The Apple Mac Cost Misconception

[nukemaster]

Firstly WMC does really kinda suck, there's pretty broad agreement on that. Frontrow is a little better, but Im not raving about it. Hauppauge is the only brand card i didnt try because at the time (and still may be) it wouldnt record captions at all. I have avermedia combo card. Avermedia center can be a bit more streamlined that WMC but in all it aint much better. never used DivX Author I may look into that. My point was also, and I still think you would agree if u tried eyeTV, that even at things that both platforms do, eyeTV does it easier, sometimes much easier, and sometimes better. Never less easy or worse quality. And I bet there are still a few nice little functions not on PC. Those are general statements about all the functions we covered under PVR. The only way you would ever really understand what Im talking about is if u used it. I've used both, tho not all the software u mentioned (eyeTV is the only third party u need to do everything and its seemless with all those MAC media titles). Until u have used both, reserve judgment. My friend just told me he uses a (user community) mod for eyeTV that automatically removes commercials instead of manually.

To be honest i do like MCE. all I want is something that will change the channel and record shoes(and series when the seasons start) and movies I tell it to(mostly when i am out). For those duties it has been flawless. Anything i want to store gets compressed with TMPGEnc Xpress(similar to divx author but with more output formats, it does cost more, but is worth it for what I do.)

Playback is handled on any computer in the house over the network.

I would recommend you at least try DivX Author(Take the trial first). Just skip the menu parts as most DivX DVD players do not support it anyway. This is still a far way off from Premiere and other software, but for $20(10 on sale right now) it is hard to beat.

Do not get me wrong, EyeTV sounds like a great software package and the price is NOT bad at all. I am not about to switch over my good old single core athlon64 with its Geforce4 TI 4200(obsolete by any standard) that works just fine for this job(it just seems wasteful).

Last off. I do not think its possible to auto remove commercials(with %100 accuracy). The reason behind this is that all networks play there own commercials. I am willing to bet it just highlights the likely position by using scene changes and the louder volume of commercials(its called commercial detection in many software packages). There is other software that does this too. This is a good thing, but i am sure it misses some or takes parts of the show. For this reason it would only make sense to let you still see what is being removed first.

 

[donkeypunch]

Yeah, the first thing I noticed were the overpriced PC's were from Dell and Vodoo. As has been said, you can get the same exact hardware/setup for much cheaper elsewhere. Since Dell is a top manufacturer I can understand that, but Vodoo!?

Being that with an Apple your hardware choices are severely limited makes it a purchase you have to live with. And the last time I checked memory upgrades from Apple they wanted like $600 for 2 gigs of RAM. I hear its super secret memory hand built by military scientists, so maybe thats why the heavy premium?

Anyway, as was stated in the article, the only appealing thing in an Apple is the OS. So get yourself a cheap PC and download one of the many flavors of Hackintosh. Now you can fell the love on both sides of the force.

 

[Guest]

What a pile of fanboy crap. Yeah, macs are so not overpriced when compared to other overpriced laptops. I'm surprised you didn't use a $4,000 Alienware laptop to show how CHEAP Macs are.

PC's have options, you don't. Stop trying to justify it.

 

[Guest]

I do not shy of loving my wife and telling all people out there she is the best in the world. Just the way she was. If you love your Microsoft Windows dearly, so be it. If Mac is overpriced, so be it. There is no point to argue. Anyone interested in arguing liquid soap v. bar soap? Why not bashing on the overpriced gold&diamond Nokia phone, Swiss watches, or Italian cars? If everything came down to cost of materials, global economics would immediately collapse.

 

[nukemaster]

liquid soap v. bar soap?

Bar soap has more scrubbing power IMO. Liquid is nice and fast for everyday use, but after working on a car or something it just wont cut it

 

[Guest]

I vote worst article ever!

Badly researched and comparisons were unfairly made. Baseline PC = under $1000. Baseline Mac = over $2000. Both run Word fine. The internet works good and Solitare gameplay is smooth. This is where the market is at. Most people are not gamers. SUPRISE! A low income family who want to buy a machine for the 10 year old to type up his first assignment will not spend the big dollars on the Mac. Thats a fact!

 

[JerryC]

Oh my god dude! Could you have picked more expensive laptops to compare your overpriced mac to?

 

[JerryC]

[citation][nom]tuannguyen[/nom]Attack the arguments presented in the article and not the author please. This isn't a place for name calling and people bashing. If you present your arguments clearly and objectively, I'd be more than happy to even paste it into the article itself./ Tuan[/citation]


Yeah right, like you listened to what people were telling you in the last two pro mac articles you have done!

