Media Player

[str]

Was thinking of buying a media player/external harddrive to connect to the tv in the livingroom, mainly to play itunes through the surround sound so we can get rid of the hifi. I had looked at the 1TB Cyclone Media player - seemed a reasonable price.

from what I can see, it doesn't look as though the normal itunes screen/view would be shown on the tv to select different albums, etc - am I correct? My thought was to have the media player/drive networked to my pc upstairs and store all the itunes on the external drive but still allowing me to listen to them via the pc as well.

can this be done?

 

[cjard]

You might find that:

1) your HD ready tv has a computer VGA port
2) a cheap laptop running windows media centre, controlled by a remote control, linked to the tv and networked to the upstairs pc will exceed expectations

the laptop could run itunes if you like, or use the media centre album library instead

 

[Donkmeister]

Unfortunately Apple products (in this case iTunes) are only ever designed to work with whatever the grand-high wizard Steve Jobs wants them to work with. So you'll have to do what Apple would like you to do, i.e. buy an AppleTV or MacMini in order that you can use iTunes natively.

Don't take this negatively on your part, but I really wish Apple were forced to stop forcing proprietary software on people who just wanted a nice-looking MP3 player without being tied into a lifetime of buying Apple products because that's all that other Apple products will work with.

Seriously, I was in the Apple store in Salisbury at the weekend and the (45-year old living with parents virgin) salesman asked me, without a hint of irony, when I was "going to come over to the dark side"... creepy.