<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211</id><updated>2011-07-07T16:07:47.650-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Living in the Future</title><subtitle type='html'>How to roll-your-own mac media center</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>24</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-114114499742133161</id><published>2006-02-28T08:41:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-02-28T08:43:17.426-08:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>EyeTV 2.0.1 update available.&lt;br /&gt;El Gato made this available over a week ago and I installed it hoping it would fix my problems w/ EyeTV 2.0&lt;br /&gt;No joy.&lt;br /&gt;EyeTV is still randomly freezing while initiating a recording.&lt;br /&gt;The added interface features (pop-up menus for recorded items and a line showing the current time) are welcome tho'.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-114114499742133161?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/114114499742133161/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=114114499742133161' title='39 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/114114499742133161'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/114114499742133161'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/02/eyetv-2.html' title=''/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>39</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113909625840941231</id><published>2006-02-04T15:18:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-02-04T16:14:50.800-08:00</updated><title type='text'>mac media-center roundup</title><content type='html'>Yeah yeah so there's now a veritable cornucopia of would-be mac media center apps out there in their teaser, alpha and  1.0 version; all hoping to do what Front Row does but better.&lt;br /&gt;I've finally gotten around to installing them all and gave them a test-drive over the past week.&lt;br /&gt;Now keep in mind that none of them are really finished, polished pieces of work yet but there's enough meat here to review some of their most important features.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok let's back up for a minute, the uninitiated are asking "what's a mac media-center app?".&lt;br /&gt;Good question (tho' god knows why you're asking that if you read this blog..)!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Media-center apps are basically all front-ends for accessing your media collection (music, video, photos, tv, DVDs, what-have-you) via a single unified interface. They all offer some kind of enlarged, simplified browsing interface suitable for viewing from a distance.&lt;br /&gt;Which is nice because it's a total pain in the arse to have to squint at your TV to discern what's playing on iTunes, scroll through finder windows to find that movie you want to watch etc. etc. The mac interface just wasn't built for this task and hence the need for a media-center app to simplify and manage these tasks for you, ideally w./ the use of a remote control of some sort!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok onto our test subjects.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In order of completedness we have (drum roll please..):&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Front Row (Apple)&lt;br /&gt;MediaCentral (Equinox)&lt;br /&gt;CenterStage (CenterStage Project)&lt;br /&gt;iTheater (iTheater Project)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now before we get into the nitty gritty of media file playback, interface, remote control integration here's a handy-dandy little matrix of feature-sets:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/comparative_features.1.png"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/400/comparative_features.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*Note: "x-" indicates either the app has plans to implement the feature in question but hasn't yet done so or that it's current implementation is buggy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You'll notice there are some items in the table that aren't currently implemented by any of the media-center apps (i.e. iTunes server). I put them on the list because I think that in the end these features will become very important to a fully-functioning media-center app. I personally use a number of different software bits to kluge this functionality together when essentially it's all just media-management and playback with some networking thrown for good measure.&lt;br /&gt;Just playing audio and video on your mac-tv via an enlarged interface is all well and good but for the mac-media-center of the future to really shine and take on new meaning for the consumer it will have to offer the ability to manage, browse and access your media collection from wherever you may be in your house or on the planet (ack!).&lt;br /&gt;For example I currently have 160 gig + of music; nice to listen to at home but where it really becomes wondrous is when I can access that music collection while at work or at a friend's house w/ a broadband connection. Same goes for moving from one room to another. There's no reason why we shouldn't expect to be able to watch our video collection from any room in the house. You CAN do this right now w/ a collection of third party apps (see earlier posts on this blog) but it's not that easy to do and requires multiple different pieces of software to manage.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok enough preamble lets get to it!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Front Row&lt;br /&gt;Hmm yeah so this is a special hacked version that *somehow* found it's way onto my sawtooth. Installation wasn't all that hard but you're mileage may vary, dramatically.&lt;br /&gt;Interface:&lt;br /&gt;Is clean and simple, works well from across the room and if you have a late gen iMac or MacBookPro you can control it with your IR remote.&lt;br /&gt;It's not customizable though so if you want a different typeface or the ability to put in a background image of your choosing you're s.o.l.&lt;br /&gt;What you see is what you get.&lt;br /&gt;Media playback:&lt;br /&gt;On my dual 1.3ghz G4 sawtooth the video, iTunes and movie previews played fine. I was in fact most impressed by how apple could get those movie previews to play back so smoothly, pause, rewind etc considering it was all streaming live across the net w/ out any pre-caching. My bandwidth is pretty good (cable) so your mileage may vary. iPhoto browsing caused it to crash every time but that's probably a function of  cramming a piece of hacked software onto my ancient (1999!) sawtooth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MediaCentral&lt;br /&gt;Unlike some of the other media-center apps in this review MediaCentral is actually in release-ready shape (mostly).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/IMG_0001.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/320/IMG_0001.