iMac as TV?

[JeremyK]

Hey all,

My mum and I were thinking of replacing our Sony TV that has served us well for the past 10 years, with an iMac.

A few questions we have:

1. Is it possible to get absolute Live TV off it? Like some PC's have antenna cables that you plug your antenna into, go into Media Center, set it up, and off you go.

2. Can you get HD? We just bought a HD tuner and it is useless. It is honestly driving us up the wall! Do we need Apple TV to get HD?

3. Is it possible to plug external items in? Such as: a Wii, PS2 and a DVD player

Um otherwise, any other suggestions, hints, tips, etc you have, please post them... I know the Genius people could probably help us through this, but we want and idea before we go there!

[philbowell]

1. Yes it is, you need a third party add on to do so though. Elgato do the most popular ones, I used to use my iMac as a TV at uni a few years ago.

2. Elgato do HD tuners, that let you receive HD satellite and cable pictures, but you won't be able to use the HD tuner you already have.

Do we need Apple TV to get HD?

All Apple TV does is let you watch iTunes content on the TV, it is not a receiver and is designed to work with a TV not an iMac. It's purpose is to allow you to watch content you buy on the iTS on your TV, you can also rent films straight from it but it won't magically give you HD TV.

3. With the correct Elgato receiver you can plug consoles etc into the iMac. The new 27" iMac will, once Apple release the adapters, allow you to use it as a display for consoles etc. you could plug a DVD player in if you wished, but the iMac has a DVD drive so why do you need to?

[notabadname]

As philbowell alludes to, when the adaptors come out, it is expected that the mini-display port will accept, via adaptor, HDMI inputs from existing SAT/Cable tuners, PS3 and XBox 360 and Blu-ray. But there is a "wait and see" feeling out there to be sure the adaptor and specs will truly work as hoped. I wouldn't make a purchase, based on that function (multi-media accepting HDMI inputs) until it is up running and demonstrated. There is concern about the digital "hand shake" that must occur not allowing all data to pass. More specifically, High-Definition Content Protection (HDCP). Particularly 1080p signals from blu-ray. Basically distributors don't want you making bit-perfect, 1080p copies of blu-rays, pay-per-view movies, etc. The idea of allowing a bit-perfect copy to pass to a computer is very nerve wracking to most of the entertainment industry - for good reason. Sending it to your TV is OK since it can only display an image with the data, but allowing it to pass into your iMac may be another thing, even though you theoretically can't "touch" the signal (yet) as it is passed to your iMac's display. Anyway, I may finally get an iMac, but it wont be until after the January release of the adaptors for HDMI to mini-display, and they are proven to work. (similar problems happened with the digital content protection and the new LED ACD's and mini-diplay connections and some Mac's. They would get the following warning:

""This movie cannot be played because a display that is not authorized to play protected movies is connected. Try disconnecting any displays that are not HDCP authorized."

Anyway, I would give it a few months. You waited this long.