Front Row on iPod

chevy

Marvelous Da Vinci
Staff member
Mod
The real place for Front Row is not the iMac, it is the iPod !

The iPod can now carry music, video and pictures. It can be controlled with the Apple Remote (using the universal adapter). With 60 GB of HD, it is sufficient to carry all my music and several film with TV resolution. So that, by adding Front Row to the iPod, the iPod become the media center. No need for another iMac, or just to rip the CD and buy from iTMS.

But the media center is the remote controlled iPod.
 
i'm starting to get ipod / imac / front row fatigue.

too many threads about the same subject - the idea of the ipod acting as the 'media centre' was bought up just before the special event and a few times in other threads too.
 
well one can actually do this, except without front row, but basically you can control the ipod from far away and play music, photos, and videos from the sofa, pretty neat stuff. Might be for those not wanting to spend $1299 on a new imac.

But hey this does exactly the same thing as frontrow, except for the dvds.

Apple Univeral Dock and Remote
 
sorry for parb.johal, we discussed it a lot before, now it is !

yes WhiteSaint. Exactly what I meant as I am not investing in the new iMac right now, but I may have this major functionality with "only" a large iPod, that's 50% of the cost of the iMac.
 
front row needs to be on the mac mini...the first multimedia PC for under $500

take a Mac mini, include the Front Row software; an IR sensor for the Remote; an optical audio output for connecting to your home theater system; and an S-Video output for connecting to your TV (in case your TV won’t take DVI), and you’ve got a compact, easy to use “home media center"

I think apple and co are just testing the waters in the home media center pc's with the iMac, and will be included on the next revision of the mac mini (jan/feb next year)
 
Why not a Mac mini with embedded iPod connector ?

Take your music in your car... or play it at home.

The iPod would be the personal disk (home folder) that can be carried from location to location.

The local hard disk would be used for the applications, the OS and as a backup for personal files.
 
What I'd like to know is will Front Row only be availbale on new Macs or will it be sold seperately with the remote and IR receiver so all Macs can use it?
This will eventually be a sore point among users if it won't be.
 
Well, if it's going to be sold as BTO option for all new Mac models, it's going to be okay, I'd say. I certainly hope we won't see a lot of "I'll leave Apple now that they don't make FrontRow for my 200x Mac model..." That'd remind me too much of all those "why can't I have XY on my older-generation iPod..." threads. It's Apple's choice really. To some extent, you can already buy the functionality with Salling's Clicker software and a BT mobile phone.
 
Well it's bound to happen as many are going to argue that particularly those that are taking a wait and see attitude on new purchases knowing that these current updates may be the last or second to last before the x86 switchover.
 
chevy said:
The real place for Front Row is not the iMac, it is the iPod !

The iPod can now carry music, video and pictures. It can be controlled with the Apple Remote (using the universal adapter). With 60 GB of HD, it is sufficient to carry all my music and several film with TV resolution. So that, by adding Front Row to the iPod, the iPod become the media center. No need for another iMac, or just to rip the CD and buy from iTMS.

But the media center is the remote controlled iPod.
I say the Mini is better suited to the task for now until some new media device is introduced that will be able to handle HD with ease.
 
Hm. An Apple AirPort SuperExtreme SetTopBox with a big harddrive (and the option of extending that space via FW drives) that can stream content from your Macs to the TV and from cable/satellite to its drive to which you have access through AirPort? A "do it all" kind of thing? I don't think it'll happen, but I'd sure _like_ such a device...
 
chevy said:
The real place for Front Row is not the iMac, it is the iPod !

With 60 GB of HD, it is sufficient to carry all my music and several film with TV resolution. So that, by adding Front Row to the iPod, the iPod become the media center.

What a great idea! I reckon that would give the "home media center" edge to Apple over Microsoft. That would really be funny too. I Think Microsoft are making a real big mistake these days! They should be concentrating on their core business, there all over the place.

And then there should be BlueTooth or Wireless networking in the iPod so you could tune it into your tv (through the Airport) and start doing those things (Music, Movies, Photos) like a remote control.

But then is this getting a little to far out?


.
 
like i said before, i think apple is just testing the waters with front row, and it's going to be avaiable on all macs with their next update except the portables.
 
Yes, it's testing the market. But probably not for older machines.
 
I have the last generation ipod too which can only display only photos, and it doesnt appear that the universal dock and remote work with our 4G color ipods. But I think it's inevitable that FrontRow will eventually be built on all macs, but just their flagship product first. We thought the same thing when the nano had new features the 4G ipod didn't have, but now the 5G ipod is updated with the same features as the nano, like not even a month later..
 
RGrphc2 said:
like i said before, i think apple is just testing the waters with front row, and it's going to be avaiable on all macs with their next update except the portables.

Why take out the portables? I'm just asking because actually, my PowerBook _is_ my home media center. I record stuff using a DVD+RW recorder. I then rip those to my PowerBook, creating MPEG-4 movies. Connected to my video beamer, the thing's great. Why shouldn't I use my _next_ PowerBook with FrontRow? Only because it's mobile? I think they'll either do it on all Macs or just release an add-on set you can buy for any Mac.
 
i never thought about it like that fryke... :D

most windows media centers are desktop pc's not that many laptops come equipped with that capability...
 
Ah yes, coming from that side, I understand that. However: Even Microsoft thinks that every PC and notebook should have their Media Center capabilities and is going to bring some of the features to all Vista versions.
 
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