Does this thread remind anyone of
the original iPod thread?
"gee! an mp3 player with a HD! how original! kinda reminds me of a JUKEBOX i once knew."
vs.
"What a disappointment... I guess Apple is just trying to stave off the competition from the media capabilities of Windows Media Center and XBOX."
--
"There are already two products similar to this on the market. The Nomad Jukebox and the Archos Jukebox which can come with a 20 gig HD [4x the storage]. Apple is playing catch-up."
vs.
"When this thing surpasses the capabilities of my Windows media center and Xbox 360 combo then I will be impressed. Until then Apple is playing catch up to MCE and playing it poorly."
--
"I have a Nomad Jukebox with a 6gig hardrive and it only cost me $250. It works great and syncs fine with the computer and the transfer is relativley fast. I don't know what the big deal is. So...it works well with apple's software....big deal, anyone can do that. There is nothing there of interest."
vs.
"Yawn. How is this any different than my DSM-520 running along side my TVersity sever? It can handle just about every single codec/format I throw at it and is linked via usb 2.0 to my 500GB Western Digital MyBook. Yes Divx, TS, VOD, Pictures, Music, you name it. The D-Link was under $200...and released nearly a whole year before this locked down proprietary (you know it will definitely not be supporting the UPnP AV / DLNA standard) iTV nonesense. This is nothing new people...we've been streaming media from servers to our TVs for quite some time"
--
"Not revolutionary. Big capacity mp3 players already exist. With Creative Labs' entrance into the firewire arena, future nomads will have similar specs and better prices."
vs.
"For $300 I built a Windows MCE box that plays back 1080i content flawlessly thanks to an GeForce 6600 and Nvidia's excellent Purevideo decoder which means GPU-assisted decoding negating the need for an expensive CPU. Doesn't get any better than MCE + MyMovies right now, sorry."
--
yeah... clearly the options out there are amazing! Just go purchase a gaming console and configure the network for it, set up some streaming content from your PC and you're good to go. Nevermind the fact that the interface isn't built for this content, the setup is horrendous, the device is loud and huge, it won't stream iTunes content, and it costs the same. Better yet, build your own! Now we're talking the 90% case!
I think those that understand that folks who start subscribing to season passes, downloading content to iTunes, importing DVDs on their machines... these are the folks this device will work for. Without any extra work, it's now available on your TV. Subscribe to the daily show? $10/month and you have every episode in the living room.
I understand the use and necessity of DVRs at the current moment in time, but the concept exists only due to a restriction from the existing state of media. 300+ channels, all scheduled out by 30-minute time slots? This is a relic of an old era. I have a TiVO and I love it, but I can see the future is away from this, and this device puts apple right there ready for it.