My Ridiculously Inexpensive Dedicated KICK*** Home Theater! - Page 17

100% for watching on the monitor. My Oppo 971H does not need to be replaced in any way shape or form.

There are TV tuners available for the Mac that plug into a USB port and then the coaxial cable plugs into the tuner. It's not as good of a solution as the internal PCI tuners that are so commonplace on the PC.

sivartk: the Mac you are referring to is the 17 inch iMac which retails for $1199 as you said. The problem with your comparison is the fact that the HP you mention definitely is not a Core 2 duo system such as the Mac is. At that price it has to be an AMD Athlon or possibly an older Pentium chip. In addition the iMac you are referring to comes with a beautiful 17 inch LCD which I am assuming is the ugly white 17 inch monitor you mention. The HP will have no included monitor at that price.

For kicks and giggles I went to Best Buy and found an HP on sale for $495, these were the specs and how they compare to the $1199 iMac: (first the HP followed with a slash and then the iMac on each line)

Hp S7600n $494.99 VS iMac 17 inch $1199.99

1-Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+/Intel Core 2 duo 2.0 ghz
2-Memory: 512MB PC 4200 DDR2/1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM
3-Hard drive: 200GB SATA 7200rpm/160GB SATA 7200rpm
4-Optical drives: Lightscribe DVD±RW/CD-RW/SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
5-Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE graphics with TurboCache technology and up to 256MB shared video memory/ATI Radeon X1600 128MB SDRAM
6-Wireless: 802.11b/g/AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
7-OS: Windows XP-Vista/Windows XP-Vista and OS X
8-Monitor: NONE/17 inch LCD
9-Software: Microsoft Works 8, Sonic DigitalMedia Plus, HP Photosmart Premier/iLife (excellent Office like suite)

So let's assume the 17 inch LCD carries a $200 value, that makes the iMac $500 more than the PC package. But are they equivalent? I don't think so. On processor power alone the iMac wipes the HP all over the floor. Granted the HP has 40 more GB of hard drive space but that is insignificant. The iMac has dedicated graphics memory which is not shared with the main system RAM unlike the HP. I am not saying which is the better value I am merely saying that in the case of these 2 computers we are not comparing apples to apples. To do so we need to look at the least expensive HP Core 2 Duo system. Hey let's do that, same comparison method:

HP A1646X $719.99 VS iMac 17 inch $1199.99

1-Processor: Intel Core 2 duo 1.86 ghz/Intel Core 2 duo 2.0 ghz
2-Memory: 1GB PC 4200 DDR2 SDRAM/1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM
3-Hard drive: 200GB SATA 7200rpm/160GB SATA 7200rpm
4-Optical drives: Lightscribe DVD±RW/CD-RW/SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
5-Graphics card: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 with up to 256MB shared video memory/ATI Radeon X1600 128MB SDRAM
6-Wireless: NONE/AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
7-OS: Windows XP MCE-Vista/Windows XP-Vista and OS X
8-Monitor: NONE/17 inch LCD
9-Software: Microsoft Works 8, Sonic DigitalMedia Plus, HP Photosmart Premier/iLife (excellent Office like suite)

So basically the system is configured exactly like the $494.99 model above except for the addition of the Core 2 Duo processor. Now we are looking at a total of $919.99 with the 17 inch LCD assumed to be worth about $200. Now the iMac is only $280 more than the almost equivalent HP. But wait! Apple sells another 17 inch imac with the same Core 2 Duo processor speed as this HP (1.86ghz) for $999! What is also compromised on this iMac is the dedicated graphics processor, it is now shared Intel graphics which robs main system memory. In addition this Mac does not have a DVD burner and only 512mb of RAM.

The bottom line is that the Macs represent a good value for what you get. There are a lot of little things they include that I didn't even mention such as a remote control (except on the $999 system), built in camera for videoconferencing (again not on the $999 iMac),and the lowest repair rate of any PC manufacturer-just 8%.

Isn't this computer debate fun? I am quite sure I will end up with a Mac, I just have about zero excitement regarding Windows Vista. My only reservation is how expandable the PC is, and how non-expandable the Mac is. Then again with firewire and USB ports isn't the Mac actually expandable too? It's just not internally expandable. Thinking about this further is there anything that you could not conceivably add externally to a Mac that the PC would be able to expand internally with?

About that HTIB, the receiver will be good, the speakers should be more than acceptable. I would not expect it to aspire to the level of your system but that is to be expected. Put it this way, in my first HT I built about 4 years ago I used an Onkyo speaker system that comes with many of their HTIBs. It was not a true HTIB as it did not come with the receiver. For that I used a $99 Sherwood. The system to my ears sounded very good, I was pleased with it for the entire 2 years I used it. However now that I have bought high quality speakers and a high quality receiver the difference is very obvious to me. It's one of those things where if you had not heard something better you would not have wanted for more, but once hearing the better system the deficiencies are obvious.

