theappleblog.com— A side-by-side comparison of the benefits and drawbacks of using the Apple TV or Mac mini as a home entertainment system.
Jan 16, 2007View in Crawl 4
Here?s what the comparison should really be (let?s make it apples to apples): First, assume that the prospective buyer already has another Mac in the house that will do normal computer stuff, and this purchase will act specifically as a streaming media server. Let?s also assume that Apple will introduce a Core 2 Duo Mini with 802.11n networking at the same $599 price point in the near future.NOW, compare the Mini at $599 to an AppleTV at $299 plus a new Airport Base Station at $199 plus a small hard drive? around 100GB for $100. For just about the exact same price, how do they compare?- they both can run headless/keyboardless/mouseles (VNC on the Mini)- they both can easily stream media to a TV and stereo- they both can broadcast a wireless network and share an internet connection (see system prefs/sharing on the Mini)- they both contain small hard drives that are easily accessed by the desktop Mac for backups, media storage, etc- they both can display live and archived TV on the television (the Mini uses an EyeTV unit, the AppleTV sits next to a TiVo that can export recordings to iTunes with the new Toast software)Basically it?s a wash? one is very nearly as good as another. The real difference this highlights is a philosophical one. The Mini approach (which I?ve embraced, btw) is your standard ?media server.? Google ?iServe? for some thoughts on this from a few years ago, or look at the product M$ announced at CES.Rather than sell an iServe, Apple (rightly I think) questioned the very premise of the product. If there?s a big powerful desktop that can do all sorts of normal computer work, including media creation and transcoding; and if that computer is on a superfast wireless network; and if you can hook your TV up to that network to grab and play media from the desktop computer; then why centralize? It?s unnecessary, and unnecessarily complicated for the average Joe.As I said, I personally choose the centralized, Mini-based option. My home server is great. But I definitely see the value in Apple?s decentralized strategy.
The whole point of the Apple TV is to sell movies and TV shows via the iTunes store. Providing DVR/PVR functionality wouldn't provide a revenue stream for Apple, so why should they do it?
What really sucks is there's not a lot of point in owning one outside of America.Sure [In England] I can download music videos from the store (yay), I can watch my home videos on it (whoopee), or I can spend an age downloading TV shows & Movies from P2P and then converting them to a format that iTunes will like, but then they won't show up in the TV shows section of iTunes anyway (unless anyone knows how to do that, cos I haven't got it to work).The networks want people to not pirate their shows, stop faffing about with rights and make the damn things available somewhere other than the US!!!!
@meadot01and@CanceledCzechI think you guys are thinking of the media center extender built into the Xbox360, what we are talking about here is the software XBMC that can be installed on the original Xbox if it has been hacked. And no I can't turn the original Xbox on from the controller. A while back I wired the internals to be able to turn it on using a button on a modified Xbox Live headset adapter but I don't have that adapter anymore.
And that, my rude friend, is why I asked for pics... My lack of knowledge on this particular subject coupled with my knowledge of other models of macs past and present made me think that this didn't make sense. Why call me a moron for asking for pics and explaining why I was asking for pics?This is yet more evidence that people on this site have the reading and comprehension age of around 12.
subtledoctorJan 17, 2007
Here?s what the comparison should really be (let?s make it apples to apples): First, assume that the prospective buyer already has another Mac in the house that will do normal computer stuff, and this purchase will act specifically as a streaming media server. Let?s also assume that Apple will introduce a Core 2 Duo Mini with 802.11n networking at the same $599 price point in the near future.NOW, compare the Mini at $599 to an AppleTV at $299 plus a new Airport Base Station at $199 plus a small hard drive? around 100GB for $100. For just about the exact same price, how do they compare?- they both can run headless/keyboardless/mouseles (VNC on the Mini)- they both can easily stream media to a TV and stereo- they both can broadcast a wireless network and share an internet connection (see system prefs/sharing on the Mini)- they both contain small hard drives that are easily accessed by the desktop Mac for backups, media storage, etc- they both can display live and archived TV on the television (the Mini uses an EyeTV unit, the AppleTV sits next to a TiVo that can export recordings to iTunes with the new Toast software)Basically it?s a wash? one is very nearly as good as another. The real difference this highlights is a philosophical one. The Mini approach (which I?ve embraced, btw) is your standard ?media server.? Google ?iServe? for some thoughts on this from a few years ago, or look at the product M$ announced at CES.Rather than sell an iServe, Apple (rightly I think) questioned the very premise of the product. If there?s a big powerful desktop that can do all sorts of normal computer work, including media creation and transcoding; and if that computer is on a superfast wireless network; and if you can hook your TV up to that network to grab and play media from the desktop computer; then why centralize? It?s unnecessary, and unnecessarily complicated for the average Joe.As I said, I personally choose the centralized, Mini-based option. My home server is great. But I definitely see the value in Apple?s decentralized strategy.
mlehJan 17, 2007
The whole point of the Apple TV is to sell movies and TV shows via the iTunes store. Providing DVR/PVR functionality wouldn't provide a revenue stream for Apple, so why should they do it?
mattgroverJan 17, 2007
@DollaDollaBillInstead of whinging about it, just ignore them and stop wasting your own time by burying and writing whiny comments. >:/
mattgroverJan 17, 2007
What really sucks is there's not a lot of point in owning one outside of America.Sure [In England] I can download music videos from the store (yay), I can watch my home videos on it (whoopee), or I can spend an age downloading TV shows & Movies from P2P and then converting them to a format that iTunes will like, but then they won't show up in the TV shows section of iTunes anyway (unless anyone knows how to do that, cos I haven't got it to work).The networks want people to not pirate their shows, stop faffing about with rights and make the damn things available somewhere other than the US!!!!
cjschmidtJan 17, 2007
leoxnxThat's very cool looking. Definitely competition for the aTV - especially for that price.
kisstheringJan 18, 2007
@meadot01and@CanceledCzechI think you guys are thinking of the media center extender built into the Xbox360, what we are talking about here is the software XBMC that can be installed on the original Xbox if it has been hacked. And no I can't turn the original Xbox on from the controller. A while back I wired the internals to be able to turn it on using a button on a modified Xbox Live headset adapter but I don't have that adapter anymore.
localzukJan 18, 2007
And that, my rude friend, is why I asked for pics... My lack of knowledge on this particular subject coupled with my knowledge of other models of macs past and present made me think that this didn't make sense. Why call me a moron for asking for pics and explaining why I was asking for pics?This is yet more evidence that people on this site have the reading and comprehension age of around 12.
tregotrogoDec 17, 2008
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