Using your Apple iMac as a Media Center

Since Apple hasn't come out with a home media center yet, I broke down and bought a 20" iMac to use as my new LCD television - and it works great. Now that Apple has released Intel-based iMacs, you can buy remaining 20" G5's for a lot less.

I use an El Gato EyeTV 200 to capture television to the iMac from cable. EyeTV has a remote :) It's recently improved EyeTV 2.0 Software works quite well as a TIVO-alternative. It makes exporting to your video iPod or Toast (for burning DVDs) super easy.

The great thing about the new iMac is that they also include Front Row and their own remote. So, the iMac operates as a complete media center: playing music from iTunes, DVDs, slideshows from iPhoto, etc.

Add an El Gato EyeHome box and you can play video from your iMac anywhere else in the house over your Ethernet network.

  

Here's what it looks like:

When I forget to record a show, I often use TVRSS and BitTorrent to get a copy off the Web. You might check out Azurues, my favorite BitTorrent client, the VLC Media Player for playing downloads and the most awesome Democracy Player. You can also use iTunes to buy TV Shows or download video podcasts and watch them.

I find the iMac makes using all of these new Internet video sources (VideoBomb, YouTube, Google Video et al.) easier and more fun.

Time to watch more Daily Show.

Technorati Tags: bittorrent, democracyplayer, dvr, elgato, eyetv, imac, tivo, tvrss, videobomb