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Apple Provides Sneak Peak Of Media Center

I bought a DVI->S-Video adapter for $15 and an S-Video cable for about $20. Guess what. I can watch TV shows and movies downloaded to my hard drive on my TV. Sooooo.... $35 vs. $300. Let me see.

I realize they are saying that you're getting high-def, and it's wireless, but I have a hard time believing that a movie you can download in a half hour will be as good of quality as a DVD which is nearly 8gb in size. And yes, I realize part of those 8gb are extras and such, which of course you won't be getting even though you are paying close to what you would pay for a brand new DVD. Also, I have wires running all over the place already (cable, phone, speakers, electrical, etc.) so one more wire isn't killing me.

I'm sure there will be people that buy into this. How many? I predict very few.
 
Using Mac mini as media centre

I am looking forward to the specs of this device
I bought a Mac Mini and found that it would not show up on my Acer 24" tv while running as a mac but would if I booted up as a PC - I checked resolution and refresh rate when working as a PC and replicated it when in Mac mode but to no effect.
Has anyone else had problems like this?
I tried using DVI and VGA and the same with both - worked as a PC but not as a Mac.
Also interested in the new device as to whether it will read my Iphoto libraries?
Any sound advice appreciated!!
 
danielwsmithee said:
It's already there they call it export to iPod.
Click to expand...

Well there you go. But I assume it's converting the video to the low res format that the ipod can play. Do they have an export option that keeps it at the same quality it was recorded at?
 
motulist said:
Apple gave a sneak peak of an upcoming product. Is that a flying pig I see out my window?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Well, also, "iTV" is sort of completely unexpected. A hardware release by Apple unhyped? That would make two pigs flying outside my window.
 
Phat Elvis said:
Wouldn't you rather pay for only the shows that you watch?
Click to expand...

Movies, maybe.

But if you are going to be charging me for every news, weather, sports, or entertainment program that I watch on a daily basis it is going to have to be a lot, lot, less than paying for satellite / cable and watching what I want.

I think the current price for satellite / cable is reasonable but if a service is going to charge me per show, they would have to charge pennies for it. Otherwise it just wouldn't be competitive price-wise.
 
I just hope it gets hacked so 3rd parties can add functionality to it. (unlike front row)

video chat
screen savers
3rd party applications
RSS
3rd party streaming media formats
keyboard and mouse.
larger remotes.
 
danielwsmithee said:
The other this thing plays HD not SD like the eyeHome.

.
Click to expand...
I have seen this stated a few time - but not stated anywhere by apple.
All I picked up form SJ was " we are pleased with the quality"
People seem to be deducing that the demo was showing HD quality, but it was not claimed as such I dont think.
Have to wonder if that will be available over the wireless connection as well or maybe just if you hard wire through the ethernet port.
I think there would have been something specific stated if iTV was going to allow streaming of HD video.

Drew
 
It needs DVR recording for this price point. As someone else mentioned earlier, I can use a $5 cable to connect my computer to my TV. It need something else that will make me want to spend the extra $244 on it. Either that, or apple needs to stop touting the iMac as a media PC because the TV will compete with it.
 
puuukeey said:
I just hope it gets hacked so 3rd parties can add functionality to it. (unlike front row)

video chat
screen savers
3rd party applications
RSS
3rd party streaming media formats
keyboard and mouse.
larger remotes.
Click to expand...
Get a Mac mini.
 
Phat Elvis said:
This is the perfect device for Apple to start selling subscriptions to shows to replace cable. Wouldn't you rather pay for only the shows that you watch?
Click to expand...

You are absolutely correct!

Repeat after me...there will NEVER be a DVR from Apple...there will NEVER be a DVR from Apple...there will NEVER be a DVR from Apple...there will NEVER be a DVR from Apple...there will NEVER be a DVR from Apple...there will NEVER be a DVR from Apple...there will NEVER be a DVR from Apple...

Apple does not want you to record television. They want you to purchase shows from iTunes! Case in point iTV.

