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Apple Developing a Home Media Server?
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I don't see it as a niche market at all. Heck you should visit the avscience.com or hometheaterforum.com and see what people are doing. Just look at all of the streaming based systems that are out there. Look at all of the NAS boxes that are out there. I don't think this is a niche market at all. I see it as a growing market especially since there is so much digital material floating around.
Can't wait
With all of the cumulative death to Mac Mini and where is Apple TV going talk on the Apple tech Podcasts it has seemed so obvious to me that convergence is the answer (and is coming!).
Apple has all of the experience necessary to pull this off. 1) Time Capsule technology is proving successful; 2) MobileMe, debugged now, thank you; 3) Ipod Touch/IP3G portability/accessibility/useability...; 4) Apple TV, more consumer electronics experience; 5) Mac Mini ripe as a consumer electronic device not a big box PC; 6) They master the user interface.
What else?
You do have to hope that Apple will realize some important hardware considerations, such as, HDMI ports PLEASE! What's this mini-dvi thing that nobody or nothing supports?
Also, make at least sort of affordable.
With all of the cumulative death to Mac Mini and where is Apple TV going talk on the Apple tech Podcasts it has seemed so obvious to me that convergence is the answer (and is coming!).
Apple has all of the experience necessary to pull this off. 1) Time Capsule technology is proving successful; 2) MobileMe, debugged now, thank you; 3) Ipod Touch/IP3G portability/accessibility/useability...; 4) Apple TV, more consumer electronics experience; 5) Mac Mini ripe as a consumer electronic device not a big box PC; 6) They master the user interface.
What else?
You do have to hope that Apple will realize some important hardware considerations, such as, HDMI ports PLEASE! What's this mini-dvi thing that nobody or nothing supports?
Also, make at least sort of affordable.
About time...
I think it'd be amazing if it was a tall mac mini with drive trays in the back kind of like this:
I think it'd be amazing if it was a tall mac mini with drive trays in the back kind of like this:
Very true and so I hope, wanted a Xserve Raid, but they left too quickly. They were so much better than anything else.
Maybe this will provide hope This is what I'm wondering...
If all this is true, any thoughts as to the odds us "early adopters" will get to play as well? (There's precedent with the AppleTV Take 2 update and the iPhone 2.0 software)
I have been eyeing a Drobo like others here.
I have a dedicated home theater with a 110" screen and the works, I really want to go digital and rip my dvd collection to a 3TB+ home server. The big problem for me and my all mac world and many Home Theater pieces of equipment>the adoption of WMV and DLAN. If Apple would just join up and make a Home Media Server, with DVR and DLAN I would drop a grand on a 2TB and up the first day.
I have a dedicated home theater with a 110" screen and the works, I really want to go digital and rip my dvd collection to a 3TB+ home server. The big problem for me and my all mac world and many Home Theater pieces of equipment>the adoption of WMV and DLAN. If Apple would just join up and make a Home Media Server, with DVR and DLAN I would drop a grand on a 2TB and up the first day.
You might want to look into this product.
http://lime-technology.com/
Doesn't do the dvr thing but you can get third party software to do that.
This is of course if apple doesn't come out with something. The only draw back I would see is if the system only has 4 hard drive bays. If you have a dvd collection of size 4-6 terebytes isn't going to handle it. Then add music and now hd content. Yikes.
Add a movie streaming service and this would be an up-to-date product. As it is, I almost never use my 
TV since they put Netflix Watch Instantly on the XBox. It's on Tivo now too, which makes the TV seem like landfill. As far as this rumored product just being a media server...well...that's hardly revolutionary.
TV since they put Netflix Watch Instantly on the XBox. It's on Tivo now too, which makes the TV seem like landfill. As far as this rumored product just being a media server...well...that's hardly revolutionary.Such a box would be ace. I picked up a G4 mac mini a month ago and have it plugged into my plasma. Works very well. My plan is to get a Synology DS207 nas box, put two 750gb hard drives in it and plug it into my router and then stream from that to the mini. From doing my research the Synology is an impressive bit of kit. Drobo looks good too but lacks the built in nas (available as an expensive option I think). The HP box looks good too but a few comments I've read said it doesn't play 100% with macs, in terms of network features.
