“We don’t think that televisions and personal computers are going to merge. We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.
Well, they want to link sometimes. Like, when you make a movie, you burn a DVD and you take it to your DVD player. Someday that could happen over AirPort, so you don’t have to burn a DVD—you can just watch it right off your computer on your television set. But most of these products that have said, “Let’s combine the television and the computer!” have failed. All of them have failed.
The problem is, when you’re using your computer you’re a foot away from it, you know? When you’re using your television you want to be ten feet away from it. So they’re really different animals.”
So obviously there’ll be a video AirPort express-type device and the iPods of the future will continue to hook up to the newest TV’s. The TV is a display to Mr. Jobs yet he sells TV shows now and only people with the right I/O on their Mac who drag their computer to be nearby the set can “turn their brain off” on a display other than their Mac’s.
I for one tried that in my freshman year with DVD’s from my PowerBook on my 20” Sony TV well before I even owned a DVD player. First I connected it with a short, say three foot cable, and tried to rest the PB on the TV or near it. Even with the lid shut it was not a stable arrangement.
Then I bought the longest cables I could get from Radioshack and put my computer on its iCurve. Ugly, cumbersome, expensive. Soon after that AirPort express for audio, internet, and printer wireless networking came out and I had just one wire on my computer for power...and I didn’t want an audio + video cable sticking out just for the occasional movie (and later, of course, $1.99 TV shows).
There’s a hole in Apple’s product lineup. What is a dorm user supposed to buy? My school, SUNY Stony Brook has a special Apple Store page where they recommend an iBook for portability, Power Mac for designers, and most importantly two desktops.
Premier Home/Office Desktop: iMac 17” (they didn’t update for intel yet)
Economy Home/Office Desktop: Mac mini 1.25ghz
Are those recommendations wise for me?
What about a TV?...how big and LCD or CRT, VCR or TiVo, DVD or nothing? The computer will undoubtedly play DVDs but we want those on a TV, no? Why didn’t Steve Jobs comment that Hollywood DVD’s don’t belong on your PC either. Has he chnaged his mind by including Front Row, and thus making a computer something you can use from your bed? Even if he did change his mind, what combination of TV and computer is best for “not getting stolen” at a dorm but still not blinding me and offering the most programs without commercials (i.e. VCR/TiVo/ReplayTV/Elgato)?
addendum: My thought process above demonstrates the dilemma other people may have had, whether they wanted a cheaper model or a more expensive set.
I ended up saying that I wouldn’t put expensive TV’s in my dorm but I would buy a combo DVD/VCR for there and use my existing CRT TV.
MESSAGE FROM NICK: Please use the tags when posting a URL, and give a description for the link text other than the URL (e.g. “Click here” or “Fish sticks are delicious"). Otherwise, your entire message from the URL on will become one big-ass link. That is all.
“House” on TBS and Fox
TV Land: Night Court + Cheers + Miami Vice + A-Team + Happy Days...more if I had a TiVo
M*A*S*H and “The Outer Limits” (new) on Fox
ABC7’s late night movies.
History Channel: tons.
Sci-Fi channel: I wish they re-ran SeaQuest again
Spike TV FOR MEN: Star Trek TNG and DS9
I don’t blame you. The commercials are to say the least an interruption, the programming is on their schedule, and many great shows on DVD at the same price as Apple’s store in higher quality.
Watching this new HDTV is an experiment and lesson about image and video monitor technology. I hooked up a Dell to it with a VGA cable and ran the PC in 720p (1280x7yy) just like the monitor. Then I got some beautiful free wallpapers from Endeffect.com at the same resolution and did a slideshow. Clear and enough to fill the screen.
On the other hand I freaked out when I first watched “Dodgeball” on DVD because it looked blocky. A DVD blocky on such a widescreen machine? You have to watch from a further distance on HDTV’s apparently. But the wallpapers I got from the PC were fine even up close.
Tomorrow we’re looking into a HDTV cable box and possibly a movie channel. Otherwise it looks like only a few shows I watch will be that good looking (ABC, NBC, etc. do it for prime time). Wouldn’t you enjoy TV or at least the screen itself for the colors and clarity it can produce? I think it’s the best picture I’ve seen even in 480xwhatever resolution of normal broadcasts. HDTV’s are just superior TV’s and yet I still want to reject for not being elegantly simple, not filtering out all commercials and taping content cheaply out of the box, and having a DVI port besides HDMI. I do like the energy saver mode though.
Raffi’s “The Book” is sounding mighty useful in filling the void between material things, the self, and the nature of life.
In the mean time I’m watching The Twilight Zone and this episode is called “On Thursday We...Home” It’s awesome because the set is on annother planet. They figured that by 1991 we’d be colonizing space. Whenever there’s a commercial I can start my iPod up and play through almost any song that’s not a mix. It’s right next to the set.
TV can be salvaged. I for one have thought many a thought being zoned out during and between programs. Many a thought. This episode, now in progress......