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Interface:&lt;br /&gt;A simple scrolling interface (again no scroll-wheel support) allows you to choose what media you want to browse/play. Confusingly "-" lowers volume while "Shift+" increases it!&lt;br /&gt;DVD Playback:&lt;br /&gt;MediaCentral automatically found my video-ts folders and added them to the list in the "DVD" section, nice. The left/right arrow keys skip backward/forward through scenes however there is no way to fast forward or rewind! I also had an issue when playing a physical DVD there was no way to skip the previews and drop into the DVD menu, argh.&lt;br /&gt;EyeTV &lt;br /&gt;Like CenterStage you can view and playback your EyeTV content however the audio was just as badly out of sync.&lt;br /&gt;It seemed to find my EyeTV device and attempt to access live TV through it ended up hanging just like CenterStage.&lt;br /&gt;Movie Trailers&lt;br /&gt;Like Front Row MediaCentral has a movie trailers section although they aren't quite as smooth and stutter-free in playback.&lt;br /&gt;Music&lt;br /&gt;You get access to your playlists as well as music by artist, album and genre which is pretty dang important. No album art tho' ;-(&lt;br /&gt;WebTV&lt;br /&gt;Unlike the other media-center apps MediaCentral lets you access webTV content by country which is pretty neat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;CenterStage&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/IMG_0005.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/320/IMG_0005.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This project is only in pre-release 0.5 alpha but there is enough here to evaluate where they are going with it. It's worth noting upfront that CenterStage has perhaps the most potential of all the media-center apps out there right now as it takes a "server" and "client" approach where in theory you should be able to have one machine w/ all your media run the "server" (BackStage) and access it from any machine running the "client" (CenterStage).&lt;br /&gt;Interface:&lt;br /&gt;CenterStage wholeheartedly emulates apple's approach with a 3D rotating menu that allows you to select which media format you want to playback.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Looks just as good as Front Row and there is talk of making it customizable in the future. It takes a little while to startup (I assume it's busy launching BackStage) and then drops you into the Front-Row-Alike interface. The scroll wheel on my mouse wouldn't let me navigate in any of the screens, which is a bummer, so I was relegated to either mousing around or using the arrow keys on my wireless keyboard.&lt;br /&gt;Looks like they are going towards an iTunes-type way of managing video media with options for browsing by Title, Actor, Director and Genre.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Seems like a nice way to organize your movie collection however I assume you will have to enter all this information manually as I can't divine how a centralized internet movie database would work given the multitudinous ways in which you can encode movie content. Still for the anal retentive among us it's a must-have feature ;-)&lt;br /&gt;EyeTV&lt;br /&gt;You can browse and playback EyeTV content within the interface or go to fullscreen mode, nice. Problem is that it's unwatchable. The audio is badly out of sync (by like 10 seconds or more) and you can see scan lines in the vide0 image.&lt;br /&gt;As far as live playback/ control of EyeTV goes there is a placeholder for "Firewire DV device" which i assume will allow you to eventually playback the live video stream (perhaps from my firewire equipped set-top box too?!). However it doesn't seem to be enabled yet as I just get a black screen that requires me to quit the program as I can't back out of it using the escape key as one would expect.&lt;br /&gt;The music playback function grabs your iTunes Playlists  and displays the Track, Album and Artist info w/ corresponding album art (if any) which is nice. Would be nicer if they threw in an option to automatically find the album art for those you don't already have (yeah, yeah there are iTunes plug-ins but they don't work all that well when you are dealing w/ 30,000+ songs). As it is the 0.5 alpha seems to deal w/ small playlists fine but choked on my full library.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/IMG_9898.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/320/IMG_9898.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;DVD playback doesn't work yet&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;iTheater&lt;br /&gt;Well they got an alpha version out the door by january 31st so good for the itheaterproject.&lt;br /&gt;Interface:&lt;br /&gt;iTheater uses a scrolling interface (yeah still no scroll-wheel control) similar to MediaCentral) to choose which media-type to play. It's not so mac-tv friendly though as it is too small to read from across the room.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/IMG_0002.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/320/IMG_0002.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That's all you get for right now as there's no functionality included yet (no video or audio playback etc) so it's really just more of a teaser than an actual application.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113909625840941231?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113909625840941231/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113909625840941231' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113909625840941231'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113909625840941231'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/02/mac-media-center-roundup.html' title='mac media-center roundup'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113873126551678518</id><published>2006-01-31T10:11:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-01-31T10:15:20.226-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Media central updated</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/c_image.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/c_image.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;mmk Equinux has updated their Front Row contender MediaCentral.&lt;br /&gt;Dl/ it here:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.equinux.com/us/products/mediacentral/index.html"&gt;MediaCentral&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I will be doing a review of the many Front Row contenders out there tomorrow night w/ pictures et. al so stay tuned.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113873126551678518?