There's a product for Windows called the XCard from Sigma Designs (http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/xcard.htm) that's an Mpeg/Divx decoder card with S-Video and audio outputs, which you plug in a television. When installed with the drivers, the card basically "hijacks" the playing of any Mpeg/Mpeg2 or Divx file (or playing a DVD in the DVD-ROM drive) and routes the signal to your television. (The window on the computer looks the same, only there's a green square where the picture would normally go... but Windows Media player or whatever is still on your desktop)
I'm basically trying to figure out a scenario to do the same thing with an iMac (such as the new one... haven't bought it yet, this is just theoretical).
I'm fully aware that there are VGA to TV converters and so forth, but all those devices take your monitor's signal and convert it to a TV signal, which is NOT what the XCard does. In the case of Hardware Mpeg decoders like the XCard, the card is basically the guts of a DVD player, so the picture on your TV looks no different than if you hooked up a settop DVD player to the TV. The desktop for your computer is still visible on the computer. There's no conversion or crossover going on.
So far I can't seem to find anything like this for the Mac and I don't know if it exists. I do own an EyeHome, which reverses the process by having standalone hardware read a file off the Mac and play it to a TV, which isn't exactly the same thing. Elgato.com, who makes the EyeHome, has another product called MacConnect which seems to be really close as well, but it's just a software SDK for other hardware vendors to implement.
Since a PCI card can't be put into an iMac, my best guess is that if a product did exist, it would be an external box hooked up via USB2 or Firewire for the bandwidth, and have SVideo/Audio outs from the box.
Any ideas?
I'm basically trying to figure out a scenario to do the same thing with an iMac (such as the new one... haven't bought it yet, this is just theoretical).
I'm fully aware that there are VGA to TV converters and so forth, but all those devices take your monitor's signal and convert it to a TV signal, which is NOT what the XCard does. In the case of Hardware Mpeg decoders like the XCard, the card is basically the guts of a DVD player, so the picture on your TV looks no different than if you hooked up a settop DVD player to the TV. The desktop for your computer is still visible on the computer. There's no conversion or crossover going on.
So far I can't seem to find anything like this for the Mac and I don't know if it exists. I do own an EyeHome, which reverses the process by having standalone hardware read a file off the Mac and play it to a TV, which isn't exactly the same thing. Elgato.com, who makes the EyeHome, has another product called MacConnect which seems to be really close as well, but it's just a software SDK for other hardware vendors to implement.
Since a PCI card can't be put into an iMac, my best guess is that if a product did exist, it would be an external box hooked up via USB2 or Firewire for the bandwidth, and have SVideo/Audio outs from the box.
Any ideas?