A good alternative to an Apple TV?

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Level 2

265 points

A good alternative to an Apple TV?

Hello.

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for an alternative to Apple TV. I'd love to get an Apple TV (been a Mac user for over 15 years), but the limitations of it (mainly, no external HD support, inability to play various video formats) are too much to make it useful to me. Basically, I'm just looking for an alternative to my current set-up (an old Powerbook 12", 500GB external HD, $5 IR-receiver, Apple Remote, Remote Buddy, VLC — all connected via VGA to a TV). I'm getting tired up plugging in and unplugging when I want to use as a media center vs laptop use (surfing web & email only).

Right now I'm considering a used Mac Mini (can get a G4 1.25Ghz for around $300), but wondering if anyone has any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Kristin.

20" Intel iMac 2.16Ghz, 12" PowerBook G4 1.33Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.2), 8GB Nano, Epson R2400, Canon 30D

Posted on Feb 2, 2009 9:48 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 2, 2009 10:02 AM in response to kristin.

Kristin,

First off, I have 3 AppleTV's in my network and they are awesome. That being said, my friend uses a linux environment and has shown me and uses Elisa: http://elisa.fluendo.com/

Pretty easy to setup and should be able to run on a minimal system specs. Can work w/ Windows and Linux currently.

Hope that helps,
Tom

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Answer 2

kristin. Author

Level 2

265 points

Feb 2, 2009 10:06 AM in response to twitzgall

Yea, like I said, I'd love an Apple TV, but not possible for me as I have a 500GB external HD filled with video that I don't want to convert to Apple TV formatted video and then stream from another Mac (since the Apple TV can't use the external HD).

I'll check out the link though!
k.

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Answer 3

Feb 2, 2009 10:12 AM in response to twitzgall

Elisa is an excellent alternative. Like TWIT said, easy to set up and economical. I've got it running on an Ubuntu 8.10 box, works like a charm. It's also written in py so it's pretty modular with plugins and what not.

Another one is XBMC, but to e honest I had nothing but problems with that one. The XBMC interface looks cooler, unfortunately it has horrid performance in my environment but your milage may vary with it.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

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Answer 4

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,560 points

Feb 2, 2009 10:52 AM in response to kristin.

kristin. wrote:

Right now I'm considering a used Mac Mini (can get a G4 1.25Ghz for around $300), but wondering if anyone has any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Kristin.

Mac mini might well be a good option - you might want to consider looking at refurbished prices on your local Apple Store website as well as the G4 option (is your Powerbook a similar spec - if sothe G4 shoudl be adequate for your video needs assuming the powerbook handles things well). I would not be surprised if there's a new Mac Mini released in the near future as it's getting long in the tooth.

Another poster mentions the Xbox media center (XBMC) - without going into too much detail you may find that web site of interest, it offers other possibilities if you don't have an Xbox...

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Answer 5

kristin. Author

Level 2

265 points

Apr 8, 2009 12:14 PM in response to kristin.

Ended up going with an ATV, though "opened it up" to other formats etc.

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