Comments on: New Apple TV to be a Mac mini with Blu-ray

By: ElGatoHater

ElGatoHater — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:20:29 +0000

ElGato Sucks. Use SageTV.

By: skrames

skrames — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:38:45 +0000

Make it double wide to also make it a "Time Capsule." Now that would be a media center.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:40:54 +0000

Sorry Sunny Guy, but it’s not an either/or thing. Your argument would be the equivalent of “I’ll go with the college studnet’s art rather than Mondrian because the student’s themes are just as valid.

By: Sunny Guy

Sunny Guy — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:43:13 +0000

You know you’re ignorant, when you post comments like that one. Maybe you were just having a bad day, eh?

Sunny Guy

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:49:06 +0000

You know you’re pretentious when you use words like “films.”

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:16:32 +0000

I don’t rent from appletv because old releases still rent for $3.99 when they should be like $0.99

By: miguel

miguel — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:53:11 +0000

Hi there,

I am a total ignorant on most of this, but I was thinking about buying and using a mac mini to conect to my TV/HT projector. The problem I found is I had to buy a DVD/Blue ray player on top of the mac mini, making the whole set up not only more expensive but also a lot more messy connections and cable wise. Then I had an illumination and googled “mac mini with blue ray”, and voila!!! I found this post. I think it is a perfect solution. Everything you need in one (small) piece. omen are going to love it

Regards from sunny spain.

By: spiffyone

spiffyone — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:07:14 +0000

Oh, and using the iPhone/touch as a Remote/controller SEEMS like a good idea…but it really isn’t.

Why?

Extra cost for the end consumer. It may be SUPPORTED, but it won’t be STANDARD. And that’s a big issue. However, I could see Apple making a new standard Remote that has a multitouch interface and accelerometer, and/or possibly using an IR sensor (ala Nintendo’s Wii Remote, a.k.a WiiMote), but not the costlier internal components of iPhone/touch hardware itself. And if they include a camera, ala Microsoft’s upcoming Natal motion sensing camera system for XBox…. Imagine: using it for controlling the interface, but also for posting Youtube vids, which is one thing analysts were suggesting was part of the future of AppleTV a while back.

By: spiffyone

spiffyone — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:51:28 +0000

While extending AppleTV software to Mac Mini sounds like a good idea, for Apple the best route is not to extend the product in that manner. Integrated Blu Ray? Then why would users rent/buy digital content off of iTunes? And digital download is the future as Apple sees it.

With that in mind, rather than extending AppleTV style usability to Mac Mini, I see Apple extending iPhone/touch usability (the App Store) to AppleTV. Think about it. Release an open SDK, ala iPhone/touch, allow different types of apps made (particularly games, which are a big money earner in the App Store), and open yourself to more and different types of consumers. Apple’s competition isn’t really TiVo boxes or Media Center PCs, but stuff like XBox 360 and PS3, which allow things like Netflix downloads to a MUCH larger consumer market.

If the next AppleTV, with all new hardware, uses similar architecture to iPhone/touch, then all the better. One need not have an x86 based processor when using a device for multimedia entertainment. An ARM CPU would suffice for HD content (and, indeed ARM processors decode HD content already). Add in a spec’d up PowerVR GPU (PowerVR GPUs are used in iPhone/touch), and you’ve got enough power for HD content, and a GPU that can handle games and other graphic intensive software. Better still if it’s all multicore (multicore ARM CPU, multicore PowerVR GPU).

By using a similar hardware base as that in iPhone/touch, but spec’d up, Apple can use AppleTV as a sort of testing ground for future iPhone/touch internal components when they shrink in size over time. And it would be quite a deal less expensive in cost to boot.

By: Analyst expects DVR, subscription in Apple TV, Apple connected television | The Loop

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:35:38 +0000

[...] course, there are other ways Apple could achieve a more ful-functioning Apple TV, like building the software into a Mac mini.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Analyst expects DVR, subscription in Apple TV, Apple connected [...]

By: blu ray rental

blu ray rental — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:54:47 +0000

Yes that would be nice.
Do you now anything about the release date and the price?

By: Jim Dalrymple

Jim Dalrymple — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:39:32 +0000

Indeed I did. Fixed now. Thanks

By: Clint Bradford

Clint Bradford — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:49:44 +0000

Jim – You had a mental lapse – drop that damed apostrophe in the sentence, “Apple has the best of both world’s …” Yuck. t’s been bugging me since last week.

By: Tim H.

Tim H. — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:52:25 +0000

NVIDIA claims BluRay playback as a capability of the 9400M, so that part is taken care of. The expense of a slot loading BDROM/DVD-R mech might be an obstacle, and The Steve will have something to say here. Otherwise, will the Apple TV software run in a VM under 10.6, or will those capabilities be rolled into 10.6 on the new mini?

By: Jim Dalrymple

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:39:38 +0000

Rick, just use the menus up top for now. I’ll have the page navigation fixed soon.

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:32:35 +0000

Jim,
Sorry to go off-topic, but your Recent Articles go back to August 6th. I haven’t been to the site for a while, so I want to find the articles from the weeks before. How do I find articles from August 5th and so on?

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:22:34 +0000

This is a really nice dream.

NOW WAKE UP!

Apple wants you to buy your content from Apple. Think iPod/iTunes. iPhone/App Store. Apple Hardware, Apple Content, Apple Experience. Apple will not undermine that which they have worked so hard to build.