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113873126551678518/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113873126551678518' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113873126551678518'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113873126551678518'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/01/media-central-updated.html' title='Media central updated'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113867568209860056</id><published>2006-01-30T18:31:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-01-30T18:50:20.286-08:00</updated><title type='text'>How easy is VNC for controlling your macs?</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/cheeken.png"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/cheeken.png" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;REALLY easy. I mean so easy I setup all 4 of my macs to be controlled via VNC in like 5 minutes (well ok 10 minutes but 5 minutes sounds better).&lt;br /&gt;Here's what you need to do....&lt;br /&gt;On the macs that you will be accessing remotely:&lt;br /&gt;1). Go to the "system preferences" and enable "Apple Remote Desktop" in the "sharing" preference pane.&lt;br /&gt;2). Enable "VNC viewers may control screen with password" (set the password!).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the mac that will control all the others (one ring to bind them all?):&lt;br /&gt;1). Download and startup Chicken of the VNC.&lt;br /&gt;2). Select the mac you want to control from the list of "servers" and enter the password you had setup previously.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That's it!&lt;br /&gt;Unless you're a horribly slow typer you'll have your macs up and running in minutes.&lt;br /&gt;I use VNC to remotely administer my 4 macs around the house when they are all chewing on various pieces of a complex 3d rendering.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/"&gt;Chicken of the VNC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113867568209860056?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113867568209860056/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113867568209860056' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113867568209860056'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113867568209860056'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/01/how-easy-is-vnc-for-controlling-your.html' title='How easy is VNC for controlling your macs?'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113867429746791780</id><published>2006-01-30T18:13:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-01-30T18:26:22.856-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Photo of my media-center setup</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/IMG_9894.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/400/IMG_9894.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's a photo showing my mac-media-center setup.&lt;br /&gt;Items of note:&lt;br /&gt;32" Syntax Olevia HD LCD&lt;br /&gt;dual 1.3ghz sawtooth G4 (from 1999!) w/ 1.5 gig ram running OSX.&lt;br /&gt;La Cie hard-drive and optical drive array.&lt;br /&gt;iSight&lt;br /&gt;Wireless keyboard and mouse from Gyropoint.&lt;br /&gt;Samsung surround sound system w/ region code removed (hard to tell from the photo).&lt;br /&gt;Motorola wireless telephone connected to a voip line (again, hard to tell just by looking at it ;-)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113867429746791780?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113867429746791780/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113867429746791780' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113867429746791780'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113867429746791780'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/01/photo-of-my-media-center-setup.html' title='Photo of my media-center setup'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113867292017920516</id><published>2006-01-30T17:52:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-01-30T18:05:48.886-08:00</updated><title type='text'>iTheater released!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/iTheater-Landed.png"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/iTheater-Landed.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just ran across this like 1 minute ago, which makes it what...5:54pm PST Jan 30th.&lt;br /&gt;Ok so it looks as though the peeps working on one of those Front Row contenders (which makes what, like 5 now?!) has finally got something ready for download.&lt;br /&gt;iTheater RC1 is ready for DL now, which in my time zone puts them 6 hours and 6 minutes ahead of schedule.&lt;br /&gt;Of course it remains to be seen if this will be any real use; given that after installing the hacked Front Row on my media-mac I was singularly unimpressed.&lt;br /&gt;I guess I'll just have to see for myself and get back to you on this one.&lt;br /&gt;In the mean time if you want to take it for spin yourself the link's at the bottom of this post, njoi!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://itheaterproject.com/ "&gt;iTheater - a Front Row alternative&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113867292017920516?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113867292017920516/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113867292017920516' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113867292017920516'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113867292017920516'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/01/itheater-released.html' title='iTheater released!'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113867199462156794</id><published>2006-01-30T17:26:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-01-30T17:50:17.083-08:00</updated><title type='text'>EyeTV 2 not all it's cracked up to be.</title><content type='html'>Ok so after my last breathless post about El Gato's long-awaited update to their DVR software I'm circling back around to highlight some of the features they inexplicably missed implementing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1). No ability to set a "record by keyword" or "smart record" function.&lt;br /&gt;So you know how your TiVo (or Replay for that matter) allows you to record all shows with "hot chicken" in the title for ever and ever? Well El Gato doesn't think this feature is very worthwhile evidently. Me, I have a hard time living without it. Imagine if you will that you're trying to find and record all Battlestar Galactica shows ad infinitum for that collection of classic sc-fi you're making for your sig-other. Well with EyeTV you'd have to do the "search for shows" function every two weeks to make sure you haven't missed any new air times that were added (or deleted for that matter). Whereas TiVo-type boxes will allow you to simply create a Battlestar Galactica "channel" or "favorite" and it will automatically search for and add new air times to your recording schedule w/out your attention until long after your dead (or your subscription runs out, I wonder if the life-time subscription would still apply here...I digress).&lt;br /&gt;Why does Tivo do this and El Gato does not you ask?