[WelMac] FreeView and TubeStick

[Jo Booth]

On 5/06/2007, at 16:00 , David Empson wrote:

> At 3:01 PM +1200 5/06/2007, John Crook wrote:
>> Having a tuner such as the Tube-Stick and/or Eye-TV that can be
>> readily controlled by a computer would be a useful ingredient in such
>> a set-up.  And I agree wholeheartedly with your remarks about the
>> hard-drive recorders that are out there now.
>
> It is unfortunate that Apple doesn't want to get into the personal
> video recorder market: the Apple TV with a suitable tuner, big enough
> hard drive and decent user interface would be an almost perfect
> solution.
...
>
> My Apple shopping list is growing - I need a new laptop as my current
> one is misbehaving, maybe a new desktop computer as well (if they
> release one which matches what I want), maybe an Apple TV (once it
> does enough) and a new Airport Extreme base station so I have a fast
> enough wireless network to connect them all. Leopard just around the
> corner, and iLife and iWork at some stage. Those family packs are
> looking even more tempting.
>
> -- David Empson
>

I've used the Equinux MediaCentral software for a while now, and  
would love to have a hardware dongle encoder.  Saying that - the  
rumour is that all future mac models will come complete with a HDV H. 
264 encoder chip - as well as a decoder - making it painless (and  
less cpu required) to encode video.  You've still got to get the  
video in, but even a cheap digital video camera with RCA inputs can  
be used for that. At present Elgato is offering the Turbo 264 usb h. 
264 hardware dongle for about $150 NZ

I think I'd be buying an Apple TV if I had any spare cash.  It's  
being billed as "the cheapest mac you can buy" by the hackers - who  
have it running OS X, and a bunch of other things: <http:// 
appletvhacks.blogspot.com/> - already you can turn it into a  
'wireless' NAS device, by hooking in several USB Hard Drives, and I'm  
sure it would be a simple step to attach a tuner...