I was planning on taking the plunge sometime in the next 2 months but I might now wait and see if Apple do release something... It will almost certainly be the replacement for the Mac Mini.
I was planning on taking the plunge sometime in the next 2 months but I might now wait and see if Apple do release something... It will almost certainly be the replacement for the Mac Mini.
Apple was smart to kill the XServe RAID
The Promise RAID (http://www.apple.com/server/storage/) is so much better than the XServe RAID in so many ways.
The Apple box was PATA only, the new one is SAS+SATA.
The Apple box was really two 7 drive arrays - you couldn't make a 14 drive volume.
There was no controller redundancy.
Check the specs on the new unit - http://www.promise.com/apple/raid-spec.html .
The only thing that the XServe RAID was "better" at was that it was about the cheapest per TB of and FC array.
Very true and so I hope, wanted a Xserve Raid, but they left too quickly. They were so much better than anything else.
The Promise RAID (http://www.apple.com/server/storage/) is so much better than the XServe RAID in so many ways.
The Apple box was PATA only, the new one is SAS+SATA.
The Apple box was really two 7 drive arrays - you couldn't make a 14 drive volume.
There was no controller redundancy.
Check the specs on the new unit - http://www.promise.com/apple/raid-spec.html .
The only thing that the XServe RAID was "better" at was that it was about the cheapest per TB of and FC array.
Let's hope any Apple-made Media Server allows both PATA and SATA drives with mixed capacities, to allow people to reuse their old drives. It's more cost-effective and makes for less landfill with hardware which can still be useful.
I have a lot of "small" drives lying around (80GB, etc), because of a lack of bridges/ports.
A note about the MediaSmart - it's not as flexible as the Drobo when adding drives.
- The first drive is the system drive - you can't remove or replace it without reinstalling the OS. It is possible to recover data from duplicated directories, though, after replacing the system drive.
- With Drobo you simply add another disk, or remove a disk and insert a bigger one - there's nothing to do.
- With WHS, after adding a drive you need to go to the web console and select whether to add the drive to the storage pool (or to use it as a server backup device)
- To remove a drive (other than the first) - click the drive and select "remove". After non-redundant files are moved to one of the remaining drives, it will say that the drive can be removed.
On the other hand, the MediaSmart server runs at SATA speeds and GbE rather than USB speeds.
Not likely, that would be a big mess. (And with 1.5TB drives running $130, why bother?)
Note that the MediaSmart (and Drobo) don't have "disk trays" - you slide the SATA drive into the box, and the backplane has the standard SATA connectors. No extra connectors, no extra expense.
To mix SATA and PATA, you'd need to have a carrier with a bridge chip, or two different carriers, or.... yuck.
Get a cheap USB drive box with PATA, and connect those old drives to USB. (...and hope that they aren't on the verge of failing, which is not an insignificant probability.)
I'd buy this too, if it's done right!
The Time Capsule was a good concept, but I passed on it because even if you crammed a 1.5TB drive in one, it still isn't really capable of storing a comprehensive backup of multiple systems, when you own several computers with large drives and lots of media stored on them. (I have 2 1TB drives and a 500GB drive in my Mac Pro, alone.)
Furthermore, without the ability to hold multiple drives and use a RAID configuration, if the drive inside fails, all of your backups are lost. People say "So what? Chances are pretty slim the Time Capsule drive is going to crash at the same time a drive fails in one of your Macs you were backing up!" But that misses the fact that people often accidentally (or purposely!) delete some data, only to realize days or weeks later that they need it back again. A failed backup drive means no chance to recover those types of files anymore.
Products like the Drobo or the Windows Home Server systems would work nicely for all of my needs, except the price is still a little bit too high, and in the case of Windows Home Server - they're still selling you a full-fledged computer to run it on.