 

[Guest]

"I also took a look at Apple?s line of iMacs and their available upgrades. Stepping up from a 250 GB drive to a 500 GB drive will cost you $100 from Apple. Interestingly enough, you can get a 500 GB drive for $70 at Newegg."
In this case, it isn't THAT much and considering that iMacs are hard to open, I'd take Apple's upgrade.
"On Apple?s site, a 1 TB Serial ATA drive costs $450.

We all know we can get decent 1 TB drives for less than $180."
In contrast, for the Mac Pro, it is easy enough to open (I think Apple actually brags about it) and the price gap is much larger, so I'd take the second option.

 

[Guest]

"A low income family who want to buy a machine for the 10 year old to type up his first assignment will not spend the big dollars on the Mac. Thats a fact!"
Yep, Apple focuses on the $1000+ market.

 

[Guest]

ummm. Pricing is not about parts. It's about computing power. 99% of the people in the world don't need xeon processors or aluminum cases. Apple has nothing economical that is a good graphics machine. PC's have many options.

As far as operating systems go. Buying a mac to run windows is a waste of 249$ windows is a good operating system that I've used for years.

Esata and an hdmi port is worth 200$ (laptop comparison)

The author is biting the hand that feeds him.

 

[rockbyter]

if you pirate at least some of the software like most of the internet, your set with a PC no matter how you look at it. OS X, Linux, OS/2, whatever.

 

[Guest]

Wow. That article blew my mind. That's how absolutely horridly bad it was!

 

[the associate]

Please don't ever post illigitimate crap again, were here to read legitimate opinions, reviews and news updates. Didn't you see this comming? I'm fine with macs honestly, they look sleek and run top notch for sure. But why don't you make them create an os that's as compatible as vista then we can see their programing tear itself down, or cost $600+

Btw, next time try some fundamental research methods, like not being biast, and maybe you won't get your article bashed this badly next time.

 

[Guest]

I love this article. You can tell the author is just trying so hard not to explode with his gushing love for Macs.

As for the reliability factor. BS. My roommate used to work as the IT guy for the computer labs at the Univ of Colorado, Colo Spgs. And he had just as many, if not more, problems with the macs there as he did with any of the dell pc's they had purchased.

Our problem with macs really isnt the macs themselves, its the elitist pricks that buy them. We get sick and tired of having every single mac person we come across get this look on their face like they're dealing with a drooling invalid when you mention you are a PC user. They literally think they're superior in every possible way.

Mac converting to using IBM Compatible internals made me giggle with glee. It was the final last ditch effort by mac, giving up its crap RISC proc's, to stay in business. Now they've launched their campaign of misinformation, and sadly, its working.

It truly reminds me of the Sega vs Nintendo battles during the genesis/snes days, or even more recently the Pepsi vs Coke ad campaigns by pepsi. Nintendo (read: IBM comp. PC's/Coca Cola) were advertising the virtues of their systems, while Sega (read: apple/pepsi) were busy slamming the other company in their ads, talking about how bad the other companies product is, rather than actually saying why we should buy their product.

Kind of reminds you of the current election, and the 2004 election. (I almost died of laughter when the daily show did that "ad" that was talking about how Kerry was definitely NOT president bush). How sad are you when you have to try to associate someone/something with something bad in order to get your own product sold.

 

[the associate]

[citation][nom]The Associate[/nom]Please don't ever post illigitimate crap again, were here to read legitimate opinions, reviews and news updates. Didn't you see this comming? I'm fine with macs honestly, they look sleek and run top notch for sure. But why don't you make them create an os that's as compatible as vista then we can see their programing tear itself down, or cost $600+Btw, next time try some fundamental research methods, like not being biast, and maybe you won't get your article bashed this badly next time.[/citation]
[citation][nom]The Associate[/nom]Please don't ever post illigitimate crap again, were here to read legitimate opinions, reviews and news updates. Didn't you see this comming? I'm fine with macs honestly, they look sleek and run top notch for sure. But why don't you make them create an os that's as compatible as vista then we can see their programing tear itself down, or cost $600+Btw, next time try some fundamental research methods, like not being bias, and maybe you won't get your article bashed this badly next time.[/citation]

 

[the associate]

sorry ppl i dont know how i did that double post thing up there

 

[Guest]

So I felt compeled to read the article that the auther suggests I should read to understand the benefits that the Leopard OS provides. That guy is full of a lot of hot air. He spent pages chatting about next to nothing. In the end I finally found what the auther claimed what is the best feature of Leopard, Timeport. A backup utility. REALLY? An entire OS and the best feature is something that is valuable if the OS or hardware fails? REALLY? Why couldn't the auther of this article find the time to put this info into his article, so I didn't have to read that article.

