Pictures: Apple's 1995 Set Top Box

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.

Anyone have any more details on this unit?