The iMac is My TV and Stereo
It hit me that I really don't use my TV at all anymore. Some of this started about six months ago when I lost interest in most things on television in general. It wasn't even an issue of braving cold turkey, I just lost interest.I'm now at the point where there are really only two shows on TV I'm interested in. One is Family Guy, and the other Avatar (a show on Nickelodeon, I'll explain why another time).
I like watching Family Guy, but I'm not willing to base my life around when it's on, and I'm not going to get TiVo for one show. Avatar, beautifully, is on iTunes, so I see each episode of that as it comes out. (Why Family Guy isn't on iTunes, I simply don't know. It would go straight to number one.)
I grabbed a couple of movies from iTunes, and they show up in Front Row. That just leaves DVDs. I like Front Row on the iMac better than any dedicated DVD player. The icing on the cake is that I can bounce between TV shows, movies and music. I think Front Row needs a chapter selection for movies like iTunes has, though.
The thing that makes the experience is the co-operation of the hardware, software and the iTunes service. Front Row itself is great, but the iMac's design and the remote are just as important, as is getting movies and music from the iTunes store. The display is 20 inches instead of the 29 inch TV, but it doesn't really matter to me.
So all that leaves is video games.
The only video games I have interest in right now are on the Nintendo DS, which has a built-in monitor. There's a very good chance that my television will return to service as a Wii monitor in a couple of months. Other than that, though, the TV is gathering dust.
This reminded me of Macintosh TV.
The iMac is My TV and Stereo
Posted Oct 4, 2006 — 28 comments below
Posted Oct 4, 2006 — 28 comments below
Andrew — Oct 04, 06 1918
Finally on the stereo front, and I think this is a bit of an oversight by Apple the Mac remote only controls the system volume and not the iTunes volume so if you're streaming to your stereo over Airport you can't control the volume by remote. (I had to buy Mira to fix this). I have this working great now.
Incidently - Avatar is shown satuday mornings here and it it a beautifully drawn , sometimes surreal cartoon. Glad to hear someone else loves it.
John — Oct 04, 06 1919
Ravi Khalsa — Oct 04, 06 1920
Kenneth Ballenegger — Oct 04, 06 1921
Use eyeTV guys, especially you UK guys...
Zac White — Oct 04, 06 1922
Matthew — Oct 04, 06 1923
I killed our tivo subscription this month when I finally realized that the only thing we do with the tv is get stuff we can't get on the Mac(s). That leaves some live cycling events (TdF).
I've posted about this topic myself quite a bit and, basically, I believe that when Apple ships a 30-inch iMac (not if, but when) demand for Macs as TVs (etc) will reach the necessary critical mass and TVs will be out in the cold among the Apple-set.
Steve-o — Oct 04, 06 1924
On a side note, I personally think Family Guy has already peaked.
Scott Stevenson — Oct 04, 06 1925
My eight grade teacher said the same thing about The Simpsons fourteen years ago.
sampson — Oct 04, 06 1926
Looking forward to Apples iTV.
Steve-o — Oct 04, 06 1927
S/he was wrong, of course.
The Simpsons peaked at Season 8.
Lanzarote — Oct 04, 06 1928
my "tv-world" is a 20" imac and iBookG4 with EyeTv and the Mac Mini on the 32" widescreen with EyeTv for the family.
It's month ago that i've seen a movie on TV.
Greetings From the Canary Islands,
Mario
Bruce — Oct 04, 06 1929
I'm surprised Apple hasn't tried to cut a deal with the Food Network people. I'm quite certain Good Eats would be a huge draw. I'm not quite as keen on Molto Mario, though I think it'd also be a hit.
I'd pay for Nigella Bites. I can't find that show anywhere. We killed the cable years ago, and I haven't seen it since. :(
Steve-o — Oct 04, 06 1930
Bruce - Nigella is now on Food Network, starting this week. Haven't tuned in for it yet, but it premiered with some fanfare.
Michiel — Oct 05, 06 1932
In my attic, I have a windows pc that records tv from cable, using Snapstream software. It's converted to DivX and the mac mini moves all recorded shows across the network into folders inside the 'Movies' folder. So I can use Front Row to access all recorded shows.
Once in a while I edit the DivX movies (on windows, using Virtualdub) to cut out all the commercials. My kids rarely watch tv, they only use Front Row.
I love this setup. It would be nice to be able to edit divx so easily on a mac though as it is with virtualdub on windows.
Chad Ohman — Oct 05, 06 1948
http://digg.com/apple/The_iMac_is_My_TV_and_Stereo
Dan Hamilton — Oct 05, 06 1949
Christopher — Oct 05, 06 1950
I have a 12" iBook that has side drives of 300G, 30G, 160G and 120G, with 80G in the machine, no external screen, and I run bitorrents (Bits on Wheels, it rocks) whenever I am not using the machine, with good speakers and a Sub and I've got all I want... my TV is very rarely on, I haven't had cable in over two years (I began torrenting a year and a half ago), frankly I wasn't surprised by Apple's iTV, it makes sense to someone like me.
I've been waiting for something like the 24" iMac to get rid of the TV entirely, soon this will happen...
Good post.
ryos — Oct 05, 06 1952
daniel — Oct 05, 06 1953
Thats funny that you like Avatar. I am 12 and I think it is okay, but I didn't think that any adults liked it.
MillionDollarCountDown — Oct 06, 06 1954
Dennis — Oct 06, 06 1955
Much better than waiting for stupid australian tv stations to finally put the rest of the season on of my favourite shows. They only seem to play them for a couple of episodes before putting them away into storage. Talk about cutting your own throats.
I saw one of the 24" Imacs the other day and it would look real sweet in my room......
Michael Longenecker — Oct 06, 06 1956
Cameron — Oct 06, 06 1957
Iain — Oct 06, 06 1959
Just like, John, we're seriously considering a 24" iMac + eyeTV to replace our 21" telly, DVD, VCR and FreeView box. Actually, I'm pretty well comitted to the idea. Perhaps a nice Bose sound system for iTunes and we're sorted!
I dig my current G4 and just think Apple have really got the convergent technology thing. I think the corner of our lounge is about get far less cluttered :-)
Good article!
Juan — Oct 08, 06 1975
BTW, I am not an employee for Elgato. I am just a fellow fan of the Mac being able to satisfy our needs and avoid a room full of redundant, electronic equipment.
Cheers.
John Truong — Oct 09, 06 1991
I've almost completely stopped watching TV also, but iTunes Canada doesn't have any TV shows yet either. I'm sure that a legal/licensing issue, but I wish it could be resolved.
Catt — Oct 22, 06 2125
Scott Stevenson — Oct 22, 06 2127
It's a whole different experience with Front Row and the remote.