With all the hoopla surrounding the Apple TV, many Mac owners are unaware that an easy device for streaming iTunes media may already be sitting in their entertainment system. All three of the latest game consoles—PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii—are capable of streaming media from your Mac to your television over your existing network.

 

However, just to be clear: None of these consoles can play DRM-protected files bought from the iTunes Store. To stream those, you still need the Apple TV. (Or just remove the FairPlay DRM from the files first—see “Hardcore How-Tos”)

 

What You Need: Current-generation game console (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or Nintendo Wii) attached to your home network, Mac, also on your home network, additional software depending on which console you use (noted in the steps below) and video files loaded into iTunes.

 

Xbox 360 and Connect360

 

Your Xbox 360 can already play videos stored on its hard drive or on USB drives connected to it. Nullriver’s Connect360 ($20, www.nullriver.com) fools your Xbox 360 into believing your Mac is a Windows machine running Windows Media Center. Setup is dead simple and only requires a Mac running Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, an Xbox 360 (duh), iTunes, and iPhoto if you want to stream photos to your TV, too.

 

1 The Xbox Connection

Connect360 lives in your System Preferences.

 

Download and unzip Connect360, then double-click Connect360.prefPane. System Preferences will launch and ask on which accounts to install the utility. Make your selections and click Install. The Connect360 Preference will load. Click the Start button and the app will display your active services: iTunes, iPhoto, and the Movies folder. Once the application finds your Xbox 360 on the network, it’ll appear in the Discovered Devices area.

 

2 Blade IV: The Media Center

Thanks to Connect360, our Xbox thinks the Mac on our network is really a Windows PC. (As if.)

 

Navigate to the Media Blade on your Xbox 360. Click Videos, click Connect360, and choose Macintosh: Connect360 when prompted to choose a source. The next screen shows two folders of videos: iTunes Movies (for videos that reside in your Mac’s iTunes Library) and Movies Folder (for videos in . . . wait for it . . . your Mac’s Movies folder). A complete list of formats supported by Connect360 is at www.nullriver.com/products/connect360.

 

3 Let the Streaming Begin

Your videos are in these folders. See? Streaming video really is child’s play.

 

A list of your videos is now available within your Xbox 360. You may have to update your Xbox’s software in order to watch H.264 videos, and the console will prompt you to do so. There are downsides: Television shows are displayed by the episode names and not the actual show title, for example.

 

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PlayStation 3 and MediaLink

 

Like the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 has multimedia capabilities, but lacks native support for the Mac. Once again, Nullriver brings your media to the console. MediaLink ($20, www.nullriver.com) streams media from your Mac to your PlayStation 3 and even allows you to copy files from your Mac to your PS3’s hard drive. It requires Mac OS 10.4 or later and will play a variety of video files (a list of supported formats is at www.nullriver.com/products/medialink).

 

1Link Your Media

You can try MediaLink for free, but it shuts off after 30 minutes unless you license your copy.

 

Download and unzip MediaLink, then double-click MediaLink.prefPane to launch System Preferences. Choose which users will have access, and click Install. The MediaLink preference will load. Click Start to begin sharing media. You can share media from iTunes or selected folders. Once MediaLink discovers your PlayStation 3 on your network, the console will appear under the Devices tab.

 

2 Find Your Content

You can reach this content-selection menu by choosing Nullriver MediaLink, found under Videos in the X-Media Bar.

 

Now navigate to the Video section of the PlayStation 3’s X-Media Bar. Select the Nullriver MediaLink from the list. Then just navigate to your video of choice. As with Connect360, you won’t see the names of the TV shows, just the title of that specific episode.

 

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Nintendo Wii and Wii Transfer

 

Unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360, the Wii doesn’t have a dedicated video player. What you can do is set up an ad-hoc Web video server that the Wii can access from its Web browser. Riverfold’s Wii Transfer ($19, www.riverfold.com) will set up a video server on your Mac that will convert your videos to FLV files and stream them to your Wii. The Wii Transfer app can even back up your saved games to your Mac.

 

1 Set Up Wii Transfer

Whichever option you choose, you’ll need the corresponding URL later on.

 

Install the program and launch it. Select Sharing in the left pane, and then check the “Share media to Nintendo Wii over local network” box. You can use the IP address given or register a bookmark URL for easy access to your media. Whichever you go with, that’s where you’ll point your Wii’s browser in step 4.

 

2 Do Your Best

You deserve the best.

 

Go to Wii Transfer > Preferences to adjust your settings. We suggest choosing Best for streaming. You might as well get the best quality you can, right?

 

3 Converting to FLV

Wii Transfer shows a preview and a status bar as it converts your video to FLV.

 

Click the Movies tab. Drag your movie of choice into the white area. You’ll see a Start button appear, and the app will prompt you to click it to prepare your movie for streaming to your Wii. After a few minutes of converting, your video is ready for viewing on your TV via your Wii.

 

4 Find Your Stream

Follow the IP address with a colon and the port number from step 2.

 

Launch the Wii Internet Channel from the Wii’s home screen. If you don’t have the Internet Channel, it can be purchased through the Shopping Channel for 500 points ($5). Enter the IP address you got from the Sharing pane of Wii Transfer (see step 1).

 

5 Ready for Viewing

Select Movies or Music to stream content to your TV.

 

Choose Movies from the menu and navigate to your selected video. The videos are stored on your Mac, and the cache can be cleared from within the Wii Transfer app.