As fas as wouldn't I rather pay for only the shows I watch? Sure! But Apple's current pricing is much to prohibitive. It's cheaper for me to pay $50 a month for DirecTV with the HD option than to pay $2 a pop per tiny 320x240 (oops, excuse me 640x480) episode. The price needs to come down and the quality needs to go up (again) for me to ditch DirecTV. I would be happy to do it, if the price/quality meets my needs. Maybe by 2008?
 
Coverage Highlights - from the live event

I've just got back from the live streamed event in London and summarised the key highlights of the show here:

http://blog.crowdstorm.com

I wish I'd had my camera now. I did have a chance to play with all the products (except iTV) and must say the ipods look a lot smaller and the iTunes interface is very slick. iTV was basically a flat apple mini with lots of connectors out the back for the TV - no one could convince us that the 640x480 would be enough for HDTV or which wireless protocol it would use.
 
Need sports

I'd like nothing better than to be able to dump Comcast completely, but without the ability to watch live sports, it's a no-go. If they start streaming games for a couple bucks, I'd definitely take a look at it.

-- Any regular-season game from any sport = $1.99

-- Any playoff game from any sport = $2.99

-- NFL season pass (1 team, 16 games) = $30
-- add all playoff games, all teams = $20

-- NBA season pass (1 team, 60-70 games) = $50
-- add all playoff games, all teams = $30

-- MLB season pass (1 team, 130-150 games) = $70
-- add all playoff games, all teams = $30

-- Triple Play bundle (3 seasons of any sport, 1 team each, plus all playoff games) = $200

I would definitely go for that!
 
Drewnrupe said:
I have seen this stated a few time - but not stated anywhere by apple.
All I picked up form SJ was " we are pleased with the quality"
People seem to be deducing that the demo was showing HD quality, but it was not claimed as such I dont think.
Click to expand...

Well it was just "sneak peak".

You are right that Apple has not specifically said anything yet, but I think it is safe to assume that if it contains a HDMI connection that it will eventually support HD.

However, iTunes is not supporting HD yet. They only mention 640x480 as the highest resolution.
 
wireless is useless for watching movies. I use my mac now to get videos from NAS servers and wireless doesn't cut it. I need to be going 100 or else it gets choppy. Unless they release a new wireless access point.
 
milo said:
Which cost what, five times what this will cost? The stuff you have will never go mainstream, it's way too expensive.


Because that would be far more expensive, with little potential to get cheaper. Something based on a full computer would never get cheap enough to really catch on.
Click to expand...

Whoa there! Setting up a media center / 360 extender setup is far from 5x the price of the iTV. As a matter of fact, the 360 is the SAME price as the iTV, 299$.

You of course will need a media center pc to make this work, but you need a pc/mac to make the iTV work as well, so thats an added expense on either side.

Oh, did I mention the 360 plays some REALLY fun games? (Dead rising :D)

Actually I could probably do both methods for around the same price, (900 ish) but with the Media Center you get true TIVO capability, all from your couch. Trust me, it works, and it works well.

That said, I applaud apple for trying, but they have a ways to go in this area. One of the things keeping me from the big switch.
 
jvegas said:
Will it support third party codecs?
Does it have an internal flash drive?
Will I be able to order Music, TV shows and Movies using it?
Do I need a separate computer to use it?

So far, I'm not impressed. How's it different than a media extender?
Click to expand...

I don't know why it wouldn't. Isn't iTunes basically and interface for Quicktime? I would imagine anything one can play in QT, you can play through this.

All it is is Apple's version of a media extender. I would, however, like an optical drive, but I can't see the price staying at $299 if they add Blu Ray. Otherwise, I think it's a fair price for a quality piece of equipment. Roku's SoundBridge M2000 is $299. For the same price I get to also sent 1080p content to my home theatre. Sign me up.
 
