Where’s the TV Tuner?
Steve Job’s displayed Apple’s new media center(ish) product today called iTV, which seems like a pretty cool product! I can leave the noisy PC, with a 1TB storage array in my office, while this sleek little box sits below my yet to be acquired 50″ flat panel display and streams my content. There’s just one thing missing before I buy, a TV tuner & PVR solution that integrates seamlessly into Apple’s Front Row application. I didn’t hear a mention of such a feature yet, so my wallet remains safely in the pocket (Don’t worry honey, I promise to check with you before I buy).
Here’s what I am using until Apple comes through. I originally setup MythTV on an old Linux box. This worked great until I wanted to try my hand at placeshifting, which is when I bought the SageTV suite and installed it on top of of Windows. It has this cool Java applet that I can use to watch TV from anywhere in the world. I’ve even streamed my favorite show, Good Eats with Alton Brown, over a wireless EVDO connection while staying at a relative’s house in the rugged foothills of Northern California. Since I already had the old PC and a video capture card, this whole setup gave me the same functionality as a TiVO and a Sling Box for a very reasonable $100.00. So, Mr Jobs, this is your competition. Please review SageTV’s feature set and let me know when you have a comparable product.