iTV... what is it?

AgentOrange · #1 December 15th, 2006, 05:53 AM

Hi all, last night I was discussing the pros and cons of buying a PVR against a DVD-recorder with a hard-drive and a mate told me of the Apple iTV box. Unfortunately he didn't really know much about it. What is it and what is it likely to do? Will it be worth waiting for one instead of buying a DVD-recorder or PVR now?

bobw · #2 December 15th, 2006, 08:00 AM

iTV FAQ

AgentOrange · #3 December 15th, 2006, 08:34 AM

Thanks bobw. It certainly sounds like an interesting bit of kit but if I can't record anything onto it it's not really an 'instead of' purchase in relation to a PVR or DVD recorder. Maybe I'll just make do with one of them until the iTV does more.

DeltaMac · #4 December 15th, 2006, 09:05 AM

The final iTV, when released, could be substantially different in both features and appearance. You might be able to record directly from TV, as with a TIVO, and other unknown features might be present.
Apple isn't providing any info since that show 3 months past, and the iTV (or whatever the name really becomes) is not available for sale, and since that initial announcement, which was very unusual for Apple to talk about an unreleased product, no other info has been offered.

**fryke** · #5 December 15th, 2006, 09:43 AM

Certainly doesn't sound like that, though. And Apple's philosophy still is that the Mac's the centre of your digital lifestyle. They want you to have your movies in iTunes, not "somewhere on the network". You could, of course, add PVR function to your Mac using some kind of video-grabber. I guess the question really is what functions you're currently missing in your video setup.

**Captain Code** · #6 December 15th, 2006, 05:51 PM

Since it can stream from your Mac, maybe it can record to it as well? Certainly it wouldn't be much different if they had the tuner in the iTV. As long as the bandwidth is there, which 802.11n will probably be enough for. Certainly 100Mbit or more ethernet would be sufficient.

AgentOrange · #7 December 18th, 2006, 06:21 AM

Yeah, I'm sure it'll be a great bit of kit but I can't see it replacing a PVR or a DVD-recorder if it doesn't have a record facility. I've been reading up about digital TV tuners for my laptop and they seem to have a couple of major flaws. You need to have your computer on and you can't program them to record a show when you're not there and your computer is off. (Or can you?)

**fryke** · #8 December 18th, 2006, 08:42 AM

You'd have to let your computer be on - but you can program them to record. At least there's software that can I hear. But you have to decide now: Is this a rumour/speculation thread about iTV or a thread to help you deciding what to get?

Back on topic of iTV: I really hope it's not just a box streaming video and music from iTunes to a TV set. For that job alone, it's too expensive in my opinion.