I want live pause

alexdrinan said:
Seems to me this could be done without Apple having to open up Front Row. If Elgato added some sort of "export recording to iTunes Video Library" option (that also deletes the original file after export completes), you could have your stuff recording on your mac and ready to stream to iTV. I'd imagine you could also set up some sort of Smart Playlist in iTunes to show unwatched recordings that carries over to the iTV interface.
Click to expand...


I have a Sony HD-DVR I use to pause live HDTV as well as record. While having a Elgato tuner hooked up to the mac and recording programs there and then streaming it to the iTV box is doable, you won't be able to pause live TV. That is the kind of integration Apple needs to bring to the table. Even if they don't want to make this iTV expensive, they should just let you record to your computer from your TV. So the hard drive could be on the computer but the tuner and program selection has to be available on iTV. Almost like VNC.

Another idea is a DVD drive on iTV. This drive should let users play normal DVD as well as iTunes movies bought DVD. The DRM can be maintained by authenicating against the store when you play. This way, normal people can burn their movie purchases to DVD or keep them in their hard drive. Their choice. They could even let iTunes move the movie to a disk to make room. For example, let us say you run out of HD space on your computer that you use to buy movies. Now you tell iTunes to move a movie to a disk. iTunes guides the user to create a DVD backup. Then it automatically makes space on the HD. However, the iTunes library keeps the information about this movie in its database so that it is available through Frontrow on the Mac itself or another device like iTV. When the user tries to play that movie, it says insert the disk. Now the user can insert the disk into iTV and voila play. This is an ideal balance between DRM, online purchases, data backup, etc.

Movie studios don't mind because the DVDs created by iTunes 7 will only play on computers or iTV for which the purchase has been authenticated.

I would assume this box is running an OS smarter than the iPod so it should not be hard to add all these features especially since it is not yet ready!
 
HiRez said:
I'd like nothing better than to be able to dump Comcast completely, but without the ability to watch live sports, it's a no-go. If they start streaming games for a couple bucks, I'd definitely take a look at it.

-- Any regular-season game from any sport = $1.99

-- Any playoff game from any sport = $2.99

-- NFL season pass (1 team, 16 games) = $30
-- add all playoff games, all teams = $20

-- NBA season pass (1 team, 60-70 games) = $50
-- add all playoff games, all teams = $30

-- MLB season pass (1 team, 130-150 games) = $70
-- add all playoff games, all teams = $30

-- Triple Play bundle (3 seasons of any sport, 1 team each, plus all playoff games) = $200

I would definitely go for that!
Click to expand...

Dream On!

The NFL charges $199.00 for Sunday Ticket and an additonal $100.00 for HD content of only some of the games. They would never let live games be streamed for $30 for an entire season.

Think about it! Even WWF phoney wrestling commands $50.00 a pop on pay-per-view.
 
200paul said:
There's no need for DVR functionality. Apple will replace your cable subscription. You just subsribe to the shows you want and al la carte other shows after that. Networks will probably even do the season premieres free to get you hooked or add sponsor the shows to make them free. TV on demand is obviously the next wave - even the cable companies know it and have on demand etc. I mean not to be racist but I'm happy to stop paying comcast for the 10+ stations that are in languages I don't even speak. I barely speak english - hahaha.

In conclusion - its the same data - just different timing.
Click to expand...

Here is something I saw today for the first time. Cable TV to your IP address.

http://www.mobitv.com/

Low priced too for what it does.

Rocketman
 
apple.com?

is apple.com not loading for anyone else? it was fine before with the new content, now everything in the middle is missing. /itunes /ipod still work like they should. weird.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
It needs DVR recording for this price point. As someone else mentioned earlier, I can use a $5 cable to connect my computer to my TV. It need something else that will make me want to spend the extra $244 on it. Either that, or apple needs to stop touting the iMac as a media PC because the TV will compete with it.
Click to expand...

maybe if it came with a calculator
 
Wasnt Steve Jobs demo of the Incredibles movie through iTV in HD?

Since the iTV has HDMI and Component it leads me to belive that it will handle HD as well as SD content.
 
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