Front Row VS. Windows Media Center

[tdtran1025]

I have been trying to search for ways to make my hack serve as an HTPC but frustrated over the fact that neither iTunes nor Front Row provide capabilities similar to some add-on third party OR Windows Media Center. Now please be easy on me since this is my exploration for options as much as I dislike MS on the way they conduct their business.

I know Apple has always been in the forefront of innovation when it comes to audio/visual. But in this aspect of the coming of age of HDTV, I don't really know what potential technology they bank on to make people lool at them seriously. In my case, which is typical of any user's experience, I just want to be able to watch live TV, NetFlix streamcast and HD programs at 1080p. Within the Mac domain, I can do most of these but not without fragmented third-party programs that I have to pay. To clarify this, this is how I know: to watch LiveTV I had to buy ElGato EyeTV, NetFlix stream cast through Safari or FireFox (a sure hit-and-miss ordeal) but worst all of, Front Row does not support such features and AppleTV max resolution is 1280x720.

What is Apple thinking? I have things on my wish list for OSX but 10.6 failed to deliver. They are:

- No Blu-Ray playback support. If Apple thinks they can make $ on their iTunes by selling these BD movies through this portal, think again. Not everyone has the big fat DSL pipe that can download a 50G movie in less than 12 hours. Besides, people want to buy the physical discs to secure them in their libraries and then caking them up as MP4 files to play on iTunes (much the way I do with my music collection).

- No LiveTV support through Front Row. Either Apple has changed their mind or not put enough effort in developing it because of market strategy. I think the latter might be correct because iTunes is far more capable than Front Row but no LiveTV either.

- The AppleTV box is an insult to users' intelligence- limited capabilities. A stand-alone unit with USB ports will outperform Apple's contraption any time, any day. OK, so Netflix and Silverlight are the product of MS's market positioning in response to Apple's domination in music domain. But shouldn't Apple have seen this coming right after their iTunes's MP3 revolution? ANd further delay in BD playback support will hamper their wildly succesful OSX 10.6 with MS Win7 catching up pretty close

 

I have almost completely abandoned the Win7 OS in favor of OSX for daily computing needs lately IF not for its support of these quirks in Home Entertainment. I wish Apple would listen and revise their market strategy.

[adamsweeting]

I love OS X, and have been using it for years - but I couldn't agree with you more.

 

No Blu-Ray support!! WTF!

I have my machine as a dual boot, but I find myself using Win7 more now because of Media Centre.

 

Oh dear.

[mkMoSs]

I have been trying to search for ways to make my hack serve as an HTPC but frustrated over the fact that neither iTunes nor Front Row provide capabilities similar to some add-on third party OR Windows Media Center. Now please be easy on me since this is my exploration for options as much as I dislike MS on the way they conduct their business.

I know Apple has always been in the forefront of innovation when it comes to audio/visual. But in this aspect of the coming of age of HDTV, I don't really know what potential technology they bank on to make people lool at them seriously. In my case, which is typical of any user's experience, I just want to be able to watch live TV, NetFlix streamcast and HD programs at 1080p. Within the Mac domain, I can do most of these but not without fragmented third-party programs that I have to pay. To clarify this, this is how I know: to watch LiveTV I had to buy ElGato EyeTV, NetFlix stream cast through Safari or FireFox (a sure hit-and-miss ordeal) but worst all of, Front Row does not support such features and AppleTV max resolution is 1280x720.

What is Apple thinking? I have things on my wish list for OSX but 10.6 failed to deliver. They are:

- No Blu-Ray playback support. If Apple thinks they can make $ on their iTunes by selling these BD movies through this portal, think again. Not everyone has the big fat DSL pipe that can download a 50G movie in less than 12 hours. Besides, people want to buy the physical discs to secure them in their libraries and then caking them up as MP4 files to play on iTunes (much the way I do with my music collection).

- No LiveTV support through Front Row. Either Apple has changed their mind or not put enough effort in developing it because of market strategy. I think the latter might be correct because iTunes is far more capable than Front Row but no LiveTV either.

- The AppleTV box is an insult to users' intelligence- limited capabilities. A stand-alone unit with USB ports will outperform Apple's contraption any time, any day. OK, so Netflix and Silverlight are the product of MS's market positioning in response to Apple's domination in music domain. But shouldn't Apple have seen this coming right after their iTunes's MP3 revolution? ANd further delay in BD playback support will hamper their wildly succesful OSX 10.6 with MS Win7 catching up pretty close

 

I have almost completely abandoned the Win7 OS in favor of OSX for daily computing needs lately IF not for its support of these quirks in Home Entertainment. I wish Apple would listen and revise their market strategy.

 

I'm with you on this one, as far as I'm concerned when I tried few months ago Leopard (10.5.x) on my 3 year old laptop it was like a slow but no-turning-back transition from Windows (Vista/7) to Mac OS for me.

 

Last week I decided to wipe my laptop from windows which I use to work (being a web developer) and have a no-windows hackintosh with snow leopard.

Despite my struggles to overcome kernel panics and spending literally days to find working kexts for VGA / Ethernet etc. I have now a quite stable HP Laptop with snow leopard.

 

But still I miss the Media Center of Windows 7 and the main reason is that Mac OS renders my ASUS USB Hybrid DVB-T / Analog tuner useless.

In addition lack of BlueRay support disappoints me as well.

 

If you want my opinion for a HTPC Windows 7 still got the lead and is way ahead from Snow Leopard. MS provides a lot of functionality and features right out of the box that can't be ignored and Apple doesn't provide.

 

If you want to stick to Mac OS I would suggest VLC (www.videolan.org) a free media player (multi-platform), I suppose it will cover some of the missing features in media playback and streaming of mac os.

 

ps. I still use windows on my main computer mainly because I play lots of games