Bruce Johnson wrote:

> Well, "Media Computer" is a bit more grandiloquent than "computer  
> attached to the teevee for the purposes of playing music, watching  
> video podcasts, DVD's and surfing the web".
> 
> For the time being, it's going to contain a copy of our iTunes  
> library, our iPhoto library, and run OS X. I've got a Gyropoint mouse,  
> and will initially have a long USB extension on the keyboard until I  
> get a bluetooth or other wireless keyboard. It's going to be our DVD  
> player and that's about it.
> 
> When/if I upgrade my internet connecteion (currently el-chespo 1.5 mb  
> service) we can download movies from ITMS, but right now 'Hey honey  
> what movie do you want to watch in approximately 8 hours' is way too  
> much future planning for our lifestyle.
> 
> I'm not doing DVR or anything fancy like that.
> 
> In the future I'm looking to consolidate our media libraries onto a  
> single server and access it from all the computers in the house, but  
> for now, I can keep stuff synched pretty easily.
> 

I have a G4 Mac Mini, 1.4 GHz, 320Gb HD, 1Gb RAM I use as a media 
computer.  I really like the compact form factor, it sits next to the 
DVD player on the shelf.  It has an El Gato Eye TV 250 Plus TV receiver 
attached.  It connects to a 52" LCD HDTV.  I have our music library 
loaded up on it.  I've also done photo slide shows with it.  We can 
watch videos recorded on the local harddisk or from the server which has 
2Tb of storage, primarily for video.  I have a wireless mouse for it and 
someday I'll get a BT keyboard too.

The G4 Mini has a couple of downsides.  It doesn't have an IR receiver 
to use with a Mac remote and Front Row.  The EyeTV does have a remote 
but it's only good for Eye TV, not iTunes and QT videos.  The G4 is 
capable of recording OR playing video without any problems but it can't 
handle doing both at the same time without playback suffering.  The 
recording doesn't seem to be affected.  It also can't handle recording 
HD recording.  I'd like to get a Dual Core Mini but I'm not ready to get 
a new one and some of those on e-bay are being offered at new prices or 
more it seems.


-- 
Clark Martin
Redwood City, CA, USA
Macintosh / Internet Consulting

"I'm a designated driver on the Information Super Highway"

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