Hardware decoder would also be very useful in a PVR situation, since many people do watch live TV with it. Which means encoding and decoding happens simultaneously.
As you say, probably irrelevant with today's hardware. And irrelevant if the source, as you wisely point out, is already MPEG-2, and with no transcoding necessary. Was your G3 deinterlacing?
Still, that resolution's a real kicker. And storage is an important factor. Probably at that resolution, disk I/O will be a real issue with the Mini's HDD; although, I don't know for certain, they probably upped the RPM for the Intel Minis. Certainly, storage space will be an issue. But since a Mini PVR will already be utilizing an external tuner, it might as well use a few external hard drives (or a file server)...hard drives designed to look nice in the entertainment center. Apple could set up a bunch of nice peripherals for it.
Going back to the article, I'm curious what the compared XP HTPCs were like. My Athlon XP-based MythTV box, in an nMedia 200SA microATX case, is as quiet as my G4 Mini ever was.
Note that H.264 is a derivative of MPEG; in fact, it is MPEG-4.
HDTV is typically transmitted as MPEG-2. This codec by itself is much less processing intensive than anything MPEG-4 (DivX, H.264, what-have-you) - it's the same used to compress DVD video. But what's saved in complexity is more than compensated for in outright resolution; HD uses significantly more pixels than DVD video (which in itself is high resolution compared to standard def TV), to the order of almost 3 times as many in the case of 720p (exactly 3 times as many in 1080i - not that it matters too much, since post-processing deinterlacing eats up a good bit of CPU in itself...and...well, forget 1080p). That's a lot of extra pixels. Ignoring operating systems, processors, and the rest, this is a tough cookie for any computer.
Still, I dare say any modern PC, no matter what the OS, can decode MPEG-2 at 720 just fine - maybe even 1080. I say this because I've never thrown an MPEG-2 that any PC of mine, since running Duron 600's, hasn't liked; although, never one at full HD res. But I still remain faithful.
That said, PVR'ing content of that kind of resolution, which essentially involves constant recording to disk, is enormously more demanding on any PC. So it all depends on the input card/adapter; I'm pretty sure no HD video adapter doesn't come with some kind of video compression chip on it. My standard def Hauppauge comes with an MPEG-2 encoder, without which my MythTV PVR would be a sight more skippy - it would be silly that HDTV tuners wouldn't, either.
All that said, I think little (performance-wise) depends on the software, and more attention should be paid to the hardware, which in the case of the new Macs is very similar to many PC's (or laptop, I should say). Worth noting that a Mac PVR probably would be specifically tied into Quicktime and iTunes, and dealing seamlessly with iPod Videos - a major plus for the majority.
Anybody know if Linux with MythTV can be installed onto an Intel Mac of any sort, and combined with a USB based tuner?
I'd venture to guess that most of the "public" knows nothing about OS X being more secure than Windows (as it isn't really an advertised fact)
You'd venture slightly wrong, then, because two of my friends, both of whom work at the Apple Retail Store in Manhattan, often tout OS X's purported "invulnerability" to all forms of malware to questioning customers.
Obviously, this only means that those who go shopping for a Mac and specifically ask about security to an Apple store salesperson will know. But they do advertise security compared to windows, when asked.
You're absolutely right on that... My laptop doesn't have a swappable drive bay (its slimline drive is "integrated," according to Acer), but it sure does use a power brick with a standard-looking barrel plug.
I think the main issue for people is that most don't want to have a big brick/box hanging off their laptop if they can avoid it.
But obviously if this fuel cell were integrated into an external box with a modular plug, then it would have applications outside of laptops - you could use it to power/charge a slew of other electronics (maybe my PDA, for instance). So your idea has my vote!
I'm using an Acer Aspire 3002LCi that I purchased last fall, and I was disappointed to find out that it uses an "integrated" drive. I suspect this just means a regular old slimline drive, but fastened into a slot that is nigh impossible to access. I have to dissassemble the laptop's entire case just to get at it. I had just bought a brand new NEC DVD+/-RW, and was more than just a little upset to discover this.
