Windows Media Center is more powerful. Really, it is. It can just plain do more things. Let's pick on the Apple TV for a minute and list a few advantages to Windows Media Center.

• You can view/record TV (with a TV Tuner card)
• Blueray support (with a blue-ray drive and the required software)
• DVD support (with a dvd drive)
• DivX, XviD, and other codec support (must install the codecs and/or a codec pack)
• Full featured Media Center remote - can program power/volume to your tv/receiver (you may have to buy the remote)
• Possibility for more video/sound outputs (dependant on sound/video card)
• Able to install plugins/addons.
• Hardware can be upgraded (it's a computer after all)
• Easy to add content over the network (just add shared folders as "watched folders")

The Apple TV on the other hand does lack a lot of the above options, but in return it's not only cheaper than a computer capable of all those things, but is also more simple. It doesn't do as much, but what it does, it does very well in true Apple style.

Consider the remote. The Apple TV uses the typical 6-button apple remote. The Media Center remote on the other hand has a whopping 41 buttons. Granted it does more, but give a little kid or an old granny the Apple remote and they'll be using the Apple TV in no time. Do the same with the Media Center remote, and it's going to take a lot longer to figure out. There really should be a lengthy manual for the Media Center remote.

The Apple TV menu is also very easy to navigate. The Windows Media Center menu is quite honestly a Zoo. Want to watch one of your ripped tv shows or movies in Media Center? Common sense would lead you to believe that they'll end up in the "TV and Movies" section. Guess again though.... they're in "Pictures & Video". Not only does it almost seem as though menus and submenus were randomly placed, but it's almost as though they tried to make it counter-intuitive in Media Center. If that wasn't enough of a slap in the face, with all the customizing and tweaking you can do in Windows, they also went to the trouble to make sure you can't rearrange the menus. Yes there are ways to add menus (known as strips/tiles) when you want to add a plugin for your own program, but while that'll help keep your added plugin menus clean, it does nothing to fix the existing menu mess. Granted, you can't rearrange the menus on the Apple TV either, but you don't need to. They just make sense.

The Apple TV is also easier to set up. Microsoft actually did a decent job with Media Center and if Windows is set up properly, the Media Center setup is pretty easy too - just not as plug n play as the Apple TV.