Subscription TV
TIVO and ReplayTV introduced us to a new way of watching television, conveniently time-shifted watching. A disposable recording of previously selected content allowed us to consume the TV broadcast whenever we wanted; maybe just 15 minutes delayed, to skip over commercials, the next day, or whenever we felt was a good time to watch it. Anyway, time-shifted watching has changed the way we watch TV today and with the exception of sporting events, long gone seems the time of appointment TV, were millions would tune in to the same channel at the same time to consume the same broadcast.
An even greater change is just beginning to unfold, what TIVO did to the time of TV consumption, devices like the announced Apple iTV will do the the content that we are going to watch. While TIVO and ReplayTV were put between the cable-box and the TV-set, iTV connects your TV-set to the Internet and thereby enabling your TV to display content not governed by TV Networks or cable providers.
Watching TV may soon involve subscribing to a show (not available on any broadcast or cable channel, like a video Podcast for instance), which is then downloaded regularly to a computer at your home and available for you to watch whenever you like.
A couple of days ago, I had the chance to pick up one of the first Intel-based Apple MacMini, which come with an Intel Core Solo processor, 512 MByte of RAM and a 60 GByte Hard-drive; the perfect machine to be converted into an TV-Internet Connector and to try out, how Subscription-TV would work for me.
An even greater change is just beginning to unfold, what TIVO did to the time of TV consumption, devices like the announced Apple iTV will do the the content that we are going to watch. While TIVO and ReplayTV were put between the cable-box and the TV-set, iTV connects your TV-set to the Internet and thereby enabling your TV to display content not governed by TV Networks or cable providers.
Watching TV may soon involve subscribing to a show (not available on any broadcast or cable channel, like a video Podcast for instance), which is then downloaded regularly to a computer at your home and available for you to watch whenever you like.
A couple of days ago, I had the chance to pick up one of the first Intel-based Apple MacMini, which come with an Intel Core Solo processor, 512 MByte of RAM and a 60 GByte Hard-drive; the perfect machine to be converted into an TV-Internet Connector and to try out, how Subscription-TV would work for me.
Connecting the MacMini to a TV
The first task was connecting the MacMini to the TV, which required an DVI-to-Video adapter. The DVI to Video Adapter connects the DVI port on the MacMini to any S-Video or Composite input on the TV-set. While S-Video is preferable over composite, my TV-set only has one S-video input, which was already occupied by the DVD-Player. Now, the MacMini would also serve perfectly fine as a DVD-Player but would enforce region codes, prevent playback of certain discs in certain geographical regions. A feature we successfully removed from the DVD-Player.
Connecting the MacMini to the Internet
Since the MacMini came with built-in wireless network support, (i.e. AirPort Extreme, an industry-standard, 802.11g-compatible wireless network adapter), connecting the MacMini to the Internet was easy and quickly done. Most time was probably spent, finding a good spot for the tiny computer, both close enough to the TV and also providing the best possible signal strength from the WiFI router.
Subscribing to Content
After connectivity to TV and Internet was achieved, it was time to subscribe and download some content. Since I already had subscribed to some audio and video Podcasts on my Laptop, getting content loaded on to the MacMini was as easy as exporting the subscription on one computer and importing it on the other. iTunes for instance imports and exports podcast-subscriptions in the commonly used opml file format.With 60 GBytes, the MacMini's harddrive-capacity seems to be sufficient, but still warrants some caution. Downloading only the most recent - and keeping only the last three episode from every subscription however is a reasonable configuration, which even a couple weeks down the road, should keep us out of trouble.
After importing the opml file and configuring iTunes' Podcast settings, the MacMini started downloading content. Navigating the directory and selecting a Podcast for watching is fun and intuitive with the beautiful 10-foot user interface (the MacMini came with FrontRow built-in and an incredible easy to use six button remote control).
Maintaining the Headless MacMini
I think the MacMini fits aesthetically in almost every environment but I certainly did not want to have keyboard and mouse connected to the computer. A couple final configuration steps were necessary, to keep the MacMini in an almost maintenance free headless mode.iTunes Podcast Configuration:
Enable Remote Login in the System Preferences' Sharing settings, to be able to use a VNC client like Chicken of the VNC or RealVNC later.
Login Items (Application that run when a user logs in)
Since I have the MacMini configured to with automatic login enabled, these apps start whenever the MacMini gets (re-)started.
The Energy Saver is configured to put the computer to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. While iTunes is configured to check for new content once every hour, it will only do so, if the computer is running and not in sleep mode. Waking the computer once every night to have iTunes check for content seemed to be a good idea.
The revolution has begun
Watching TV on your own schedule makes it much more enjoyable. Being able to watch the content that you want and not that what the major networks want you watch, will fundamentally change not only the consumption experience but also all related industries, including production studios, major networks, and distributors.
[All Photos: (c) 2006 wolfpaulus.com]