HOW-TO: Turn your Mac mini into a media center
posted Jan 25th 2005 1:24PM
Yep, everyone's talking about using the Mac mini as a home media center, and there's a reason why: its diminutive form factor makes it a good candidate to fit unobtrusively into an existing audio/video or home theater setup. It looks more like a consumer electronics device than a computer, so it won't look out of place in your living room. We think of it as the central brain of our system; the glue that holds all the devices together. It can serve the role of scheduler, controller, audio/video recorder, audio/video playback, audio/video download, and it even makes a decent audio/video production unit, as well. You might not win the next Sundance with your iMovie, but you sure can impress everyone at the next family reunion.
So for this week's How-To we'll cover the various aspects you'll need to think about when planning your Mac mini media center system, plus show you how to control your Mac mini headlessly from any computer in your house-there's no need to BYODKM; just BYOB, pop in a DVD and enjoy your HDTV, OK?
There's more than one way to skin a mini, so we're going to walk you through our setup and give some overview of
what tools are required. Audio and video connections are going to vary greatly depending on your particular setup, so
we'll do our best to show what we're doing with ours and give you a head start on what you'll need to get your own
setup up and running. Most of the connections are fairly simple, so this how-to is geared towards covering the basic
issues you'll have to resolve, plus show you how to divert the cash from the D, K, and M into better investments for
your media center. Without further ado...
Storage
First problem to solve is the storage issue. Whether you get the 40GB or 80GB drive, you're still going to run out of
space right quick. Start thinking about external storage right now. This is going to depend much on your available
space, your personal preferences, and what equipment you already have lying around. If you have an old PC of any OS
flavor lying around, now is the time to repurpose it into a file server. You don't need a speed demon to serve in this
capacity, because you can schedule large file transfers to happen overnight or at other times your home network isn't
in heavy usage. We turned an old PowerMac G4 400Mhz machine into our file server. It lives at the 'front end' of our
back end/front end media center solution, which we'll talk more about later. We run it headless, as well - another DKM
chunk of change you can sink right back into extra storage.
If you go this route, you'll want to soup up the chassis with as many hard drives as you can. Cannibalize old drives,
look for sales online, keep an eye out for friends with neglected machines lying around. Leave no hard drive behind, my
friends.
Setting up your server on your home network should be fairly straightforward. You'll want the connection to be wired
for faster file transfer. If the server machine is running OS X, getting it to talk with your Mac mini is easier than
selling a marked up iPod shuffle on eBay - your success is assured. If you're planning to set up your server as a Linux
box, you probably don't need any further instruction from us. Go nuts. If your server is a Windows box and you're
unfamiliar with the vicissitudes of cross-platform networking, you'll have to do a little bit of research on best
practices for smooth communications between the two. Sadly, this is beyond the scope of this how-to, but if many people
request more information we may cover it in a future how-to.
If you don't have a spare machine lying around to serve duty as a file server, you can either get a cheapo bare bones
PC to fill the role, or invest in an external storage solution. Depending on your needs, this can be as simple as a
single external Firewire drive; 250GB drives are going for less than $200. If you plan to ultimately burn most of your
recorded TV and video to DVDs, you will most likely be fine with this solution. You can also daisy chain several
Firewire drives together (or use a Firewire hub), and add more as your needs require.
An alternative to using external Firewire drives is to set up a Firewire enclosure, which converts one or more IDE
drives into a Firewire-accessible storage solution. This can be a more robust and compact solution to housing multiple
drives, and it can also be less expensive than buying multiple Firewire externals. It's an excellent way to get some
usage out of any old IDE drives you have laying about; there are also enclosures made that will convert notebook drives
into Firewire storage.
Audio
Now we get to the fun part. We've set up our media center in a back end/front end arrangement. We're going to do our
video recording on one end and playback on the other. Our Mac mini is the brain of the back end. We've set her up in
the upstairs office, which sports a relatively ancient Panasonic TV/VCR combo. Awwwww, yeah. We're using a 4-device
audio/video switch and RF modulator to route all of our audio and video components. For about $45 this unit will take
inputs from multiple devices and route them to a single output device: in our case, the stereo.
