I decided to go ahead and get an Apple TV. I wish I could say how much I love it but I didn't think far enough ahead. You see, I wasn't about to spend $20, $30, or more on an HDMI cable. I was in Best buy and saw one for $59.99! I decided to go the Amazon route and ended up getting one for $2.85 including shipping! I have waited this long, what's a few more days, right?

I already use Netflix on my Xbox 360, and wanted a dedicated box so when I want to play a game and my wife wants to watch a movie i don't have to do without. I was looking at various alternatives, and for a while was going to get a Roku box but something in my gut said no. It probably would work fine but you just can't beat the fit and finish of Apple products, really. While I was doing my research, I decided to take a spare PC, throw another hard drive in it and run a Linux distro called ElementPC. Overall I must say this was an excellent rig. Unfortunately, Netflix uses Silverlight technology to stream its shows and the open-source moonlight equivalent just doesn't work. Its strange too because I am almost certain that the Roku box (based on Linux) supports Netflix - so there is surely some kind of funny business licensing deal type of voodoo magic going on. It is a shame too. I had all sorts of plug-ns installed weather apps games, it was cool to have a full functioning computer on a 47-inch screen. Boxee, hulu, xbmc, browser - but sadly no Netflix. So that meant I would have to tie up a Windows license to watch Netflix and then I wouldn't miss out on other slick features that Linux gives me.

So yeah, this will be nice, small, quiet, affordable. I think my wife will enjoy the streaming music too she likes to play smooth jazz. I get a PC back - it works better as a general purpose machine to test and tinker with anyway.