&lt;br /&gt;Because TiVo et. al. use a rules-based recording methodology which attempts to automatically record shows based upon  cascading priorities and how much storage space you have.&lt;br /&gt;IMHO El Gato has missed a great opportunity here to take advantage of some of the more powerful features of a software controlled DVR, pre-emptive intelligence!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2). No ability to select (or delete for that matter) more than one show at a time.&lt;br /&gt;Why?!&lt;br /&gt;This is simply nuts; I mean COME ON guys! The mac's finder has allowed you to select and delete more than one file via shift-clicking since, well, day one! This is so annoying I can't even begin to tell you (ok I just did but I feel the need to continue)!!&lt;br /&gt;Here I am click-delete-click-delete-click-delete individually deleting each recorded episode of the Daily Show that was recorded while I was on vacation. ARGH!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok I need to stop now before I have an aneuryism (sp.?) but I'll get back to this topic later.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113867199462156794?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113867199462156794/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113867199462156794' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113867199462156794'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113867199462156794'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/01/eyetv-2-not-all-its-cracked-up-to-be.html' title='EyeTV 2 not all it&apos;s cracked up to be.'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113694279722658303</id><published>2006-01-10T17:22:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-01-10T17:26:37.243-08:00</updated><title type='text'>FINALLY a decent DVR app for the mac</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/eyetv_home_en4.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/eyetv_home_en4.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yeah El Gato has finally gotten around to making their Eye TV DVR software useable by incorporating program information directly into the application.&lt;br /&gt;No more back and forth between Eye TV and your web browser to check Titan TV for program info and recording.&lt;br /&gt;There is a catch tho' (isn't there always?), they're charging $49 (and that's the discount rate!).&lt;br /&gt;This should be a free update for all us loyal Eye TV purchasers.&lt;br /&gt;Still, my TiVo and Replay friends will finally stop laughing at me ;-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetvmain&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113694279722658303?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113694279722658303/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113694279722658303' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113694279722658303'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113694279722658303'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/01/finally-decent-dvr-app-for-mac.html' title='FINALLY a decent DVR app for the mac'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113685200874683252</id><published>2006-01-09T16:06:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2006-01-09T16:15:30.496-08:00</updated><title type='text'>a fun little app for browsing your albums</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/iTunesBrowserThumb.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/iTunesBrowserThumb.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's an interesting little standalone app that compiles all your album art into a nifty little program that allows you to visually browse your collection and choose which album to play.&lt;br /&gt;You'll need iTunes of course but if you haven't bothered to go and find your album art yet this program will check out amazon.com and d/l it for you (tho it appears to keep it in it's own directory iTunes won't see it).&lt;br /&gt;Nice little app tho' could be hard time browsing via album covers for those of us w/ 30,000+ songs in our collection.&lt;br /&gt;(courtesy of Dave)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.steelskies.com/coverflow/&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113685200874683252?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113685200874683252/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113685200874683252' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113685200874683252'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113685200874683252'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2006/01/fun-little-app-for-browsing-your.html' title='a fun little app for browsing your albums'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113382118195130759</id><published>2005-12-05T14:14:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-12-05T14:21:20.113-08:00</updated><title type='text'>ANOTHER freakin' media-center app</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/genie_commands.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/genie_commands.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How many of these things will we have to put-up with until apple releases a media-center app for non-imac users?&lt;br /&gt;Well if the rumours are to be believed it's until January when the new mac mini mediacenter comes out.&lt;br /&gt;Ok so until then why don't you check out Genie Commands.&lt;br /&gt;It looks to be a simple way to build a visual front end (i.e. BIG TEXT and BUTTONS) that launches other apps (like DVD player etc) or calls scripts.&lt;br /&gt;Not exactly rocket science but then maybe this is all you need ;-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.geniecommands.com/"&gt;Genie Commands&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113382118195130759?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113382118195130759/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113382118195130759' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113382118195130759'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113382118195130759'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/12/another-freakin-media-center-app.html' title='ANOTHER freakin&apos; media-center app'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113382058506700453</id><published>2005-12-05T14:01:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-12-05T14:20:32.643-08:00</updated><title type='text'>sharing your itunes library over the internet</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/dot_tunes.png"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/dot_tunes.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While there have been a few applications out there for a while that will let you stream your iTunes library over the internet to remote users (and even for them to control what iTunes plays through a web interface) there has been no easy way to allow folks to actually download your music over the internet.