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Anything that works the way i want Apple TV to?
- Thread starter plunar
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I'm not really sure what you mean. It sort of sounds like all you want is a good-old-fashioned DVD player...
^^ 
Erm... well, since there are no wireless DVD players and very few wireless TVs, that's probably also not an option.
Sounds like you also win the, "Buy a Mac Mini and an EyeTV" contest. Not going to get it for $300, even used, though. Maybe about $600 with a refurb mini.
Erm... well, since there are no wireless DVD players and very few wireless TVs, that's probably also not an option.
Sounds like you also win the, "Buy a Mac Mini and an EyeTV" contest. Not going to get it for $300, even used, though. Maybe about $600 with a refurb mini.
yes, but a good old fashioned dvd player doesn't play all the japanese tv shows my wife is always downloading. everytime, i gotta take the macbook, hook up the dvi to the tv, and plug the digital optical audio into the receiver. it's a hassle, but not worth $300. i really have no clue who thinks plugging in two cables is worth $300. but I'd gladly pay $99 for it.
so, something that sends a digital wireless signal from my computer to my tv and receiver is what i'm interested in.
so, something that sends a digital wireless signal from my computer to my tv and receiver is what i'm interested in.
Ok then... it's not DVD's that you want to play, but rather videos downloaded off the internet. In that case I doubt you're going to get much cheaper then the iTV. I know there's some competing products from some of the networking companies, but I'm not sure they are very mac friendly and I doubt they cost much less then the iTV.
Have you considered running cables directly from the computer to the TV? I know it sounds kind of crazy but I bet you could do it with your $99 budget.
Have you considered running cables directly from the computer to the TV? I know it sounds kind of crazy but I bet you could do it with your $99 budget.
I use my ipod for that. I put all my movies and tv shows on it and I have a $40 ipod dock with a charger and AV out to TV plugged into my TV and I just put the ipod in the dock and watch it on TV. A few extra steps than the iTV but much cheaper if you already have a 5G iPod.
We have a slingbox at home and I have to say their set up and software seems pretty good for what it does. Nice quick set up (my dad had it up and running in under an hour ... which is impressive as we have a crazy amount of things connected to our TV and about 5 computers to connect.
It's really handy to be able to watch what is on your tv or on your tivo (or whatever it is you may have) on your computer from anywhere in the house.... or anywhere anywhere
It's neat. This also acts in reverse allowing you to view files from your computer on your network on your tv aka music and videos from itunes. I believe it's cheaper then iTV and allows for reverse. Sling makes some good stuff, definitely look into it.
Why not pick up a cheap Mac Mini?
I have mine set up so it just sits as a set-top box, and I sleep/waken it with the Apple remote, using Front Row to wirelessly access my videos and iTunes Library from my Mac Pro, and of course it'll play DVDs via Front Row too.
Easy Peasy.
I have mine set up so it just sits as a set-top box, and I sleep/waken it with the Apple remote, using Front Row to wirelessly access my videos and iTunes Library from my Mac Pro, and of course it'll play DVDs via Front Row too.
Easy Peasy.
The trouble is front row is not compatible with any video file formats outside of the 2 that Apple supports, nor does Front Row have any hooks for other developers to extend it further (so that it can support said japanese videos).
Yeah, I guess it depends on what formats your movies are in, although personally I've never had an issue as it'll easily handle everything Quicktime will play (I use Perian combined with Flip4Mac to maximise available file formats). I'm not aware of the format the Japanese videos are in, so if Quicktime won't play them, Front Row won't.
I wonder if Front Row might be expanded with Leopard to give it the ability to be enhanced via 3rd Party apps?