Yeah I really like the Mac Mini but I am waiting for Jobs's keynote on January 9th to see if they upgrade ito the Core 2 Duo. If Jobs does not update the Mini to C2D then I will most likely get an iMac. That is of course if he does not drop the ultimate bomb which would be a mid level Mac tower with some expandability, sort of a Mac Pro minus the Pro :-) Kind of what they have in their notebook line, they have the Macbook Pro and the Macbook, I am hoping that Apple introduces the equivalent of the Macbook in a desktop design.

If none of my hopes come to fruition it will be an iMac for me!

Do you mean a right click button so that the mouse has 2 buttons instead of the usual 1 on an Apple mouse? Apple makes a 2 button mouse now called the Mighty Mouse, they offer it in wired and Bluetooth versions. I used it and it was OK but I can't say I really liked it. I feel that they tried to make it so cool looking and simplistic that they compromised some of its functionality. For example the scroll wheel on it is actually a little trackball which is a great idea because it allows 360 degree movement, and for the most part it works fine. But the ball is TINY and I find it a bit hard to use. Then they decided to keep the exact look of their single button mouse so there is not physically 2 buttons on the mouse. Both left and right click require you to click the entire mouse down but the difference is in which finger is in contact with the surface of the mouse. Sounds cool and innovative right? Well it is except for one problem. If you touch the mouse anywhere but on the right button position when trying to do a right click it will not register. So this means if you leave your palm resting on the mouse and go to right click, no dice. If you have your left finder on the left button and right click, no dice. You basically have to totally train yourself to life everything off the mouse when right clicking. Why bother? An MS or Logitech mouse will work no matter what you do because they feature physical buttons. In this case Apple chose form over function, IMO. Lastly the mouse includes a set of side buttons you squeeze on either side to bring up a predefined function. They work well for the most part but the squeezing action required is too great for my taste.

Lots of cool features but in practice a cheap 2 button mouse is better IMO.

EDIT: I just realized you meant a button like the side squeeze button I mentioned for going back in a web page. I am not 100% sure the Mighty mouse allows this button to be assigned for this purpose but it probably does.

rj_gonzales: If you are going to place the projector overhead it must be mounted inverted. If you were to place it on the top of the shelf not inverted the image would be projected on the ceiling. The reason I didn't place it on a low shelf was almost exclusively due to the heat output of the projector. It was uncomfortable to sit on the side with the exhaust. I can't really say the noise was a major issue but mounting it overhead reduced that as well.

It's been a fun ride and I would like to thank you all for coming along. Stay tuned for more details on the computer project as we get closer to Macworld on January 9th.

A happy and healthy holiday to you all!

I'm still around.....Only 4 days until Mac World San Francisco! I'll report back as soon as I know what Steve Jobs has up his sleeve.

HTIB's have their place and some can sound fairly good. The Yamaha will have a great receiver and no doubt it sounds good because of that.

I'll have all the details soon about the Mac, and it will be a Mac that much is certain.

Well the computer I am using now is in my son's room, it's a PC and honestly it gets the job done but I find it to be slow sometimes. To be fair it is over a year old and runs a slow AMD chip.

Now after watching the Macworld keynote today I am so ticked off I am going to get a Vista PC in spite! Apple updated NOTHING about their entire computer portfolio, NOTHING! I'm not kidding they really upset me, I waited over a month just to see WHICH Mac I wanted to buy and then they go and talk about a phone for 2 hours! Looks like a cool phone for sure, but with them dropping the word computer from their name it is abundantly clear the direction they are heading in.

So now I am off to PC shop once again!

rj_gonzales looking real good! What is your plan for that wiring?

rj_gonzales: That will look great, looking forward to the pics!


Yeah I was not too impressed with Apple TV either. First of all it is only 720p, second of all it doesn't seem to offer anything that you couldn't do today with several off the shelf pieces of hardware. I mean what is is really? It's basically wireless networking, a fancy interface (though I have to say that left me entirely unimpressed as well) and a 40GB hard drive in a box with ports for audio/video and some connectivity.

Assuming someone actually wants to buy an Apple TV I feel that It is really a $149 device, not twice that at $299.

But on the computer issue, to not talk about your main product (is it their main product anymore?) seems like a very poor idea to me. Like I said the phone was cool (though I would never pay $500 for a phone-never!)but I did not care for the touch screen aspect-Fingerprint City! Well basically I am just a scrooge at this point and I seriously am buying a Vista PC now, in fact I am headed out the door now to shop. I'll have to get a coupon for when it is released but in light of Apple ticking me off it will be worth the wait to use XP temporarily and then actually get to use SOMETHING NEW! Shame on you Apple!

They should have had SOMETHING for the Mac announced at that show. It was a disgrace. And Vista is NEW, the great majority of the computer users on Earth will see it for the FIRST time on the release date. I know it has been in development forever, doesn't matter it is new to the consumer.