&lt;br /&gt;Well, now there is.&lt;br /&gt;dot-tunes is an app with a built-in web-server that will let you share your music for download over the internet, nice!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.dotpod.net/"&gt;dot-tunes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now if the would just build a streaming and control interface into this thing it would be the purrfect all-in-one solution for sharing your music library with your friends....&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113382058506700453?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113382058506700453/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113382058506700453' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113382058506700453'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113382058506700453'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/12/sharing-your-itunes-library-over.html' title='sharing your itunes library over the internet'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113328695014168056</id><published>2005-11-29T09:48:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-12-05T14:22:00.836-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Apple finally get's the mac-mini DVR going...?</title><content type='html'>Think Secret is reporting that Apple is finally getting their Mac-mini in play as a home media hub by adding an iPod dock and DVR functionality.&lt;br /&gt;Will be interesting to see how a celeron decodes/encodes HD stream, so it would seem a decent ATI video card would be necessary.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0511macmini2.html"&gt;mac mini mediacenter rumors&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113328695014168056?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113328695014168056/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113328695014168056' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113328695014168056'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113328695014168056'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/apple-finally-gets-mac-mini-dvr-going.html' title='Apple finally get&apos;s the mac-mini DVR going...?'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113320438571928859</id><published>2005-11-28T10:55:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-28T11:04:09.906-08:00</updated><title type='text'>CoverBuddy: PSP iTunes remote</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/coverbuddy1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/coverbuddy1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This just in from Dave, a piece of software for osX that turns your PSP into a remote for iTunes using the PSP's built-in wireless capability.&lt;br /&gt;Very interesting, now if this would only let you control everything on your mac it could obviate the need for a multi-function remote...or how about a desktop mirror capability?..hmmm&lt;br /&gt;http://www.coverbuddy.com/&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113320438571928859?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113320438571928859/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113320438571928859' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113320438571928859'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113320438571928859'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/coverbuddy-psp-itunes-remote.html' title='CoverBuddy: PSP iTunes remote'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113207611370542931</id><published>2005-11-15T09:33:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-15T09:37:32.543-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Another source for mac media center info</title><content type='html'>The pure-mac site has a page that collects alot of info regarding all the little software widgets and hardware bits that help you homebrew a mac media center.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.pure-mac.com/mediacenter.html"&gt;pure-mac.com/mediacenter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113207611370542931?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113207611370542931/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113207611370542931' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113207611370542931'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113207611370542931'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/another-source-for-mac-media-center.html' title='Another source for mac media center info'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113198813815724383</id><published>2005-11-14T09:05:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-15T09:38:26.060-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Powerbook sleep improvement for the rest of us.</title><content type='html'>Apparently some wiseacre has managed to duplicate Apple's new "save desktop &amp; window state on sleep" function that they implemented in the new 1.64 ghz powerbooks for the rest of us.&lt;br /&gt;Another way of putting it is "safe sleep" or "hibernate" as your powerbook no longer consumes power (whereas normal sleeping does) allowing you to swap out batteries etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.andrewescobar.com/archive/2005/11/11/how-to-safe-sleep-your-mac/"&gt;how-to mac hibernation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113198813815724383?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113198813815724383/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113198813815724383' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113198813815724383'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113198813815724383'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/powerbook-sleep-improvement-for-rest.html' title='Powerbook sleep improvement for the rest of us.'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113198791318467597</id><published>2005-11-14T09:01:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-15T09:40:48.013-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Another mac media center app under development?!</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://www.mh1.de/page5/files/page5_1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://www.mh1.de/page5/files/page5_1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Apparently it's true, another mac media center app is under development, this time by an individual and not form a group of developers.&lt;br /&gt;The nice thing about this one is that it's being built to grab and play EyeTV content!&lt;br /&gt;It's called Media Central and the chap who is developing it is called Martin Hering.&lt;br /&gt;Go Martin!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.mh1.de/page5/page5.html"&gt;mac MediaCenter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113198791318467597?