I have a bunch of movies and tv shows, so much it takes up about a Terabyte. Sure I have them, but how do I play them on my beautiful LCD TV? Not just play them, but play them conveniently. Currently I am using an HP media PC I picked up for about $500 a year and a half ago. It is Vista based, and uses Windows Media Center to play video. WMC is alright, but I don’t really find it easy to use. And as far as searching through 400+ movies by icon, not by name, well that just sucks.

As you can see I am not thrilled with the use of WMC, so I want to move on to another option like the Apple TV or the Western Digital TV. But which?

OK first, Apple TV which is already into it’s 2.0. It is small and easy like most Apple products, it can play HD and now with a little hacking (1 or 2) you can play all xvid and divx videos on it. Also you can download movies directly from the apple store for $2.99 and $3.99. There is a 40GB for $229 and a 160GB for $329. However with the same hack you can hook up an external hard drive via usb, so get the 40GB and save some money. Also it seems you can now get Hulu on your Apple TV, that is a major bonus.

OK so next, the Western Digital WD TV. This is a bit of a different take on a media player than the Apple TV. There is no built in storage, it is all provided via your attached USB drive(s). The cost is $129, so you are saving some money, and chances are you already have a usb hard drive around to hook up to it. But here seems to be the catch, in order to play most of your videos you will have to convert them with the included software. Which is kind of the reason I am using the HP still, I can play all formats without any conversion. Something not possible with the Apple TV up until recently via the hacks (1 or 2) I talked about earlier.

They both look good and have slick interfaces, they both do 1080P, both have HDMI, both can accept USB hard drives and I am sure there is or soon will be a rental service for the WD to match the Apple. But when it comes down to it, I don’t want to convert thousands of files over to a proprietary format. I would rather convert the Apple TV to play all of my files just once. I guess that is my answer.

I think I am going to get a 40GB Apple TV and give it a try. I will let you know how it goes.

Today in the App Store I saw Air Mouse by R.P.A. Technology. You can control the mouse on your Mac or PC via the iPhone, and even type remotely? Surely a feat such as this could not be accomplished for a mere $5.99. Alas it is true, it controls your computer, and it does it well. Take a look.

Click to purchase in the App Store.

I heart Amazon Prime. The cost is $79 a year. The benefit? Free two day shipping on almost everything, and overnight shipping for only $3.99, for anything. I mean anything. I ordered a 68LB inversion table from Amazon, selected overnight shipping, what did it cost? Huge box on my doorstep the next day for $3.99. It certainly pays for itself if you like stuff to arrive fast.

So what did I order? 

The Flip Mino 60 Minute Camcorder

This thing seems pretty slick. Tiny one piece rechargeable instant USB video camera, there and ready to go when you need it. I am not expecting this to replace my HD camera, but I am expecting it to actually fit in my pocket. I of course ordered it overnight, so I will have it tomorrow.
A review will follow.