I own the 360, great games, but after using XBMC, the system has been nothing but a disappointment for media and that was it's original reason why I bought years back to stick in my theater and have a HD media center. Recent update helped some, but bottom line is the darn thing isn't reliable enough to use for anything other then games, I've had the RROD more then once.

Thinking of getting a ps3, either used 60 gig or new 80g for media reasons, a few questions if anyone has time.

1: able to connect to windows share to play video/music files directly?
2. List mp3 by folder name, not id3 or both? 360 does id3 only and it's horrible
3. How long of a range for the wireless sticks? I keep my systems in a room below my living room, the 360 has zero issues
4. Remote is bluetooth, is there a IR dongle? i need to use a harmony remote with it
5. Keyboards and mice added to it, any usb will do or just blue tooth?
6. Divx support, and xvid support, yes I want to download tv shows and watch them so do they work from a network share? or do I have to resort to streaming or transcoding again?
7. HD video like mkv? x264/h264? ok?
8. can i leave hdmi/component connections plugged in and somehow switch between them? I connect to projector/plasma and with the 360 this requires unplugging and pluggin in what I need.
9. Does it have a VGA connection or just hdmi and component?
10. Linux support.is it a waste of time?
11. Any disadvantages to the web browser?can't run java or flash or something?
12. It upscales DVD's yes? how is it for a dvd player, PQ good? Can I ditch my old Sony DVD?
13. for less techy people in the house, how is the interface for getting to pics, mp3, and vids? easy to use or confusing?

#1 - yes, WMP 11 works
#4 - yes, nice one around here somewhere
#5 - USB or bluetooth
#6 - yes, just added
#8 - same as 360, it does one or the other I believe
#9 - no VGA
#10 - depends on what you need, can be useful - only you can say
#11 - kind of clunky, but no true shortcomings
#12 - does a very good job
#13 - pretty easy once you get the XMB.

Hopefully you'll get more & better answers :)

8# You can have both connected and then just change the output settings on the PS3 to switch them over. Takes about a minute of button mashing! The Audio can be either HDMI for 7.1/5.1 to a amp (if it can take it) or Optical for 5.1. So if you have 5.1 already you can leave this alone and just change the video options.
13# each group Photo Music and Video has its own icon on the XBM so finding the info shouldn't prove to difficult.

#2 Haven't really looked at it too much since I set up my NAS for MP3 streaming, but with TVersity you could select files by folder or ID3 tag. I'm anal about my ID3 tags being correct, so I use them pretty exclusively. Think it depends on the media server, though.

would I be better off using linux to use the machine as a media center for pics/mp3/divx or use the ps3 itself?

when watching divx/xvid, is it in stereo, 5.1 dts?