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113198791318467597/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113198791318467597' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113198791318467597'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113198791318467597'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/another-mac-media-center-app-under.html' title='Another mac media center app under development?!'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113146793995674871</id><published>2005-11-08T08:37:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-15T09:51:43.676-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Good site for EyeTV scripts</title><content type='html'>Some nice scripts here for controlling EyeTV, remote streaming of content and live TV windows to other macs.&lt;br /&gt;Some very nice stuff here.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.macmediacenter.de/taxonomy/term/32"&gt;EyeTV scripts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113146793995674871?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113146793995674871/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113146793995674871' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113146793995674871'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113146793995674871'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/good-site-for-eyetv-scripts.html' title='Good site for EyeTV scripts'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113146785868837330</id><published>2005-11-08T08:36:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-08T08:37:38.703-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Good reviews of ConvertX and EyeTV 200 DVRs</title><content type='html'>http://www.schwarztech.us/reviews/plextorconvertx.shtml&lt;br /&gt;http://www.schwarztech.us/reviews/elgatoeyetv200.shtml&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113146785868837330?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113146785868837330/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113146785868837330' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113146785868837330'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113146785868837330'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/good-reviews-of-convertx-and-eyetv-200.html' title='Good reviews of ConvertX and EyeTV 200 DVRs'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113097990869571372</id><published>2005-11-02T16:57:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-02T17:05:08.696-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Griffin AirClick RF remote hacked to work for Front Row</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/airclick.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/airclick.gif" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This should work with your Front Row running on an unsupported machine.&lt;br /&gt;http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=62733&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113097990869571372?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113097990869571372/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113097990869571372' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097990869571372'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097990869571372'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/griffin-airclick-rf-remote-hacked-to.html' title='Griffin AirClick RF remote hacked to work for Front Row'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113097933822759936</id><published>2005-11-02T16:46:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-02T16:55:38.230-08:00</updated><title type='text'>New apple remote and universal ipod dock review</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/accessoriesdock20051011.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/accessoriesdock20051011.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I managed to pick up one of the new Apple universal iPod docks and IR remote yesterday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First impressions of the dock:&lt;br /&gt;Works fine, no issues to speak of.&lt;br /&gt;Universal snap-in adapters work well and seem like a great idea for standardizing the ipod physical interface.&lt;br /&gt;It's nice to know that no matter what iPod/s you buy over time they will all work with the dock.&lt;br /&gt;Expect to see third-party vendors making universal adapter compliant devices in the near future, which is good for everyone 'cause as it stands right now every third-party device that physically interfaces with the iPod uses it's own wacky method for accomodating various iPod models with no gauarantee that it will support future iPod models.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First impressions of the remote:&lt;br /&gt;Don't bother.&lt;br /&gt;Really, don't.&lt;br /&gt;It will only let you control the iPod in the dock (the IR signals are NOT passed through the dock to the computer for those of you hoping it would somehow let you control Front Row on your "unsupported" machine) and the features it lets you control are basic to say the least.&lt;br /&gt;In fact all it will let you do is hit play and move forward and backward through the tracks in your library, one by one!&lt;br /&gt;No changing between playlists, no volume control.&lt;br /&gt;It's so basic as to be almost completely useless.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113097933822759936?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113097933822759936/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113097933822759936' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097933822759936'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097933822759936'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/new-apple-remote-and-universal-ipod.html' title='New apple remote and universal ipod dock review'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113097874063098009</id><published>2005-11-02T16:32:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-02T16:45:40.650-08:00</updated><title type='text'>front row on my G4 media center</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/frontrowtour20051013.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/frontrowtour20051013.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So as many of you are aware there are cracked versions of Front Row available on the web that allow you to install this on any mac (the Apple released version of the software comes free w. the new iMac g5 and only works on that hardware).&lt;br /&gt;I got it up and running on my g4 sawtooth w/ some caveats:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1). It won't run DVD's, you'll need the new Apple DVD player software to allow Front Row to do this. Luckily some wags have managed to grab this off someone's new iMac g5.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2). For some reason iPhoto doesn't work so well on my mac, it'll show the preview images to the right of the album listing but just returns an error when you select one of the albums.