Apple and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

[groov']

Hi, I just asked myself a couple of things after having seen a demonstration at a HiFi dealer of a PC with the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 installed. The thing looked more like expensive high end brushed aluminium AV equipment, you really could not tell it was a PC. It was very easy to use as a double layer dvd-recorder with electronic program guide (EPG) and it streamed movies and music from the harddisk and the internet to your HiFi-installation.

I'm not familiar with TV on Apple computers, so I wonder if we can do on the Mac the same as the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC in an easy way? Is there already software available that does the same on the Mac? And if not, would Apple come up with their own version of this?

Just curious if there are Mac-people with knowledge and opinions on this item.

 

[crazzyeddie]

In short: no. WinXP Media Edition is built for media functions, as the name implies. The closest thing you can get on Mac is EyeTV with the EyeHome device, which will work well, but nothing as simple as Media Edition.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I would like the iMac to have those Media PC features at the very least. It would use Quicktime for the movies and take advantage of your iTunes library. It doesn't need to be a separate O/S. Just some extensions to make it all work and the hardware support.

 

[evoluzione]

yeah it amazes me that Apple have yet to implement this...it seems like a logical progression to me, and it would not be difficult either. i'm sure there's a huge market for this on Macs, both those already with one, and for those without.

 

[daveL]

A lot of Media Center PC buyers are not going to be very technically savvy, so it will be interesting to see how they react when the thing crashes. XP just doesn't multi-task very well, and I think the demands of multiple a/v streams (play and record) will lead to instability. I, for one, would never spend for a M$-based media server. It's only a matter of time before a virus or worm or other hack brings it down. You can browse the Web with it, so what's going to stop the spyware/adware from getting in? No thanks, I'll pass.

As an earlier poster mentioned, EyeTV and EyeHome has similar functionality, although it depends on your Mac for disk storage and DVD r/w.

 

[iceTrX]

Microsoft has a large kiosk in the local mall which is demonstrating this with HP equipment (including HP plasma TVs). I sat down and played around with it and wasn't impressed. Text was hard to read on a plasma TV compared to a large LCD monitor and the navigation was painful which used bright blues, reds, and greens that over-saturated on the TV and really screwed with my eyes. Personally I didn't see the difference between this and a desktop PC with a music library/web browser/TV tuner/remote (that can also easily be connected to a home theater via digital output) besides the unpleasant interface. I'm glad Apple is expanding into stuff like the Airport Express (if your an AX owner you know what I'm talking about) and what may become of that in the future instead of a media center operating system.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Linkety

Ho yeah baby, Macs have done Media Functions for years before Windows! Ever hear of them high-capacity Dual Layer floppies? A whole megabyte and a half of storage space. How does Apple do that? I really don't know.