This device allows us to quickly switch between multiple sound sources without having to plug and unplug cables all
the time. One input is the output from the Mac mini, another is the output from the TV itself so we can bypass the
crappy internal speakers, a third is output from our trusty old Windows laptop we use as a dedicated jukebox (serving
up Audiogalaxy Rhapsody, last.fm, and internet radio), and the last input is reserved
for portable audio devices: iPod, MPIO, another laptop, etc. All of these are regular analog 1/8" minijack to RCA, or
RCA to RCA, cables.
If you have a stereo or home theater system with digital inputs, you're going to want to take advantage of that high
fidelity by keeping your audio signal in the digital realm along the entire pathway. An all-in-one solution for piping
digital audio out, as well as playing back TV, video, and image content on your Mac is the
EyeHome
from Elgato Systems. The box connects to your Mac via ethernet, or wirelessly via Airport Express. It gives you your
S/PDIF optical audio out as well as composite, component and S-video out, which we will talk about again later on in
the video section. The unit comes with software that lets you easily view the media on your Mac: music, images and
video files in MPEG and DivX formats. New units go for $199, and Elgato is also offering refurbished units for
$149.
An alternative to the EyeHome is a USB to digital audio solution: the
M-Audio Transit. It provides TOSlink optical
digital output and allows AC-3 and DTS pass-through. If the digital inputs are on your stereo are coax S/PDIF, you can
use a converter like this one to
hook the Transit up to your stereo, keeping the audio in the digital realm all the way from your Mac mini.
Video
For piping the video out to your TV, you face the familiar analog/digital choice once again - choice being
predicated largely on what you already have. In the best of all possible worlds, you have a nice spankin' new TV with a
DVI connector, which you simply hook up via the Mac mini's DVI out to achieve the holy nirvana 1920 x 1200 resolution
signal. If you're considering purchasing a new TV for your media center, make sure it has either a DVI or an
HDMI connector. The industry is moving in the direction of keeping all
of these signals digital from end to end, which is good for us because it means higher quality video and audio, and
that we don't have to keep buying a gazillion adapters from the Apple store. Huzzah!
If, like most of us, you have to convert your Mac mini's sweet digital output back to old analog, there are two fairly
straightforward options: cheap, and not so cheap. Cheap is a
$19 DVI to S-video
adapter from Apple. Note that that product page must say at least a dozen times the adapter is only for use with a
G5, which is truly annoying since they link right to it from the Mac mini product page. They must not have gotten
around to updating the page yet, but it
reportedly works just fine with the Mac mini.
If your TV uses composite/RCA in instead of S-video, you can use an S-video to RCA adapter. My G4 Powerbook came with
one:
If you don't already have one lying around, you can order one
online for about $13-$17 depending on the length you need. You'll have to get both the DVI to S-video and the
S-video to composite adapter, connect them, and hook that contraption into your composite RCA cable:
For those of us who are really old skool, there's always beloved coax. We've got coax coming out of the RF inverter
switch to our TV.
If you've got a TV that's old enough to only have coax in, you'll need an RF modulator also. You don't have to shell
out for the $45 4-port version, though; you can get a regular 1 in/out unit for as little as $10.
Coming back to the not so cheap solution is our old friend the
EyeHome.
Again, it offers an integrated hardware and software solution for playing the media on your Mac for $199, or $149
refurbished. If you have a TV that has component video connectors, this is the highest quality analog solution you are
going to get.
HDTV will travel over component connections, although it's still less optimal than a DVI connection because the signal has to undergo a D/A conversion and back again with component cable, whereas DVI stays in the digital realm entirely. Still, it's a noticeable improvement over S-video, and probably worth the investment if you have a TV that supports it.
Video inFinally we arrive at the heart of your home studio: how the heck are we going to record all of this acronym
soup?
This past fall we tested out the Formac
DVR solution for TV recording and video conversion. Let's just make a long story short and say that it technically
works, but you don't want it. The hottest kids on the block right now are from Elgato Systems - sound familiar? In the
States, we basically have two choices, because the USB solution is just not going to cut it when we can have Firewire.