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's a link to the original article on TUAW:&lt;br /&gt;http://www.tuaw.com/2005/10/24/reader-video-front-row-on-a-mac-mini/&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's a link to the files you will need to get Front Row up and running:&lt;br /&gt;http://rapidshare.de/files/6821045/Front_Row.zip.html&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113097874063098009?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113097874063098009/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113097874063098009' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097874063098009'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097874063098009'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/front-row-on-my-g4-media-center.html' title='front row on my G4 media center'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113097730745833293</id><published>2005-11-02T16:16:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-02T16:28:05.500-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Mac resolution setting software</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/displayconfigx.1.gif"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/displayconfigx.0.gif" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have been using Switchres X to implement custom resolution settings on my mac (so that it can output the correct video signal to my LCD TV) until yesterday.&lt;br /&gt;http://www.madrau.com/html/SRX/indexSRX.html&lt;br /&gt;The mac update 10.4.3 broke it so I downloaded and installed DisplayConfigX which seems to be working fine and be FREE!&lt;br /&gt;http://www.3dexpress.de/&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113097730745833293?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113097730745833293/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113097730745833293' title='5 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097730745833293'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097730745833293'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/mac-resolution-setting-software.html' title='Mac resolution setting software'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>5</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-113097671609465057</id><published>2005-11-02T16:07:00.000-08:00</published><updated>2005-11-02T16:32:01.633-08:00</updated><title type='text'>Mac firewire HD recorder</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/1600/front6200_mtfrmt.0.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3770/1104/200/front6200_mtfrmt.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here's a link to an article on how to turn your mac and motorola cable box into a HD DVR using the box's firewire out and a custom piece of software.&lt;br /&gt;http://macteens.com/more.php?id=410_0_1_0_C&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-113097671609465057?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/113097671609465057/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=113097671609465057' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097671609465057'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/113097671609465057'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/11/mac-firewire-hd-recorder.html' title='Mac firewire HD recorder'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12825211.post-111584361055853427</id><published>2005-05-11T13:14:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2005-05-11T13:33:59.476-07:00</updated><title type='text'>How to turn your old G4 tower into a mac media center</title><content type='html'>Overview:&lt;br /&gt;How to build the ultimate media center w/ an old G4 tower (Sawtooth).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have been spending a lot of time working on this project (being the geekboy that I am) and have finally got it all working just right and i have to say that it is a pleasure to use.&lt;br /&gt;It works very well as an iTunes jukebox, streamer, DVD player, DVD jukebox, web-browser, gaming machine, watching and archiving TV (DVR), video conferencing box as well as all the standard features a computer might have.&lt;br /&gt;The system started out as a G4 (sawtooth) that I bought new way back in 1999.&lt;br /&gt;It has been subject to many and varied upgrades over the years and continues to put in excellent service, and now is the center piece of a fully functional media center.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First I am going to go through the hardware that the system is built from:&lt;br /&gt;G4 tower (sawtooth) w/ a dual 1.3GHZ upgrade (Powerlogix w/ the 7457), 832 MB RAM, 3 port firewire card &amp; ATI Radeon 8500.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Internal drives are:&lt;br /&gt;10GB HD/ 60GB HD/ 80GB HD/ Hitachi DVD-ROM (came w/ the machine)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;External drives (all LaCie connected via firewire):&lt;br /&gt;120 GB HD/ 250GB HD/ CDRW/ DVD-R/RW+&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other external firewire devices:&lt;br /&gt;iSight (for video conferencing), eyeTV200 (DVR)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Display:&lt;br /&gt;Syntax Olevia lt32HV (for watch things, like TV and DVD's ;-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Input devices:&lt;br /&gt;Gyration ULTRA RF gyro mouse and keyboard (for the Mac)&lt;br /&gt;Harmony H659 remote (for the TV, receiver &amp; eyeTV)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Surround sound (for getting an optical out from my old G4 to the Samsung so I can get surround sound from DVD and games played on the computer)USB device:&lt;br /&gt;m-Audio Transit&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Surround sound receiver (to decode the surround sound and power the speakers as well as play DVD's w/out the computer):&lt;br /&gt;Samsung HTDS-610&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;phew&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ok the to get the best picture out of the LCD TV:&lt;br /&gt;The LCD TV is connected via a dual-link DVI cable to the ATI Radeon 8500.&lt;br /&gt;To force the Radeon to output to the TV at it's native resolution (1366x768) I use a nifty piece of software calle Switchres X, Config X is another option.&lt;br /&gt;Turns out that the setting (front porch et. al) for the mac-mini worked just fine for my old Radeon card. These settings were very hard for me to find and very difficult to determine by trial and error so I am going to post them here in case someone needs them (note these settings vary by LCD TV and video card so they may not work for you).&lt;br /&gt;Pixel Clock 81MHz&lt;br /&gt;Active H1360 V786&lt;br /&gt;Front Porch H48 V1&lt;br /&gt;Sync Width H248 V30&lt;br /&gt;Back Porch H112 V3&lt;br /&gt;Scan rate H45.814Khz V57.125kHz&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I did try using the TV's VGA input but it sucked. I didn't even bother w/ the s-video from the Radeon as that would no doubt suck even more.