Even if I did all that, are all slimline drive slots equipped to use batteries? I have no idea how that works.
Agreed completely with this. I don't really see the PDA dying; I just see it "evolving" into "smartphones." Although, imho, the real evolution would be for the telecom industry to evolve into VOIP over wifi...
This basically confirms my suspicions, that the technology hasn't gotten to the right level yet.
I'm also a huge fan of the handwriting recognition on my Pocket PC; however, it does require a specific deviation from my normal handwriting. At the same time, not everybody can read what I jot down on regular old paper, so maybe I'm the better for it - but that's besides the point. Handwriting recognition in Windows Mobile (I'm using PPC v. 2003, if that's worth pointing out) is good, but not good enough. It'll get there someday, though.
At the same time, I love keyboard - even small "thumb board" - input, and I'm nearly convinced I'll eventually either grab the thumb-board addon for my Dell Axim x50v, or a bluetooth mini-keyboard. Still, nothing beats using a pen-sized stylus and writing into my Word docs while on the subway. After barely a day of frequent use, it now feels natural to me.
That said, by and large the reason I love my Pocket PC is for its versatility. I read my books off of it, listen to my OGG Vorbis files and watch XviD DVD rips with it, play Snails on it... Oh yeah, and all that document authoring, e-mail, web browsing, contact management, scheduling crap that other people talk about. And it's all in my pocket. I love it.
But I wouldn't mind trying out a Nokia 770 someday. The stuff the community's brewing is very exciting.
I don't think it was just that multiple options existed that had him annoyed, but that certain of those options, if used, make the CC incompatible with the FSF's tenets. What I got from that interview was that he liked many parts of the CC, and disagreed with many parts as well, but because the multiple variations are being umbrella'ed underneath a single name, he can't safely suggest that people use CC as an alternative to the GPL. More a critique on semantics than anything else.
Even in the quote that was put in your linked/. summary shows that it's a certain few of the options that are available - not simply that it can be customized - that make it contrary to his (and the FSF's) beliefs.
Hate to stuff a handkerchief into your gushing, but many of those capabilities are standard now on almost all video adapters. It doesn't take much to be good for playback.
What is more impressive is how the operating system and software will make it work in a pleasing and streamlined way. Sure, it's all eye candy, but that's all they've really got going now in this much crowded arena of media savvy computers.
HDD bandwidth was a significant bane of my PPC Mini's existence. Doing 720 was OK, but I can't imagine playing back full 1080 on it.
At the same time, for a while I hooked my Mini into a Linux file server that stored DVD-resolution MPEG-4 movies (between 1 and 2 mbps), and I got the occasional framerate hiccup over 100mbps LAN. They were nothing to write home about, but comparing it to cheapo Linux and PC boxes on the same network, the difference was disappointing. You can't blame the hard drive for that so much as the poor processor.
And I'm just talking about playback/decoding - not time-shifting/encoding/recording.
The G4 was really holding this power-starved computer back, and I'd be tempted to try out the Intel-based one if I wasn't already hooked on MythTV.
Except that early-adopter HDTV buyers were screwed, regardless of the connection restriction, because their screens aren't capable of anywhere near full HD res, anyway (and are likely only barely over the restricted resolution). That just comes with being an early adopter - you get technology that doesn't match the promise.
But all that's irrelevant... DRM is still an artificial restriction that hurts the average consumer more than it benefits the distributors.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as opposed to AACS as the next guy, but exactly how many "early adopter" screens are even capable of full 1080p HD resolution? Even today, only the biggest (other than computer monitors) can do the full shebang; I would expect even fewer of the early adopter generation screens can do the same.
That's no excuse, of course, and I could be wrong anyway.
