[BUGA] Sell me an Apple!

[Mark Newton]

Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:
> On Tuesday, 28 March 2006 at 11:35:08 +1030, Mark Newton wrote:
>> I don't think any vendor can give you that outcome.
> 
> It used to be standard in home electronics until computers came on to
> the scene.

Well, yes, but that's because "home electronics" was an established
industry which had been around for, well, decades.  Meanwhile the
computer industry can't even agree on whether digital TV ought
to be encrypted, or what CODEC it should use;  and those who have
bucked the trend by coming to agreements on those topics have found
themselves to be obsolete.

You can't expect standardization from an emerging market.  There
is currently *no* mainstream marketplace for computers which do TV.
The whole industry is in startup phase, with lots of mutually incompatible
half-baked ideas jockeying for position, just waiting for a standarization
rush to sweep 99% of the industry off the face of the earth.

When that push for standardization comes, you can expect that what
you want to do will be as easy as component HiFi.  But it isn't right
now, you're doing it too early.  Which means you need to live with
being a beta-tester, because there are no refined ready-for-market
products out there filling the industry niche you're trying to fill.

> What I'm looking for is something that supplies the basics, but which
> isn't as restrictive as a TiVo. 

What do you mean by "The Basics"?  The fact that you've dismissed
mythtv as too-hard tells a story about what you see as the basics,
but the vendors of TV tuner devices have a different picture of
what the basics look like (notably:  Viewing TV in a window on your
computer -- that's pretty basic, isn't it?)

What functionality are you after?  Do you want a package which happens
to be a turnkey mythtv device?  Or do you want a set-top-box DVD recorder?

If it's the latter, get a set-top-box DVD recorder.

If it's the former, then perhaps I can make a cheeky suggestion:  Every
mum and dad happens to know a neighborhood kid that's pretty good with
computers who can help them out with technical support.  Give a computer
to one of those kids, tell them to set up mythtv, and accept it back when
it's working.  Pretty sure that'll give you what you're after :-)

> Somebody also mentioned the issue of
> ripping DVDs; possibly an Apple *would* be too restrictive.  

<shrug>  My powerbook rips DVDs just fine.  Not sure what you mean by
that.

   - mark

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I tried an internal modem,                    newton at atdot.dotat.org
      but it hurt when I walked.                          Mark Newton
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