Apple Interactive Television Box

[Strimkind]

I am wondering if anyone has one of these interesting prototypes. I've wanted one for a while mostly to see if I could get one working. Has anyone been able to get one working or have seen one functioning? It'd be fun to see one working.

 

[Strimkind]

Some information I have found states that you can get it to boot but no video. Some screenshots have shown it to be of the Macintosh 470 series.

It got me wondering whether you can use the Macintosh TV software to enable video out.

Now I really wish I had one to play with...

 

[Scott Baret]

After reading about the TV box, I wonder if Apple was planning to have extended eWorld to this device. The emphasis on content would have made perfect sense in the scheme of things and would have been a nice thing to have on a consumer-friendly device. I'd assume there would have been a monthly subscription fee since most online services worked that way in the 1990s, which would have come on top of existing utility bills.

The size of the box was probably appropriate for the day, but today I'd consider this to be too large. I like the size of the Apple TV for entertainment centers (and dislike bulky cable boxes, especially since they generate tons of heat).

 

[LCGuy]

I think I seem to remember reading many years ago on AppleFritter that someone actually got the video out working. No idea how they did it, but they were able to get the STB to boot and output video to a TV.

 

[Strimkind]

I found some photo's on AF regarding a DB-15 port installed into a Apple STB. Perhaps that is what you are thinking of?

 

[Scott Baret]

If there was a DB-15, could they have perhaps linked it up with the Apple Presentation System (really nothing more than a Focus Enhancements DB-15 to S-Video or RCA box)? I believe the APS would be about the same vintage as that box, so it's possible they could have intended to have release them around the same time.

 

[Strimkind]

Reviving my old thread.

I don't think I am going to get my hands on one of these. The experiment I wanted to test was whether you can use the drivers found on the web for this and whether the drivers apply to the SCART output. My theory is that it was designed to British Telecom Interactive and SCART is only used in europe. You can easily find a cheap SCART to component adapter on ebay, so perhaps this would be the best direction to go.

Does anyone have a AITB to test this idea?

 

[CelGen]

SCART is only used in europe.

In the past I ahve seen North American electronics with SCART (I got two Pinnacle boxes that use it too). I used to have a TV that used it too but it was called "EIA Multiport".

 

[techknight]

i fixed 2 hitachi plasma TVs that had SCART on it.

 

[Strimkind]

Interesting. I have never seen SCART on any TV I have owned or seen.

 

[Strimkind]

Does anyone actually own a ATB to test my theory?

 

[mcdermd]

CompactMacLover did. I'm sure she'd sell it to you for $800

 

[CelGen]

DAMN! 8-o

Makes me wish I had bought one a few years ago when they were still on ebay for $50.

 

[Strimkind]

Same here. I refused to deal with compactmaclover even though s/he had one.

I'd be willing to trade/buy one if I knew someone who had one.

 

[IIfx]

I have been curious as to what they were like. British Telecom apparently loaned them to digital cable subscribers in 1994 in a test that was successful, but then Apple killed the project. From what I could gather from tech PDFs they would had been used for an early form of On Demand TV. Would had been among the first gen digital cable boxes.

Due to having the Mac OS it could had been expanded into a web browser/email checker if allowed by the CableCo.

Or be put in a CableCo walled garden with news, weather, an encyclopedia, and perhaps an email access provision.

A part of the reason for it flopping, is that its intended role (Digital Cable Converter) was well ahead of its time. Most systems were not digital until 1999 in the USA. Most cable systems in 1994 were only 1 direction:download. I know that Adelphia Cable (since absorbed by Comderp) had only made their systems support both up and down data by 1998. It involved replacing amps and taps.

Apple jumped into a market that did not exist. :?:

 

[LCGuy]

Apparently they were also used in Disney resorts back in 1994/1995. Funny to think - back in 1995 my parents and I took a trip to the US...we went to Disneyland as well as Disneyworld...though we didn't stay in a Disney hotel...damn.................

 

[Scott Baret]

Does anyone know which resorts they were used in?

I visited Disney World in 1995, although there were no Apple TV boxes there. I stayed at the Yacht Club that year; I'm guessing they were mostly in the residential-type hotels (i.e. Old Key West) or perhaps the high-end Grand Floridian.

They did have Mac LC 580s at EPCOT in the "Innoventions" exhibit in 1995. These were brand new when I was there and could have literally been taken right out of the box (it was only a few weeks after the 580 came out).