A big silver and white box version of a Time Capsule that has slide-out trays for up to 4 SATA drives, configurable via web browser, and capable of automatically rebuilding a failed drive as soon as a replacement is swapped into the tray, would be ideal. (Well, ideally, it would have some new capabilities in its software, too - like uPnP media sharing support so one could view a library of video, photos or music on it from devices like the Playstation 3, as well as sharing media to appear like a shared iTunes library for iTunes users.)
The Time Capsule was a good concept, but I passed on it because even if you crammed a 1.5TB drive in one, it still isn't really capable of storing a comprehensive backup of multiple systems, when you own several computers with large drives and lots of media stored on them. (I have 2 1TB drives and a 500GB drive in my Mac Pro, alone.)
Furthermore, without the ability to hold multiple drives and use a RAID configuration, if the drive inside fails, all of your backups are lost. People say "So what? Chances are pretty slim the Time Capsule drive is going to crash at the same time a drive fails in one of your Macs you were backing up!" But that misses the fact that people often accidentally (or purposely!) delete some data, only to realize days or weeks later that they need it back again. A failed backup drive means no chance to recover those types of files anymore.
Products like the Drobo or the Windows Home Server systems would work nicely for all of my needs, except the price is still a little bit too high, and in the case of Windows Home Server - they're still selling you a full-fledged computer to run it on.
A big silver and white box version of a Time Capsule that has slide-out trays for up to 4 SATA drives, configurable via web browser, and capable of automatically rebuilding a failed drive as soon as a replacement is swapped into the tray, would be ideal. (Well, ideally, it would have some new capabilities in its software, too - like uPnP media sharing support so one could view a library of video, photos or music on it from devices like the Playstation 3, as well as sharing media to appear like a shared iTunes library for iTunes users.)
For me I would want an option for 8 bays also. Sure the price might be a little more but that is what I am looking for.
Funny, you've described the MediaSmart WHS, except that you need to click "add" on the web browser (it won't reformat your drive without you telling it to).
One big feature of the WHS is that you can use the web interface, and you'll never be aware that Windows Server 2003 is running inside the box.
Netflix and "fair use" ....
The fact that we're reduced to quibbling about the length of time someone keeps their copied data as the "qualifier" for if it's legal or illegal activity tells me we're really splitting hairs here.
As far as I'm concerned, our legal system is already overburdened with work to do, handling serious illegal activities that directly threaten human lives. It's counter-productive (and rather pathetic, really) that we've made it a *federal crime* to duplicate some music or movies and hang onto digital copies for a while! Netflix is successful because they give people access to a VAST library of movie content. They're not going to suffer financially if a customer starts ripping and keeping copies of all the discs rented from them. He or she wouldn't be able to rent everything Netflix has available in his/her entire lifetime, most likely!
The ONLY reason this stuff is "illegal" in the first place is thanks to lobbyists working for the big content industries. They decided to try to maximize their profits by letting our police act as their own personal collection agency.
The fact that we're reduced to quibbling about the length of time someone keeps their copied data as the "qualifier" for if it's legal or illegal activity tells me we're really splitting hairs here.
As far as I'm concerned, our legal system is already overburdened with work to do, handling serious illegal activities that directly threaten human lives. It's counter-productive (and rather pathetic, really) that we've made it a *federal crime* to duplicate some music or movies and hang onto digital copies for a while! Netflix is successful because they give people access to a VAST library of movie content. They're not going to suffer financially if a customer starts ripping and keeping copies of all the discs rented from them. He or she wouldn't be able to rent everything Netflix has available in his/her entire lifetime, most likely!
The ONLY reason this stuff is "illegal" in the first place is thanks to lobbyists working for the big content industries. They decided to try to maximize their profits by letting our police act as their own personal collection agency.
Even though I am not a user of the Apple pro apps, I think you are right.
I do not like the direction Apple is moving.
