Here's a blast from the past... in 1995, Apple created an Apple Set Top Box. Details from this 1995 Press Release announced that this interactive TV set-top technology was being evaluated in a six-state trial.
"Apple's ITV system incorporates key technologies including a subset of the MacOS, QuickDraw and QuickTime. In addition, it includes an MPEG1 decoder and supports PAL and NTSC video formats as well as E1 and T1 telephone protocols. "
Needless to say, this technology never went anywhere, but some units have been floating around. As Apple/Mac fans, we got our hands on one to take a look.
Continued (click Read More below)...Pictures (click on thumbnails for larger image):
Front of Unit.
Back of Unit.
From left to right on the picture of the back of the unit, there are the following things:
1. Power Switch
2. Power Cord Connector
3. SCSI Port
4. SCART/VCR port (covered)
5. SCART/TV port (covered)
6. RF Out
7. Channel 3/4 switch
8. RF in
9. Ethernet Port
10. Serial port
11. S-Video Port
12. Video RCA Port
13. Audio Right Out
14. Audio Left Out
Looking inside, the unit is based on a 68040 CPU. All in all, it does appear to be a 68k Mac-based machine. Plugging it in and powering it on gives a blank screen with no other sign of life. Though, one does wonder what happens if you were to plug in a 68k Mac Boot Drive onto that SCSI port. Unfortunately, we don't have access to one.
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