Re:IPods are the only reason why Apple still exist
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Woz On Apple's Success
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OS X is certainly the biggest selling point nowadays, since the hardware is no longer distinctive. Woz once said regarding OS X that Apple is really more of a software company than a hardware company, and that it's the operating system that truly distinguishes the machine.
I'm one of those wackos who wishes it were sold for generic PCs.
It's really just the Pentium M and Intel's miniPCI wifi card. I'm actually using the same card right now in an Acer laptop running an AMD Sempron (replaced a less Linux-friendly card). Never saw the "connect anywhere" ads, though (or I did and knew better).
Advertisers certainly stretch things beyond what should be the breaking point, and it's good to see them being reeled in for that.
Actually, I think the main problem is that Safari uses extensions in some cases to trump the metadata in determining how to treat downloaded files. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, as stated in Ars Technica, the demo of this exploit has a JPG extension, even though the metadata labels it a "terminal type/creator code." If it had prioritized it the other way, then maybe this wouldn't happen.
So Safari shouldn't judge a book by its extension...or something. But as everybody has said, it seems a simple enough fix, so hopefully a patch will be out soon. In my case, though, we use Firefox and Camino primarily on our Mac.
Incidentally, I've ordered probably a dozen OEM drives from NewEgg, and they all at least work just fine. They were usually in an anti-static bag, which was wrapped several times over in thick bubble wrap, then placed in a largish box filled to the gills with styrofoam packing peanuts. I don't know enough about either packaging or hard drives to tell what's wrong with that, and the fact that they all function perfectly fine implies that nothing is.
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Not to mention that you won't know whether or not your computer has a virus if you don't scan it with some sort of antivirus software.
Hardware decoder would also be very useful in a PVR situation, since many people do watch live TV with it. Which means encoding and decoding happens simultaneously.
As you say, probably irrelevant with today's hardware. And irrelevant if the source, as you wisely point out, is already MPEG-2, and with no transcoding necessary. Was your G3 deinterlacing?
Still, that resolution's a real kicker. And storage is an important factor. Probably at that resolution, disk I/O will be a real issue with the Mini's HDD; although, I don't know for certain, they probably upped the RPM for the Intel Minis. Certainly, storage space will be an issue. But since a Mini PVR will already be utilizing an external tuner, it might as well use a few external hard drives (or a file server)...hard drives designed to look nice in the entertainment center. Apple could set up a bunch of nice peripherals for it.
Going back to the article, I'm curious what the compared XP HTPCs were like. My Athlon XP-based MythTV box, in an nMedia 200SA microATX case, is as quiet as my G4 Mini ever was.
Would you have asked the same if it went:
a murderer could deny police access to their premises because they would find a body in his freezer that would incriminate him
Note that H.264 is a derivative of MPEG; in fact, it is MPEG-4.
HDTV is typically transmitted as MPEG-2. This codec by itself is much less processing intensive than anything MPEG-4 (DivX, H.264, what-have-you) - it's the same used to compress DVD video. But what's saved in complexity is more than compensated for in outright resolution; HD uses significantly more pixels than DVD video (which in itself is high resolution compared to standard def TV), to the order of almost 3 times as many in the case of 720p (exactly 3 times as many in 1080i - not that it matters too much, since post-processing deinterlacing eats up a good bit of CPU in itself...and...well, forget 1080p). That's a lot of extra pixels. Ignoring operating systems, processors, and the rest, this is a tough cookie for any computer.
Still, I dare say any modern PC, no matter what the OS, can decode MPEG-2 at 720 just fine - maybe even 1080. I say this because I've never thrown an MPEG-2 that any PC of mine, since running Duron 600's, hasn't liked; although, never one at full HD res. But I still remain faithful.
That said, PVR'ing content of that kind of resolution, which essentially involves constant recording to disk, is enormously more demanding on any PC. So it all depends on the input card/adapter; I'm pretty sure no HD video adapter doesn't come with some kind of video compression chip on it. My standard def Hauppauge comes with an MPEG-2 encoder, without which my MythTV PVR would be a sight more skippy - it would be silly that HDTV tuners wouldn't, either.
