into the living room to be the media server - but that's way more work than most people will want. Apple has an edeg with ApleTV and iTunes, but MS is plodding along diligently here.

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