 

[the associate]

kami3k 08/04/2008 7:29
Is mac now paying you guys? This is completely bias as others has said. You fail.
____________________________________________________

^+1

 

[Guest]

The Dell XPS 17 vs MacBook Pro comparison is incomplete without mentioning the fact that the Dell includes a 9 cell battery and a PhysX accelerator, built in. The MBP doesn't have either device.

Now compare the 15" MBP at $1999 to a $2008 kitted out XPS 15".

T9500 CPU
4GB Ram
320GB HD
8600 graphics
15" 14x9 LED-based LCD screen.
9 cell battery
Wifi N and Bluetooth

Simply no comparison, Dell XPS wins hands down.
Compare Apple's 15" MBP to an Asus M50SV-B4 or B3... MBP fares even worse.

 

[xnamerxx]

you really didnt fill your article with accurate imformation. What you did was skew the results to favor the mac. I looked up a equal dell xps 15.4 screen with your specs and a 8600gt with its own memory. Price 1543. So that 17" screen on a mac lets see 2799. 17" to 17 would be a fair comparo not 15 to 17. the mac pro psu is only a 550w and its generic so a 300 dollar psu isnt a fair comparo. You really need to get off a high horse on the macs they are really expensive for what you get. I can get a hacked version of osx to run on a 500 dollar machine something apple wont offer. Plus apples hardware pricing for upgrades is no diffrent then other oems most apple users just dont know that. Most of their hardware would be more at home on a laptop then it would ever be on a desktop. I understand your a mac user but stop putting such biased articles out there. They both have their advantages but what your saying is that osx is better then windows because its apple. Plus apples hardware isnt that great anyway anyone ever heard of a company called foxconn they make all of apples componants including the ipods. If you havent heard of foxconn look up their motherboards reliabilty ratings.

 

[jcm279]

I usually don't get involved in these sorts of discussions as a computer is a personal choice. I have been reading Tom's Hardware since its very beginning and I must say that this article is not only an embarrassment to the site, but the whole IT community at large. This is not because of the topic, which is a very sensitive one to most who read this site, but because of the poor writing, uninformed research, and clumsy comparisons used to draw clearly biased conclusions. I've always had the utmost respect for Tom's Hardware as a usually unbiased place to find well-tested hardware guides, but this site and this article's author should reconsider the sensationalist, crusading, "yellow journalism" of this article and how that reflects on Tom's Hardware's reputation. A content editor might be a welcomed edition to the writing staff of this site.

 

[yyrkoon]

Just when I thought Toms could not stoop any lower THIS 'article' comes out . . . Someone want to tell this person who has seemingly put out two Mac articles in a row that this is a PC hardware site ?

If you like Macs fine, use them, but do not try and bullshit us about this so called misconception when ANYONE can see the prices. Now crawl back to S. Jobs and tell him your mission failed because PC users have a brain cell or two . . .

 

[rockbyter]

I have come to the conclusion that the slurr that was the 2 articles about macs this week were incomplete. I couldn't find a definitive purpose. They read like a high school essay about why i love my dog.

Whats missing is clarity and organization as to why the articles were written. Rewriting the articles to break down the software features vs. what you can do on the PC, and the hardware options vs. a PC directly, Followed by complete benchmarks in what is going on performance-wise between the pc options. The same comparison that happens between a new AMD processor and Intel processor. They are in quite similar configurations and produce valuable results.

The mac articles do not have any solid value that we can lean on. This is why we are so passionate in taking a dump on the words that you wrote. Take it off the main page, and have a go at it again.

Google other people who have written about the exact same thing i think you were trying to accomplish, and use their structure as a basis. Plagiarize if you have to off the following articles.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/27/leopard-vs-vista-feature-chart-showdown/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16873608/page/4/

Do a full write up without using the words I, me, my, mine, woulda shoulda coulda, and yall. Take a tech writing course from the local community college if the fundamentals of removing opinion are a little rusty. We are here to make our own conclusions, the opener for the article explains

"This isn’t a guide to evangelize and convert people from Windows to Mac OS X. It’s a guide to give people options. If you’re happy with what you’ve got, great! But if you’re interested in alternatives read on."

Let us make our own conclusions by removing yours from the resulting article. That is what you were supposed to do. Interestingly i was going to say register TomsMac.com, but it's taken so you're screwed.

 

[Nuke_Meltdown]

Hey Tuan, Do you wanna get all the tom's hardware readers on your back or what??!!??!!??

I think you should stop arguing and start looking for a job in a "MAC LOVERS" website.....Don't you think!!??!!??