Media Center Edition?.

AdmiralAK · #1 January 4th, 2004, 02:36 PM

Here are a few things that have been brewing in my mind for a while now.

Media Center Mac ?
Way back when (1995), when I bought my first mac I remember having an option of getting a TV tuner card for my mac (which I did not, sadly

). TV/FM tuners are nothing new to the computing world, however what we are now seeing is a convergence of the TV/Radio and the computer under the banner of "Windows XP Media Center Edition". These computers are desktops and laptops that have built-in capability of viewing live TV, recording live TV and radio, and doing all other things media related.

The mac, in steve job's words is a digital hub (or so he wanted it to be). The mac *IS* a digital hub. Mobile phones and PDAs connect to it to sync info and access the internet wirelessly. There is a *free* suite of iApps that let you organize your photos and exhibit them in powerpoint-like fashion (iPhoto), there is a media player that allows you to play your DVDs, your digital video files, your digital audio files, listen to digital audio and video webcasts and even buy new *legal* tunes online! (iTunes, DVD player, Quicktime). There are *free* suites for creating digital audio CDs and processing and editing videos to CD or DVD (iMovie & iDVD). So what is missing? The answer is the ability to watch, listen to and record live TV and radio broadcasts (or cable/satelite TV). We are almost there, we *own* a digital hub, why not be able to do this as well in an out-of-the-box fashion without the need to buy extra hardware?

The MacOS now comes packed with bluetooth support, with inkwell if you have a tablet, with iSync to sync all your devices, with a free trial of .Mac and a whole bunch of things that make a users computer life quite enjoyable, why not add a new thing?

Admiral

King Shrek · #2 January 4th, 2004, 03:59 PM

I disagree.

MacOS X already is a Media Center in itself and Apple is adding new media iApps to it all the time. There is no need for a separate MacOS X for media since we already have that.

Though I do think that you are on a good track. How about a separate "Pro" MacOS X for businesses instead?

AdmiralAK · #3 January 4th, 2004, 04:02 PM

you misunderstood me

I am not saying "make another machine that is a 'media center' like mac" I am saying "we already have a media center, why not add TV capability built in"

King Shrek · #4 January 4th, 2004, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdmiralAK

you misunderstood me

I am not saying "make another machine that is a 'media center' like mac" I am saying "we already have a media center, why not add TV capability built in"

Oh yes. Of course. Why not?

Pengu · #5 January 4th, 2004, 04:18 PM

but what would you add? RF-Tuner? thats old and crappy. HDTV/Widescreen Digital tuner? what about compatibility. I think its pretty clear stevo doesn't want to venture into tv just yet..

AdmiralAK · #6 January 4th, 2004, 09:13 PM

There exist 3 analog standards PAL, NTSC and SECAM. use those since they are not going to be phased out for a while. Digital standards have not panned out yet.

Total Konfuzion · #7 January 21st, 2004, 03:22 PM

that would be very cool....even a g4 cube type mac that could have that built in, much like the SFF pcs that are all the rage now. We already have the OS for it...might as well use it to it's fullest potential.

malexgreen · #8 February 11th, 2004, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AdmiralAK

you misunderstood me

I am not saying "make another machine that is a 'media center' like mac" I am saying "we already have a media center, why not add TV capability built in"

In the 20th anniversay addition of Macworld magazine, Steve Jobs is asked in an interview about Media Center PC's.

He basically says that whenever the industry has tried to combine the PC with the TV, the effort failed in the market. He says the reason is because when a person wants to use a PC, he/she wants to use it about 1ft away from themself, and he/she wants to use it to cut his/her brain on. When a person wants to use a TV, they want to use it at about 10ft away, and want to use it to cut his/her brain off.

However he admits that in the future he sees Macs sending videos/music/media created on the Mac wirelessly to a TV set.

BTW, have you seen any of these media center PC's, especially the notebook brands? They are monstrosities. Toshiba has a media center notebook that weights over 7 pounds, I think, and has poor battery life, but it can record TV shows like a Tivo box, but it costs nearly 2K. Why not buy a powerbook for 1599 and a top-of the line Tivo and save yourself money and still be able to send your pictures to your Tivo box?

I think that Apple should partner with a Tivo or Realplay, and other consumer electronics companies, and Hollywood to create interoperability standards that will enable Apple to open up a Quicktime Movie store. This would be a store where you could download SD or for a premium HD quality movies using your Mac to your Tivo box using Rendevous/wireless. That way you can still have a notebook optimized for notebook features, but still serves as a distribution center for your media applications.

You could also transport your iTunes Music Store media or other songs and other personally created media to your TV or wirelessly enabled stereo system. But Apple will have to partner with consumer electronics companies to make this happen. Or maybe Apple could make their own set top boxes to enable this type of scheme, where they provide the content through a Mac intelligent client/media gateway (a ibook,imac, or powerbook/mac using Tivo for storage) and distribute it to their dumb thin clients that control their consumer electronics devices, like their TV or stereo. Who knows, maybe this is in the works.