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One nearly free alternative to buying an Apple TV
Authored by: sbinner on Oct 24, '07 09:46:13PM

This is an interesting thread to me in many ways. Please bear w/ me as it is long-winded.
In my experience there are almost as many solutions to a non-AppleTV media center as there are Apple users.

I have been using my old Macs as media servers in my home and office for years now ( i am currently waiting for Apple to put out a 128MB video Mac Mini to act as a video server/media center for my home, and this will finally be my first ever Mac purchased for strictly media center purposes).

Whether for streaming music, streaming video, listening to music or watching video (and many other uses), many solutions have always been available that can easily be handled by old Macs. I am currently using an old B&W G3 with a G4 550mhz processor and a 64MB ATI video card w/ TV out which has easy TV out control in the ATI pref.pane. I have also replaced the power supply for one w/ a quiet fan... all those were done back in the day for workstation performance, not for media center upgrades, (those upgrades are very inexpensive atm). I am not using any surround sound adapters since i really don't care for the expense atm, however they are available.
The software i use:
1) Audio: baaack in the day, i used Audion for my music needs on any LAN, and some VNC software for remote control. I then used various other means such as Shoutcast (yes)... I now use iTunes which i enjoy (all wishlist features aside) and a couple of utils to expand iTunes' functionality.
2) Video: it used to be a real pain on Mac to enjoy divx/avi movies and i will not get into it here (if you remember those days, then /cry with joy that we are no longer there). For a while i streamed video to my Xbox from my Mac to watch on my TV. I messed around w/ Xine and a host of others when OSX first launched. Today i still use VLC in conjunction with Automator and some applescript-enabled folder actions for most of my video watching needs and SallingClicker on my Palm or Phone (i also have a wireless keyboard i sometimes use). I have Perian installed which is a QuickTime video codec solution, in case i want to use any of Apple's solutions to watch video, such as podcasts, trailers, etc, then use that same app to watch some other non-supported video.
As for Photos, web and other stuff, simply having a Mac output to my TV allows me to see whatever else i may want.

Suffice it to say that i have been playing around for a long time with media center solutions and while nothing perfect exists, i think its fun and fairly easy to mess around and come up w/ a solution that will work for you... not to mention the fact that if you enjoy a DIY approach rather than the OOTB solution, then you may also get more enjoyment out of using your home-grown solution.


Oh and err... GregjSmith wth are you talking about? You are browsing this website, so clearly you have a computer... use IT to act as your media center. ( i seriously doubt you would strictly have an iPhone and no computer to browse this site).
And the point of AppleTV is to work WITH your Mac, not as a standalone product.
Its a safe bet that osxhints readers definitely have a computer ( and most likely an Apple one at that) so your argument of having to buy a computer is moot. However, if you are one of those rare? users who throw away their computer after getting an iPhone, then i hope you enjoy the video downloads you can get and watch on the beautiful screen. Until the day comes when iPhone can wirelessly transmit to AppleTV i think most people will be using their computers for media center purposes... whether to AppleTV, some home-spun solution or using a nice free software package like iTheatre.



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