It also applies to the more general products. Remember the iMac DV? This was a product designed for "everyone", but in invited you to be creative! The first affordable non linear editing solution and it worked well and was easy to use. I know a teacher who still uses 3 of them for student projects. But the focus shifts more and more. Non "pro" customers are degraded to "consumers", meaning they should buy media, pay, sit back and watch and keep their mouth shut! More and more appliance like devices that are intentionally locked down and limited in capabilities instead of "open" systems and creative use becomes less and less important. Look at the new Macbooks... FireWire gone, but HDCP came! Or the new iMovie, just more like a "video family album" than an easy to use editing solution...
I am looking at linux more and more. Yes, many things still don't work there. But when something does not work in Linux, I know it is just because no one has done it yet, but with Apple so many things do not work just because Apple does not want them to work.
Christian
Christian,
I know what you're saying, but I don't quite agree that Apple's shift is necessarily a "bad" idea.
I think the majority of people out there really do just want to "buy their media, sit back and watch/enjoy it", and don't care so much about having the tools to create or edit their own.
When the "personal computer" was in its infancy and youth, it was mostly a hobbyist device. People who wanted one were likely to be entertained by having the ability to make the computer do new things. It was all about "How can I COMPUTERIZE this task to make it faster and more efficient?"
Now that we're 30+ years into it, the industry survives and grows only by making the computer into a commodity good that "everybody needs". That market includes the masses who aren't necessarily even very intelligent, and were only sold on that new laptop because it "makes such a cool movie and music player, plus it lets them do email and web stuff!".
Apple is catering to that demographic on the lower end of their product line, and saying "If you want to do more, we ALSO sell a set of professional-grade tools and solutions for you, that you'll probably never outgrow. Yes, they cost more, but if you're any good at what you do - you can easily make content with these tools that compensates you for your initial expense anyway."
If you're really bothered by the fact that a commercial entity dictates what is and isn't available for your platform, then Linux is an EXCELLENT alternative and you should probably look into switching to it. I have nothing against Linux. But frankly, I was a huge advocate of Linux for years, until I started realizing that I'm not interested at all in WRITING software myself. I like just about every aspect of a computer except coding, these days. Linux is a vast landscape of unfinished projects and development tools, really.
Ironically, one of the BEST uses I see for Linux is leveraging it as the core of the dedicated "single purpose" hardware appliances you say you're not fond of.
I know what you're saying, but I don't quite agree that Apple's shift is necessarily a "bad" idea.
I think the majority of people out there really do just want to "buy their media, sit back and watch/enjoy it", and don't care so much about having the tools to create or edit their own.
When the "personal computer" was in its infancy and youth, it was mostly a hobbyist device. People who wanted one were likely to be entertained by having the ability to make the computer do new things. It was all about "How can I COMPUTERIZE this task to make it faster and more efficient?"
Now that we're 30+ years into it, the industry survives and grows only by making the computer into a commodity good that "everybody needs". That market includes the masses who aren't necessarily even very intelligent, and were only sold on that new laptop because it "makes such a cool movie and music player, plus it lets them do email and web stuff!".
Apple is catering to that demographic on the lower end of their product line, and saying "If you want to do more, we ALSO sell a set of professional-grade tools and solutions for you, that you'll probably never outgrow. Yes, they cost more, but if you're any good at what you do - you can easily make content with these tools that compensates you for your initial expense anyway."
If you're really bothered by the fact that a commercial entity dictates what is and isn't available for your platform, then Linux is an EXCELLENT alternative and you should probably look into switching to it. I have nothing against Linux. But frankly, I was a huge advocate of Linux for years, until I started realizing that I'm not interested at all in WRITING software myself. I like just about every aspect of a computer except coding, these days. Linux is a vast landscape of unfinished projects and development tools, really.
Ironically, one of the BEST uses I see for Linux is leveraging it as the core of the dedicated "single purpose" hardware appliances you say you're not fond of.
I beg to differ. I get spammed and phished something awful through MobileMe. Trying this new ointment but haven't noticed a difference.