The Macintosh TV is a personal computer with integrated
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
capabilities released by
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
in 1993. It was Apple's first attempt at computer-television integration. It shares the external appearance of the
Macintosh LC 500 series
The Macintosh LC 500 series is a series of personal computers that were a part of Apple Computer's Macintosh LC family of Macintosh computers, designed as a successor to the compact Macintosh family of computers for the mid-1990s mainstream educa ...
, but in black.
[The power to be your best, Get a computer, a television, and a CD player. All in one desktop system. $2079 ... New. Macintosh TV.]
Fall 1993, The Apple Catalog The Macintosh TV is essentially a
Performa 520 that can switch its built-in 14" Sony
Trinitron
Trinitron was Sony's brand name for its line of aperture-grille-based CRTs used in television sets and computer monitors. One of the first truly innovative television systems to enter the market since the 1950s, the Trinitron was announced in ...
CRT from being a computer display to a cable-ready television. It is incapable of showing television in a desktop window, although it can capture still frames to
PICT
The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from ear ...
files.
It comes with a small credit card-sized remote control that is also compatible with Sony televisions. It was the first Macintosh to be made in black and comes with a matching black
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
and
mouse
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
. Later Apple would issue a custom black
Performa 5420 in markets outside the United States with many of the features of the Mac TV. Apple's similar
TV tuner card
A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the digital vi ...
was a popular option for later LC, Performa series, and select models of Power Macintosh G3 beige computers.
Only 10,000 were made in the model's short time on the market.
Specifications
Source:
* Processor: 32 MHz Motorola 68030 central processing unit
* Bus: 16 MHz
* FPU: none
* Performance: 7.0 MIPS
* RAM: 5 MB from factory (4 MB on motherboard, expandable to 8 MB using a single 100 ns 72-pin SIMM; can use 1 MB or 4 MB SIMM)
* L2 cache: none
* CD-ROM: AppleCD 300i (2x)
* ADB ports for keyboard and mouse
* DIN-8 serial ports on back of computer
* DB-25 SCSI connector on back of computer
* Antenna In (F-type RF Connector)
* Composite Video-In, Stereo Audio Input (RCA-type)
* No expansion slots
* PRAM battery: 3.6 V lithium
* Gestalt ID: 88
* Addressing: 32-bit
* Upgrade path: none
Upgrades
Although there was no official upgrade path provided by Apple, the Macintosh TV chassis is essentially that of the
LC 520
The Macintosh LC 500 series is a series of personal computers that were a part of Apple Computer's Macintosh LC family of Macintosh computers, designed as a successor to the compact Macintosh family of computers for the mid-1990s mainstream educat ...
, and as such supports the same motherboard upgrades. Although the built-in tuner capabilities are lost, installing an
LC 575
LC or Lc may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Library of Congress Classification, a system of library classification
Gaming and play
* Lego Chess, a Lego-based chess video game
* Lego Creator, a theme of Lego
* ''Lego Creator'' (video game), ...
motherboard is a common method to step up to the significantly faster
68040
The Motorola 68040 ("''sixty-eight-oh-forty''") is a 32-bit microprocessor in the Motorola 68000 series, released in 1990. It is the successor to the 68030 and is followed by the 68060, skipping the 68050. In keeping with general Motorola nami ...
processor.
See also
*
Apple Interactive Television Box
The Apple Interactive Television Box (AITB) is a television set-top box developed by Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) in partnership with a number of global telecommunications firms, including British Telecom and Belgacom. Prototypes of the un ...
*
Power Macintosh G3 beige
*
Apple TV
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
*
iMac
iMac is a family of all-in-one Mac desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998, and has evolved through seven distinct forms.
In it ...
References
External links
*
Macintosh TV at EveryMac.com
{{Apple hardware before 1998
TV
TV
Computer-related introductions in 1993