When an updated box shows up it will be an Apple TV interface, probably updated. But Absolutely No Blu-Ray or Optical drive, DVR, Cable-Card, or anything else that could possibly compete with iTunes.

Apple strategy from the first 5GB iPod has been about monopolizing and monetizing the content. All that content has and will continue come from Apple over the internet.

OK, back to your dreams…

By: Syunny Guy

Syunny Guy — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:19:03 +0000

I drive a couple miles to the campus video store, and rent
three DVDs for three days for $1 apiece. They rent Blue Ray
for the same price, so if Apple comes out with a Mac Mini
with built-in a Blue Ray reader — I’m there.

But if you watch films for plot, rather than for pimples, I
think you don’t need Blue Ray. Not now — not never.

My two cents,
Sunny Guy

By: joecab

joecab — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:44:02 +0000

OK if this really happens, I finally will get an Apple TV. I’ve been meaning to get a BluRay player anyway. I’m sure Apple will add the drives to their computers but I never imagined they’d do it with Apple TV since tey want people downloading their movies anyway. I am surprised Apple hasn’t gone for some DVR functionality yet; does Vista come with anything similar?

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:43:29 +0000

A Mac Mini with a El Gato TV Tuner and Eye TV does not turn your TV into a full fledged Media Center. With those you only get Over the Air HD not subscription HD. Reason being is there is no Cable Card interface for computers currently. They all use Switched Digital Video to send video as well. Requiring a Tuner Adapter from your Cable Company which is not available in all areas.

I have a Tivo HD and its essentially been a over priced paper weight for the last year till recently. Time Warner in my area had no Tuner Adapters out and everything they send is Switched Digital Video. Tivo HD talks one way for SDV to work your cable box has to talk both ways.

MS Media Center people have been hit hard with this rolling out to all the cable companies.

Perhaps Tru2way will solve this but as of right now there still barely even able to support Tivo users which are considerably bigger then any Apple TV user (own 2).

To make a Apple TV work as a Media center it would require a Tru2way or a Cable Card slot and a Tuner Adapter.

By: Jim Dalrymple

Jim Dalrymple — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:32:18 +0000

Ah, okay, that makes sense.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:29:40 +0000

Because it only costs the price of the disc. Of course, I don’t do iTunes movies since I have a Netflix account.

By: GB in HK

GB in HK — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:12:05 +0000

I think an arms race in the one-box-solution space is indeed just around the corner. Apple, with its iTunes ecosystem has the potential to dominate only if their product(s) also include Blu-ray playback, Tru2way cable-TV connectivity and PVR functionality. Anything less and most consumers will choose comparable offerings from Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, et al.

By: Stew

Stew — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:38:42 +0000

I emailed elgato who make the hd sat tv add on to mac mini and they responded saying it does not support 1.2 & 1.3 protocol that allows control of a motorised dish any suggestions?

By: HD Boy

HD Boy — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:57:24 +0000

“…Because you are using a Mac mini, it’s easy to install Elgato’s EyeTV and a TV tuner, which would turn your Mac mini/Apple TV hybrid into everything you wanted in a Mac media center…”

Not quite everything. Most people (though certainly not all) also would want a cable/satellite tuning option. Alternatively, Apple could have a plan in place to also offer content in downloadable form from a 150 different cable/satellite HD channels. The problem with this idea is that Apple needs a delivery system to challenge cable/satellite for HDTV — or a partner. Even then, how would Apple ever offer live Sports (too many exclusive contracts in place)?

By: MacMini RULES!

MacMini RULES! — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:07:23 +0000

My living room ‘media center’ is a MacMini, connected to my LG 42″ LCD (DVI-HDMI cable adapter), I’ve gone through most/all offerings and you know which media ctr app I use? Vista Media Center (using Boot Camp). I’m not a big MS fan, but as far as media center offerings go, you have to admin, you can’t beat them, in any category: tv listings (and I’m in Canada), record/pause live television AND stream live tv to your xbox 360 console (yes, other than a gaming machine it also acts as a media center extender – watch, change channels, pause and stream live tv via our LAN in our home). The wife and kids love it ! As far as content goes? it’s all on a separate server (osx server), with terabytes of storage, the Vista media ctr. plays back all movie file formats (downloaded mkv for 720,1080 HD content easily, avi’s, divx, etc..). I love my MacMini

By: Jim Dalrymple

Jim Dalrymple — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:45:31 +0000

Why would you rather go through all those steps?

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:43:42 +0000

Makes sense. Downloading a bunch of HD movies will fill up the hard drive in no time. But I’d rather use my TiVO HD to download HD content from TV, move it over to my Mac (via Toast) and burn a Blu-ray disc on my Mac Pro.

By: Jim Dalrymple

Jim Dalrymple — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:38:19 +0000

I usually rent movies, which is around $4. Saves me time driving to the store to rent something. For me it’s all about convenience.

By: Tuncer Deniz

Tuncer Deniz — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:26:48 +0000

My biggest gripe with the AppleTV is the lack of content and how it’s presented. The first thing that REALLY ticks me off is that many new releases aren’t available for rental until a few months later. Sorry, I just don’t buy movies. I’m not paying $14.99 for a movie I’ll just watch once.

Second. The lack of new rentals. 4-5 new movie rentals releases a month isn’t good enough. I’d like to see day-to-day releases on iTunes along with new DVD releases.