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Apple Archive

Front Row, Apple's Digital Hub, Needs TV Support

- 2006.05.05

Computer-based home media systems are becoming all the rage these days. Ever since the idea of digitally recording TV shows became popular with TiVo, the idea of integrating an actual computer into the system started becoming reality.

Microsoft's Windows Media Center Edition is becoming widely used and is certainly widely marketed. It allows users to not only record TV shows but also view videos on their computers, watch DVDs, listen to music, and view photos on their TV screens. However, it requires a Windows PC (perhaps it will run on an Intel Mac, but it may not be compatible with certain devices).

Fairly recently, Yahoo offered a new application that allows Windows users (only) to do pretty much the same things Microsoft's Media Center allows, but for free. This works well if you have an old PC running another version of Windows that you'd like to use as a home entertainment computer. Yahoo's software even allows you to browse Flickr photos from its interface.

Another interesting application is MythTV, which only runs on Linux at present (and probably won't be developed for anything else). It includes a browser and a way to check weather conditions among other features.

Front Row Needs TV Support

Apple has Front Row, which is available on all of current Macs except for Power Macs, PowerBooks, and iBooks. Apple's new MacBooks include it, and all Front Row enabled models come with a convenient remote control. While this software allows you to view videos on your computer, listen to music, or watch DVDs, it doesn't allow you to record TV shows (since no current Mac has a built-in TV tuner card).

You can add this capability to your Mac with Elgato's external USB-based EyeTV. In effect, this is the same as buying an internal card for a PC and ends up costing about the same (EyeTV sells for US$199).

It's great to be able to connect a Mac mini to your TV - to use the Front Row features, that is. Having it hooked up to a stereo and the TV would allow you to listen to and browse your music library. Using iTunes music sharing would allow you to browse music libraries of computers all over the house on the same network.

However, you may want to search out a different solution for recording video if the EyeTV is out of your budget

Digital Video Recorders

Many cable companies have services that you can subscribe to which gives you a personal video recorder similar to a TiVo that you can connect directly to your TV. While these involve monthly fees (often US$9.99), you don't usually have to buy the hardware, and when the cable company gets new PVR boxes, they will usually replace your old one with the latest model for no charge.

TiVo, on the other hand, involves a monthly service fee and the purchase of your own hardware. When that box becomes obsolete, you must purchase a new version yourself.

The other issue regarding personal video recording is advertisements. One of the reasons people buy these is because they want to skip ads. Unfortunately, TiVo won't accomplish that for you - what used to be ad-free no longer is. When zipping through commercials, you're now shown additional ads on part of the screen.

Using pretty much anything other than TiVo, you should have no trouble forwarding through commercials.

Computers Tie It All Together

It seems that computers are starting to become a media center in the home. Where previously the TV and stereo would sit next to each other, now the computer is tying it all together.

The key to this is to have something fairly small - the Mac mini would be the perfect home entertainment centerpiece. All it needs is a built-in TV tuner and a more complete Front Row application, and it would be perfect.

Until then, there are other options, but none are without fault. Perhaps it's almost best to wait and see what happens before selecting a PVR. LEM

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