Mac Mini to become a digital hub?

i've never seen anything like an eliteism towards minis/quad-core g5's.

the mini is a very capable computer, it's very stylish, and both a design and price breakthrough. many people have mini's on here.
 
What type of media centre are we talking about? Sitting beneath the family television? Hidden away in a cupboard piping television/movies/music/images etc. around the house? Can't speak for the rest of the globe but I do know that the majority of Irish adults find programming a VCR challenging! Apple would have to work some magic in order to break into the living room outside the usual geeks/early adopters/ tech literate crowd.
 
well this is why P/DVR solutions look so good - recording something on one is ten times simpler than prgramming a vcr: as simple as finding the program you want in the tv guide. on a sky+ box (british tivo) you just press the record button on the remote when you're looking at the program you want.

if apple did one, it very likely that it'll be the best solution on the market
 
Think secret and macrumors are stating that apple may be utilising the .mac resource to further enhance this method. After all, it would be a good for apple revenue with .mac memberships, and secondly be much more secure than allowing content to be downloaded to your computer HD.

Think Secret states that the media will be loaded to your iDisk. But i can't see apple giving everyone 200GB space per $99.95! However, i can see apple having a media server where the media data would reside, and then members would purchase a movie to have access to that movie via their .mac membership, Front Row would be utilised to access the video data on Apples media servers through your .mac membership as verification and purchase history.

Thats how i see it could be done, if .mac was combined into this. Not to mention the possibilities if every home user spending that $99.95 per year, now i also wonder if that would include movies or not. If so, id have to say bye bye to the video store down the road and hello to the apple video store online.


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fjdouse said:
...but if it only plays videos which are compatible with Quicktime...it will be useless for my own needs, I have to rely on VLC.
Click to expand...

yikes, I never thought of that. Hopefully someone can clarify, but I'd be betting good money on it only allowing Quicktime-Compatible movies. That could be a deal breaker for me I think.
 
All you'd have to do is install Flip4Mac, a QuickTime plugin, and you can play virtually all WMV and WMA's.
 
kainjow said:
All you'd have to do is install Flip4Mac, a QuickTime plugin, and you can play virtually all WMV and WMA's.
Click to expand...

mmh, costs though, and I've never (in all my years) had a need to play either of those formats, I'm thinking of Divx, Xvid etc. which have to be 'doctored' to play - no good for me. I simply could not use the huge collection I have without VLC, Front Row won't cut it - unless it can use third-party players??


Mr Cheese man, I'm thanking the cheese right now... ;-)
 
oh, and i'm elitist alright. ;) but i ain't got a g5 and i've got nothing against eMac or Mac mini or iBook users. not at all... but i must say: i don't see such an elitist way on the board... maybe we'd really have to discuss that in private messages. (now _that'd_ make it elitist, in some way, eh?) ;)
 
Software company Geniecommands last Thursday released an exciting new Macintosh software program designed to give users more control and fun over their digital entertainment experiences in their lounge room.
GenieCommands is a unique programmable software application that allows you to control all your applications and media via simple menus and a KEYSPAN REMOTE, in a theatre or lounge room environment.

Genie is not a one stop solution like Front Row, it is more user definable and can do more with iTunes. It's about audio and good cheap content is what we want. We know Apple will take Front Row further and we love what they have done with the first version, so we have incorporate it into our software on top of the first menu so nobody misses out.

Future upgrades to Geniecommands in the coming weeks will include a Themes importer. There has also been suggestion of an small screen version in the near future.
So dip your toes in the water is warming for the Mac Media Center.
www.Geniecommands.com
 
it's a nice idea, but one look at it put me off. it's not apple at all. it looks like a powerpoint presentation. shoddy.
 
Plus we don't allow cheap advertisment like this here. Please read the board rules.
 
Sorry about the post but we are looking to engadge the Mac community not to sit and wait for Apple to do it all or there will be no choice. It's not Powerpoint, Geniecommands can run Applescripts.

Front Row is only a small part of the solution. Using iTunes to catalogue your videos is just wrong. Also content is streamed in more formats than Quicktime, although no were as high quality as Apple it uses less bandwidth and there is alot of it out there.

At least this forum is alive.
 
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