All that said, I think little (performance-wise) depends on the software, and more attention should be paid to the hardware, which in the case of the new Macs is very similar to many PC's (or laptop, I should say). Worth noting that a Mac PVR probably would be specifically tied into Quicktime and iTunes, and dealing seamlessly with iPod Videos - a major plus for the majority.
Anybody know if Linux with MythTV can be installed onto an Intel Mac of any sort, and combined with a USB based tuner?
Agreed; I think privelege escalation is more than just FUD. It's a vulnerability that needs to be quashed.
I'd venture to guess that most of the "public" knows nothing about OS X being more secure than Windows (as it isn't really an advertised fact)
You'd venture slightly wrong, then, because two of my friends, both of whom work at the Apple Retail Store in Manhattan, often tout OS X's purported "invulnerability" to all forms of malware to questioning customers.
Obviously, this only means that those who go shopping for a Mac and specifically ask about security to an Apple store salesperson will know. But they do advertise security compared to windows, when asked.
and Ricardo stated, "Alright, yes, it is vynil*!"
*Old fart for "vinyl"
Haha, yea, good point...That's what I meant - revolution, not evolution.
I just started about an hour ago and am officially addicted. The Counterstrike strips are golden.
Don't forget the ice dispenser and bottle opener/corkscrew.
You're absolutely right on that... My laptop doesn't have a swappable drive bay (its slimline drive is "integrated," according to Acer), but it sure does use a power brick with a standard-looking barrel plug.
I think the main issue for people is that most don't want to have a big brick/box hanging off their laptop if they can avoid it.
But obviously if this fuel cell were integrated into an external box with a modular plug, then it would have applications outside of laptops - you could use it to power/charge a slew of other electronics (maybe my PDA, for instance). So your idea has my vote!
I'm using an Acer Aspire 3002LCi that I purchased last fall, and I was disappointed to find out that it uses an "integrated" drive. I suspect this just means a regular old slimline drive, but fastened into a slot that is nigh impossible to access. I have to dissassemble the laptop's entire case just to get at it. I had just bought a brand new NEC DVD+/-RW, and was more than just a little upset to discover this.
Even if I did all that, are all slimline drive slots equipped to use batteries? I have no idea how that works.
Agreed completely with this. I don't really see the PDA dying; I just see it "evolving" into "smartphones." Although, imho, the real evolution would be for the telecom industry to evolve into VOIP over wifi...
This basically confirms my suspicions, that the technology hasn't gotten to the right level yet.
I'm also a huge fan of the handwriting recognition on my Pocket PC; however, it does require a specific deviation from my normal handwriting. At the same time, not everybody can read what I jot down on regular old paper, so maybe I'm the better for it - but that's besides the point. Handwriting recognition in Windows Mobile (I'm using PPC v. 2003, if that's worth pointing out) is good, but not good enough. It'll get there someday, though.
At the same time, I love keyboard - even small "thumb board" - input, and I'm nearly convinced I'll eventually either grab the thumb-board addon for my Dell Axim x50v, or a bluetooth mini-keyboard. Still, nothing beats using a pen-sized stylus and writing into my Word docs while on the subway. After barely a day of frequent use, it now feels natural to me.
That said, by and large the reason I love my Pocket PC is for its versatility. I read my books off of it, listen to my OGG Vorbis files and watch XviD DVD rips with it, play Snails on it... Oh yeah, and all that document authoring, e-mail, web browsing, contact management, scheduling crap that other people talk about. And it's all in my pocket. I love it.
But I wouldn't mind trying out a Nokia 770 someday. The stuff the community's brewing is very exciting.