Update: Yup...they’re in a cave just like I remember. Now I’m dancing around listening to the Postal Service and wondering about the iPod dock with remote + my iPod photo. Then I’ll have an audio remote, a video remote, and a source (DVD) remote.
On the other hand I freaked out when I first watched “Dodgeball” on DVD because it looked blocky. A DVD blocky on such a widescreen machine? You have to watch from a further distance on HDTV’s apparently.
I was somewhat annoyed that a media that was hyped up to have such high quality looked so poor on high resolution displays. Unless I set the resolution really low on my old laptop any DVD I played looked patchy and blocky. Most software DVD decoders and video chipsets now feature some sort of filtering that makes the image look better.
I’m personally waiting for the next Nintendo, but if I wanted HD I’d wait for the PS3, M$ has proven again that they don’t care about releasing quality products with the crashing XBOX 360.
Yeah, I’m going to pick up a PS3. The only thing that would make me go with Xbox 360 is if Sony is completely stupid and doesn’t come out with something as good as XBox Live, which totally rocks.
If I were single and had no kids, I’d get all three and spend my life playing rented console games (in-between dates with really hot women, of course).
EDIT - I just realized that I’m not even considering Nintendo and I don’t really know why. Weird. I’ll check it out too.
Yeah, I’m going to pick up a PS3. The only thing that would make me go with Xbox 360 is if Sony is completely stupid and doesn’t come out with something as good as XBox Live, which totally rocks.
If I were single and had no kids, I’d get all three and spend my life playing rented console games (in-between dates with really hot women, of course).
EDIT - I just realized that I’m not even considering Nintendo and I don’t really know why. Weird. I’ll check it out too.
The first game I get for the NR will actually be Twilight Princess.... if it does indeed have Gamecube compatibility. In other words, I’m getting it so I can play Zelda.
I don’t watch a lot of TV (aside from the news and a couple shows now and then) because, well, I only get about 20 stations: four of which are in a foreign language I don’t speak, one of which is a shop-at-home station.
OK so The Book doesn’t have to do with HDTV’s it more about spirituality and enjoying your life without being attached to the body.
I miss having the DVR’ed shows on my box but I have a VCR tape and I really don’t care much about TV either Nick while I’m at college with much more to do---things that I can’t wait to do and can’t wait for me either.
I watched 7 or 8 taped episodes from my DVR at home...of THE OUTER LIMITS!!!!!!
The new one.
Now I also have House in HDTV on 705 being taped. HD! It looks better. Than non-HD. 480p is no good...720 all the way...who cares about numbers...its about emotion in that show. Really about th personality and mind of Dr. House. His sense of humor i used to be like. His brilliance is all of us, at what are perfect as a worker/employee or whatever. Our true talent that we are as good as House’s diagnostic prowress. We have it. Mine is outdoing my grandfather who worked very hard but didn’t quite get his dream, except for his family.
Then I came back to my beautiful and personalized iMac. Now get rid of the logo. I thought of adding an (A) anarchist style since I agree with that principle in some non human areas so far and perhaps as a government system but perhaps not Its about whether I like it or not and also how long itd take for us to achieve it after going through losses of life in the process. In Sim City it don’t matter.
iMac. right. It was good because of being setup just for me, unlike the Dell at home where I have an acc’t but it’s not as high quality of an experience nor is it as fast--no.
So I have a DVR home theatre and a Dell at home. There’s an iMac and iPod here.
Update: what’s on TV still sucks. Netflix is where it’s at. I doubled to the $14.99 plan so I can have two discs at once. I’ve been watching TV shows on DVD and the next one is “Freaks and Geeks” now that I’m done with Newsradio.
I chose to use the iMac instead of the HDTV to watch it, for one because I lent away my DVD player. And the 5.1’s are connected to the iMac since all they were connected to before were the iPod and analog sucks. The HDTV channels did 5.1 but otherwise there was little need for the speakers there.
Netflix -> 3-at-a-time unlimited $18 a month
BestBuy -> DVD’s for $10 each and TV shows for $40 a season
HDTV + iMac as dual monitors via $20 Apple DVI cable
I prefer my HDTV monitor and I like how it looks when doing an iChat AV on it. My HDTV can do 720p and so can the iMac. I’m going to download “Weeds” on ShowTime from Apple and not pay for extra cable TV channel but if I like more than an episode I won’t keep buying low quality versions. It’s still inefficent to have 43” of screen real estate spread out like this. The top-end Mac mini can do HDTV decoding via H.264 nicely enough according to Apple’s system requirements but I already own an iMac. Something that would help me is Delicious Library to know what I have and where it is until I can afford 1TB+ to store my legal movies in Video_TS folders with RAID backup (but Front Row would ignore them ). The hard drive thing will be at least $700 for now. XRAID mini?
Its about whether I like it or not and also how long itd take for us to achieve it after going through losses of life in the process. In Sim City it don’t matter.
