As part of any media setup the PS3 has always been one of the expensive toys that has dubious value especially in Europe with the lack of movie downloads. Whilst it has had DNLA playback from compatible devices (I have an excellent Buffalo Linkstation Mini) that alone has never quiet managed to push me into paying the £300+ pounds for the console and the added components.
This changed with the release of the latest console (PS3 Slim) and firmware upgrade (3.0). This dual release delivered a number of key elements that made me plonked down my hard earned cash:
1) Power and noise reduction.
2) iPlayer integration.
3) Movie downloads (not yet availible).
4) Price.
The reduction in the die size of processors has allowed Sony to reduce the size of the system, as an additional benefit the smaller processors are now cooler and the system is quieter than the previous model, which I’ve heard in all it’s ‘glory’, as well as consuming less power.
In the UK the BBC iPlayer is king of online programming and is becoming a must if you want to catch those missed programs. Whilst I’ve dabbled with kit from Shuttle (X200) the fact that the system actually was shoe-horned on top of windows and Microsoft has never done an official integration into media centre always left this solution lacking.
Now I know there will be many people saying that the PS3 iPlayer doesn’t really do HD or allow downloads 
and yes that is a limitation, but as the article in the latest Wired (September US) said, when something is good enough it only needs to provide the classic 80/20 rule and the you don’t need all the bells and whistles for it to be usable. In fact having the iPlayer available in under a minute on the TV downstairs and easily accessible with the controller (hopefully better remote support will come) was amazing. Hopefully the Movie downloads will be as easy to use and priced well, will have to see when they get rolled out in the UK as that will be the final element in my media empire 
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