some random thoughts on this:
"..comparable to the XBox..."
depends on what you mean by comparable.
On specs only, it seems most posts seem to go somewhere like 30-80 over $200. If you give and take a bit, better hd, lesser gfx, you can get right around $200, plus $30 for a controller if you'd like one.
xbox is now $179.99, plus $4.99 for 007:AUF rental (for software mod... assume you have a comp with a cd-bootable drive and an ide setup), is $184.98, round up to $200 after tax(8%).
the 5.1 sound setup - some of us are stuck in a 2 speaker world, some of aren't, but price of a 5.1 decode is cheap.
the 64 ram issue - on the xbox it is shared system/video which confers its own advantages and disadvantages
the tv out - I'd say this is the part that does it, unless you can find a cheap tv-out geforce2 comparable card.
y'know, if only there was a cheap compu-tar that could run windows games, then i could get rid of my windows partition... microsoft could make it, throw win2k or xp, call it an xp-box... err hold on...
seriously though, it seems that normal windows games on an xbox without too much work would be its greatest attraction...
throw a keyboard less full screen launcher, sort of like win3.1 had, a dedicated windows gaming box... no more games argument for keeping a windows partition on your desktop.
although ps2 and xbox would now be in direct competition with xbox->everquest (ignoring linux->wine->everquest for now) vs ps2->everquest
Wait, theres no article to slashdot??? and most of the posts don't say IANAL(but I play one one/.)??? Whats going on? You mean some of us are going to have to think and make insightful comments instead of kneejerk linux clustering responses? But we haven't cost somebody two heads and an arm for bandwidth! Where are we going, and what are we doing in this handbasket?
If you use the digital cable's PVR, then you'll have to get a the satellite TV's PVR, since each one is attached to the service. If you buy a separate, stand-alone box, then the individual tv channel provider doesn't particularly matter. DirecTV's PVR has two decoders, so you can record and watch two different things. Also it will record the digital satellite stream directly to disk as mpeg, instead of going thru a D->A->D conversion.
Slashdot Mirror
Bah. the original Humbug.
y'know, if only there was a cheap compu-tar that could run windows games, then i could get rid of my windows partition... microsoft could make it, throw win2k or xp, call it an xp-box... err hold on...
seriously though, it seems that normal windows games on an xbox without too much work would be its greatest attraction... throw a keyboard less full screen launcher, sort of like win3.1 had, a dedicated windows gaming box... no more games argument for keeping a windows partition on your desktop.
although ps2 and xbox would now be in direct competition with xbox->everquest (ignoring linux->wine->everquest for now) vs ps2->everquest
archive.nytimes link... or the same article on com.com.com.com
seen www.memorystick.org yet?
Wait, theres no article to slashdot??? and most of the posts don't say IANAL(but I play one one /.)??? Whats going on? You mean some of us are going to have to think and make insightful comments instead of kneejerk linux clustering responses? But we haven't cost somebody two heads and an arm for bandwidth!
Where are we going, and what are we doing in this handbasket?
If you use the digital cable's PVR, then you'll have to get a the satellite TV's PVR, since each one is attached to the service. If you buy a separate, stand-alone box, then the individual tv channel provider doesn't particularly matter.
DirecTV's PVR has two decoders, so you can record and watch two different things. Also it will record the digital satellite stream directly to disk as mpeg, instead of going thru a D->A->D conversion.