The cutting edge of cocking about

Ugh. The Server IS a Mac, and the remote connection is a remote control ;)

Wonder if Apple will make the media centre people keep wittering on about.

I use VNC to control the Beige G4upgraded Mac server, for iTunes/Airtunes. And to control the PC when I am updating the iPaq remotely ;)

Richard

I've got an original iMac that I was using as a server, but limited drive expansion was an issue - I needed a Wintel box, so bought a Shuttle which is now my media server. Not the best choice, I admit, but Apple don't make anything comparable. (You can't stick more than a sinlge drive inside a Cube or a Mini).

I have a wireless keyboard and mouse for the PC, which live under the coffee table as the 'remote controls' for it - but for admin tasks and running windows applications I tend to get to it via RDC.

It's quite a neat setup, IMHO.

The iMac CoreDuo is moving in that direction with it's pop-out remote control, but there's not enough 'media centre' software around for the Mac as yet. I want to see a CoreDuo Mini with RF remote, 250Gb drive, DVD-RW, WiFi and analogue / digital terrestrial tuners. Oh, and S-Video input with onboard hardware MPEG-2 encoding would be nice.

I don't want much ;-)

heh.

I use my iPaq as a media player around the house - most rooms have some sort of audio kit with line-in capability, so a wifi iPaq streaming from the media server is quite a cool little toy.

720p / 1080i can be organised. Mate of mine is a bit of an Xbox nut and has them sorted as such.

The living room is currently a 42" plasma. Business means I may be getting a number of heavily discounted 60" plasmas soon - if anyone's interested. Not sure if they'll be sensible in my 12ftx15ft living room yet.

PC with UK nova is great, kind of like a retrospective PVR!

But you can stick them *outside*

Can an X-box encode MPEG to function as a PVR?

No.

It doesn't have any analogue inputs.

Ugger. Doubted it'd have the processing oomph TBH.

Was going to suggest you lived somewhere less pikey, but somewhere less pikey would mean that you'd get an even smaller living room for the same money :-)

To be fair, Toxteth would be less pikey :-P

My entire home here is probably less than 15 square metres, including the ensuite.

Lol!

Ensuite? You mean it's a bedsit?

I don't know what mine is in meters. It's about 2,800sq ft.

But, the living room is about 12 x 15 or 16, I think. No single room is large enough (IMO) for a 60" screen - about 50" is the limit with my projector.

Richard

Will probably have throat cut by t'other half and/or bank manager for even thinking about it, but my inner geek is definitely interested. How discounted are we talking, and what sort of beasties are they?

email me - timskemp at gmail dot com for more info.