Here’s what you need to know about the new Apple TV.Apple released their Apple TV device which is anticipated to revolutionize the downloadable media industry by merging computer activity with couch potato time.
• Connects computers (Mac and PC) to televisions• Essentially an iPod for your TV; copies computer files to the device
• Copies one computer’s movies, photos, TV shows, videoclips and music
• Can also stream media from five other computers without copying
• Works with both wired and wireless networks
• Only works with iTunes media–meaning you can’t use it to watch YouTube videos on your TV, as Netgear’s new EVA8000 box does
• Only works with widescreen TVs
• Holds 50 hours of video
• If you pause a movie, TV show or song on your iPod, Apple TV remembers your place when you continue watching/listening on your TV
Now if only they could solve finding our remote, we'd be all set...
Now THE BIG QUESTION is how do you see this being used in the local church?
(via The Intelligence Group)
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1 comment:
The EVA8000 that you mentioned is probably going to be a lot more versatile for your ministry. The Apple TV is intentionally crippled to only accept video from specific places (read: iTunes) and in specific formats. It is, more or less, another vehicle for Apple to try to sell you licenses for its media library.
But with an EVA8000 you can take a donated machine of an older vintage, slap a $100 hard disk in it and install Linux. Drop all of your videos onto this "server". TV's at various points around the church can be synchronized (in "party mode") or can operate independently of one another. You've got 802.11g wireless built-in, and support for 1080p HDTV (Apple only goes to 720p).
Other than the glamorous name and likely more polished (though minimalist) software interface, I don't see the point of going with Apple while the Netgear box is available at a similar price point and will offer your ministry far greater flexibility.
If you go this route, check out the free VideoLAN media player which can not only stream to the EVA8000, it can transcode DVD's into the efficient h.264 codec to store your videos on the cheap Linux box I mentioned earlier. VideoLAN runs on just about any kind of operating system so it's not a Linux-only thing.
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