I had to do some housecleaning, basically just get stuff away from the windows which start going in tomorrow. So I went whole hog at it. And I realized, wow, I've got a whole lot of crap. While organizing, at least a little bit, I found out I have 7 powerstrips, all to myself, 5 or 6 extension cords, more cat 5 cable, coaxial cable, speaker cable than I know what do to with. Not that I'm gonna throw any of it away, but damn, that's a lot of crap. But I'm definitely gonna change things up some, move some furniture around, try something different, cause it seems like the season. I put my 22" Cinema Display to good use, as my home theater was in shambles, so I watched DVD's with my powerbook. It's a sweet setup. Makes me think and do a little research about watching TV on it. Elgato makes some interesting things, including a firewire HDTV system. Would be pretty cool to use the EyeTV500 to record the episodes of Lost that I keep missing in HD. Only thing is I couldn't watch them on my TV with the EyeHome since that doesn't do HDTV. But it got me thinking. There's also the AlchemyTV PCI Card, which is cheaper, and an option for plain broadcast and analog cable time shifting. But the whole RCN Digital City upgrade roadmap throws a wrench into that idea. Ugh. Wait and see I guess. Just more toys to play with. I've also started to justify my DVD library, by pretty much having one playing anytime I'm home. Speaking of library, I'm pretty excited about Delicious Library. iSight UPC recognition? Awesome. Also, the company is pretty much my ideal of what a software development company should be. It is, in my opinion, the Apple of Apple software houses, if that makes any sense. Other news this week, an Apple-U2 announcement tomorrow, along with the release of Shapeshifter 2, which I have no real reason to be excited about. Wow, long update. 1:18 PM Wednesday, October 27, 2004 (Update)
So, how about the Roku HD1000 as a HD terminal? Here's a possible setup. Desktop with EyeTV 500. Records OTA HD programs to the desktop. I can watch recorded or live HDTV on the desktop with the Cinema Display. Or, I can watch them on my TV with the Roku. What happens with the future? If RCN starts delivering HDTV over digital cable? I guess I'd have to get an additional device, or hopefully, maybe, output the cable box's signal over firewire over to the desktop to record. But does that even work? What about this whole Cable Card thing? So a little research leads to VGA -> Component video adapters and also an ATI HDTV Component Adapter, which I'm not sure is Mac compatible or now. So another option is having a computer next to the TV and outputing video directly. But that brings up sound. Recording gets a dolby digital track, so I'd want to have an optical output, which I don't currently have with my desktop. Ugh, too much to think about.
3:29 PM Wednesday, October 27, 2004 (Update)
But I'm losing track of the goal, which is to use the Cinema Display as a TV to view DVD's or HDTV in another room than my current HDTV. So I'm now thinking the EyeTV 500 and the Roku HD1000 is my best bet for now. If RCN gets HDTV up and running, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Now to find the funding.