I don't think it was just that multiple options existed that had him annoyed, but that certain of those options, if used, make the CC incompatible with the FSF's tenets. What I got from that interview was that he liked many parts of the CC, and disagreed with many parts as well, but because the multiple variations are being umbrella'ed underneath a single name, he can't safely suggest that people use CC as an alternative to the GPL. More a critique on semantics than anything else.
Even in the quote that was put in your linked /. summary shows that it's a certain few of the options that are available - not simply that it can be customized - that make it contrary to his (and the FSF's) beliefs.
Haha, RMS and the FSF's doings are obviously not common knowledge, as much as I would like the contrary to be so.
Hate to stuff a handkerchief into your gushing, but many of those capabilities are standard now on almost all video adapters. It doesn't take much to be good for playback.
What is more impressive is how the operating system and software will make it work in a pleasing and streamlined way. Sure, it's all eye candy, but that's all they've really got going now in this much crowded arena of media savvy computers.
HDD bandwidth was a significant bane of my PPC Mini's existence. Doing 720 was OK, but I can't imagine playing back full 1080 on it. At the same time, for a while I hooked my Mini into a Linux file server that stored DVD-resolution MPEG-4 movies (between 1 and 2 mbps), and I got the occasional framerate hiccup over 100mbps LAN. They were nothing to write home about, but comparing it to cheapo Linux and PC boxes on the same network, the difference was disappointing. You can't blame the hard drive for that so much as the poor processor. And I'm just talking about playback/decoding - not time-shifting/encoding/recording. The G4 was really holding this power-starved computer back, and I'd be tempted to try out the Intel-based one if I wasn't already hooked on MythTV.
Except that early-adopter HDTV buyers were screwed, regardless of the connection restriction, because their screens aren't capable of anywhere near full HD res, anyway (and are likely only barely over the restricted resolution). That just comes with being an early adopter - you get technology that doesn't match the promise.
But all that's irrelevant... DRM is still an artificial restriction that hurts the average consumer more than it benefits the distributors.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as opposed to AACS as the next guy, but exactly how many "early adopter" screens are even capable of full 1080p HD resolution? Even today, only the biggest (other than computer monitors) can do the full shebang; I would expect even fewer of the early adopter generation screens can do the same. That's no excuse, of course, and I could be wrong anyway.
OS X is certainly the biggest selling point nowadays, since the hardware is no longer distinctive. Woz once said regarding OS X that Apple is really more of a software company than a hardware company, and that it's the operating system that truly distinguishes the machine.
I'm one of those wackos who wishes it were sold for generic PCs.
It's really just the Pentium M and Intel's miniPCI wifi card. I'm actually using the same card right now in an Acer laptop running an AMD Sempron (replaced a less Linux-friendly card). Never saw the "connect anywhere" ads, though (or I did and knew better).
Advertisers certainly stretch things beyond what should be the breaking point, and it's good to see them being reeled in for that.
Actually, I think the main problem is that Safari uses extensions in some cases to trump the metadata in determining how to treat downloaded files. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, as stated in Ars Technica, the demo of this exploit has a JPG extension, even though the metadata labels it a "terminal type/creator code." If it had prioritized it the other way, then maybe this wouldn't happen.
So Safari shouldn't judge a book by its extension...or something. But as everybody has said, it seems a simple enough fix, so hopefully a patch will be out soon. In my case, though, we use Firefox and Camino primarily on our Mac.
What's the proper way to ship them?
Incidentally, I've ordered probably a dozen OEM drives from NewEgg, and they all at least work just fine. They were usually in an anti-static bag, which was wrapped several times over in thick bubble wrap, then placed in a largish box filled to the gills with styrofoam packing peanuts. I don't know enough about either packaging or hard drives to tell what's wrong with that, and the fact that they all function perfectly fine implies that nothing is.
Worth nitpicking...Sorry about that. Obviously, as balsy pointed out, being in Earth orbit means still being in Earth's gravity well.
I amend my point to being in orbit is more useful than being on the ground, space-travel-wise. =D