Mac Mini, No DVR Ambitions

Sounds like we won’t be seeing an Apple DVR any time soon… Though the mini’s digital audio output, FrontRow software, and upgraded Bonjour with video streaming foreshadow feature length movie downloads via iTunes.

USA Today says: “The Mini is small enough that people will consider adding it to their living room consoles,” Van Baker, an analyst at researcher Gartner, says. “The transition of bringing the computer into the living room won’t happen overnight, but this is a good first step.” Adding video recording functionality would have made the Mac Mini too complicated, says Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president. “We’re not trying to replace the TiVo,” he says. “This is about taking the media from your computer and accessing it via the TV.”

(via MacRumors)

5 thoughts on “Mac Mini, No DVR Ambitions”

  1. Full text…

    Apple VP: No current plans for TiVo-like Mac mini

    By AppleInsider Staff
    Published: 06:00 PM EST

    Despite earlier assertions from other publications, Apple Computer is currently not interested in releasing a version of its Mac mini with digital video recording (DVR) capabilities, a high level company executive explained on Thursday.

    Commenting on the company’s new Intel-based Mac mini to USA Today’s Jefferson Graham, Apple Senior Vice Present of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, squashed rumors of a Mac mini with built-in DVR capabilities.

    Adding video recording functionality would have made the Mac mini too complicated, Schiller told the publication. “We’re not trying to replace the TiVo,” he said. “This is about taking the media from your computer and accessing it via the TV.”

    Those statements should enable TiVo to “breathe easier,” says The Motley Fool’s Tim Beyers. He believes Apple might have given TiVo a run for its money, but notes the newly announced Mac mini offers the most compelling evidence yet of the DVR pioneer’s continued health and survival.

    In the weeks leading up to January’s Macworld, as well as Apple’s late-Feb. media event, anticipation of a Mac mini with DVR integration ran extremely high due to a number of unsubstantiated Web and analyst reports.

  2. It’s a tough time to enter the DVR space… analog tuners are on the way out and can’t be sold starting next year, digital tuners need to come further down in price, and computer-based CableCARD readers are only in development now.

  3. ?We?re not trying to replace the TiVo,? he says. ?This is about taking the media from your computer and accessing it via the TV.?

    interesting ?We?re not trying to replace the TiVo,? mabe they will buy tivo dunno why i get a felling from reading that …

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