&lt;br /&gt;As it is the DVI Dual-link is crystal clear, dot for dot.&lt;br /&gt;The monitor is also an excellent value, great picture for any LCD, comparable to the much more expensive Sharps et al. This one only cost me @$1200 after rebates from Target and I can highly recommend it to anyone. Not a single dead pixel. The scaler is very good, but by using the computer as an input device I am already using a better scaler anyhoo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Control device:&lt;br /&gt;The Gyration ULTRA worked out of the box w/ out any special drivers whatsoever. It works great out to about 10 feet and then quickly loses functionality. It is also sensitive to RF interference; for example if my powerbook is open and connected via airport to the house' network it will interfere w/ the Gyration if it is between the received and the mouse. Other RF devices within the sight line also seem to cause problems.&lt;br /&gt;Keyboard is a tad bit touchy, sometimes dropping letters if you type too fast or are too far away.&lt;br /&gt;Once you are aware of it's limitations it is actually an excellent interface device for a mediacenter mac, working as both a mouse on the coffe table and as pointer in the air.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Remote Control:&lt;br /&gt;Harmony h659.&lt;br /&gt;I can't say enough about this remote. It works great, was super easy to configure using it's web-interface, even setting up macros automatically (i.e "Watch TV" turns on the TV and the video receiver at the same time etc). and flawlessly controls all my IR devices.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Receiver:&lt;br /&gt;Samsung HTDS-610&lt;br /&gt;As a surround sound system it ain't bad for a cheapo-out-of-the-box product and it has optical in for surround sound from the mac (if you can find the right codes on the web you can use the remote control to force this puppy to play DVD's from ANY region regardless of their encoding, nice!).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Can this thing really burn a CD, play music, browse the web and let you watch TV all at the same time?&lt;br /&gt;Yes, it can.&lt;br /&gt;And no, it doesn't stutter, lose frames or burn coasters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why all those hard-drives?&lt;br /&gt;They might seems like overkill, but they fill up fast.&lt;br /&gt;My music library is 160GB which takes up one complete hard-drive.&lt;br /&gt;Movies occupy two of the others.&lt;br /&gt;Recorded eyeTV content occupies one.&lt;br /&gt;The boot drive is the smallest drive at 10GB.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why all those optical drives?&lt;br /&gt;Yeah a 48x CD burner, 16x DVD burner and a 8x DVD-Rom are overkill; I agree. However they were added one at a time over time and there is a great benefit w/ having 3 optical drives. When I acquire a bunch of new cd's i can load up 3 at a time and w/ iTunes preferences set to auto-import new CD's it will automatically rip those 3 cd's in sequence and add to my music library automatically, nice!&lt;br /&gt;I can rip a DVD, burn a cd and play a cd at the same time (aack!).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Does the eyeTV 200 really measure up to a TiVo or Replay DVR?&lt;br /&gt;Yes, and NO.&lt;br /&gt;The eyeTV is great because I can remotely setup recordings from any web access point, archive and share content and take it with me on my laptop if I want all as MPEG-4 files.&lt;br /&gt;The only real problem is that compared to a dedicated DVR it's interface sucks, and that's a BIG thing for a media management device.&lt;br /&gt;Proceed with caution!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Doesn't that old radeon 8500 let you down?&lt;br /&gt;Apparently not. I was concerned that it would be the bottleneck in the system (for FPS games and other graphics intensive stuff) but it chugs along fine as long you don't set your game's resolution above 800x600.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Software glue:&lt;br /&gt;There a number of nifty little pieces of shareware that make the whole user experience *much* more enjoyable and you should check these out regardless of your system configuration.&lt;br /&gt;iTunes:&lt;br /&gt;Note: I set the iTunes preferences to display "large text" so it was easier to read the track listings from across the room and DO NOT "keep iTunes music organized" as this will destroy the location sensitivity of compilation albums tracks on your HD which in turn will make it nigh impossible to keep it all organized should you add another music collection to yours at a later date.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;find album artwork w/ google&lt;br /&gt;Best applescript for this i've found so far.&lt;br /&gt;JewelCase&lt;br /&gt;This will put a rotating CD case displaying w/ artwork in fullscreen on the TV w/ a complete track listing for the current album and note the current playing track.&lt;br /&gt;Nicecast&lt;br /&gt;For streaming my music over the web, my friends and I can tune into this virtual radio station anytime we like.&lt;br /&gt;webremote&lt;br /&gt;This little piece of software allows people listening to my internet radio station to queue up music and turn the mac into a remote virtual jukebox from any computer w. a web interface, nice!. Another option would be browsertunes, which is promised to have a jukebox feature as part of it's next release.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;DVD's:&lt;br /&gt;mactheRipper- &lt;ahem&gt; I don't use this, i just like it ;-)&lt;br /&gt;VLC- for watching DVD's&lt;br /&gt;Roxio popcorn- for archiving your dvd's&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Watching TV:&lt;br /&gt;Switchres X- (crucial to getting your video signal correctly setup to output to your LCD TV)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;and that's all for now.&lt;br /&gt;I may add more to this article as i get the time/ inclination.&lt;br /&gt;njoi!&lt;br /&gt;Adz&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/12825211-111584361055853427?l=macmediacenter.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/feeds/111584361055853427/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=12825211&amp;postID=111584361055853427' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/111584361055853427'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/12825211/posts/default/111584361055853427'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://macmediacenter.blogspot.com/2005/05/how-to-turn-your-old-g4-tower-into-mac.html' title='How to turn your old G4 tower into a mac media center'/><author><name>Adam Aronson</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05115658556853482447</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry></feed>