Choice one is the EyeTV 200 for $329. This box has gotten consistently
positive
reviews on its own as well as
combined with the EyeHome as an integrated PVR solution on
the Mac.
The EyeTV 200 was our choice for a PVR unit. At press time, our unit was still on back order because we're not the
only ones who had the same idea, and the thronging Mac hordes beat us to it. So we can't show you our EyeTV in action,
but its place in our existing setup couldn't be simpler: it fits snug with the Mac mini via Firewire, with one
composite video cable going from the TV to the back of the unit, and the audio output that is now routed to the stereo
will route in to the EyeTV. We're old skool and don't have cable, but if you do your cable box is basically a step in
the chain between the TV and the EyeTV.
We chose the EyeTV 200 over the EyeTV 500 because of its versatility: you can use it to record any analog or digital
source you can find a connector for. It functions as a nice analog to digital converter, so you can capture all of
those old VHS tapes to luscious MPEG-2 format. You can even record gameplay on your Playstation, when you get really
bored.
Your video will get transcoded into MPEG-2 format and stored on your Mac. It will suck up about 2GB worth of space
every hour, so make sure you have enough free space either in your staging area, if you offload files to a central
server, or that you capture the footage to an internal or external drive with enough space. EyeTV offers scheduled
recording options, and the excellent TitanTV channel guide, but one of its major limitations is its inability to switch
channels on your cable or satellite box. If you have unscrambled analog cable you're fine, as the coax feed can go
right into EyeTV's built-in tuner for changing channels. But if you've got digital or satellite cable, this is the most
serious issue to consider before purchasing EyeTV. You won't be able to use it like TiVo. Apparently Elgato is working
on a solution to this problem, but as of right now it's still vaporware.
Recording and playback of HDTV
For the HD enthusiasts, I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is you can record in HD perfectly
fine on your Mac mini at either 1.25 or 1.42Ghz, using the $349 EyeTV 500 from our favorite, and basically only,
company providing PVR solutions for the Mac: Elgato. In fact, you only need a 500Mhz processor for recording, because
it's the breakout box itself that does the heavy lifting, and not your Mac. The bad news is, you'll need either a
digital TV with a DVI connector, or a serious horsepower Mac to play back your recorded MPEG-2 content over component
HD cabling, because in the reverse process, the Mac's CPU has to bear the burden. On the other hand, you could use the
'bad news' as an excuse to finally give in and get that sweet HDTV plasma screen you've been drooling over. As the old
adage says: when life gives you lemons, buy a plasma TV.
To those of you early adopters who have an HDTV with component instead of DVI connectors (like us!), we hear the
pristine Dolby 5.1 sound of you tearing your hair out. Yep, it sucks. Especially since the reason for this whole
shenanigan is that Apple is holding out on third-party developers like Elgato. If they had made the interfaces of their
graphics cards easily accessible to developers, Elgato could have taken advantage of the hardware acceleration on the
graphics cards themselves, instead of forcing the Mac's CPU to shoulder the entire load.
Why is Apple holding out on third-party developers of PVR solutions for the Mac? Our best guess is that Steve jobs has
some sort of HD PVR solution up his black turtle-necked sleeve, and we'll see it roll out sometime this year. It is,
after all, the Year of HD, remember?
If you are stuck in this boat with us, and you happen to be lucky enough to have a dual processor G5 just lying around
collecting dust that you can dedicate to the front end of your media center, then you probably have the cash to pony up
for a new DTV anyway, so please send Engadget the G5 for *our* media center, eh?
It's not as bleak as all that, really - Apple's not the only game in town. There's nothing stopping you from using a
cheaper Windows or Linux solution for the front end of your media center. What's more, some sub-$300 solutions for
networked media playback of MPEG-2 content are starting to come to market, like the
Roku PhotoBridge HD Digital Media Player. MPEG-2 is the
current digital video standard, so look for other solutions to be emerging in the near future, as well. If you do
choose the EyeTV 500 as your PVR du jour, you'll be happy you spent some time up front thinking about storage, because
HD recording will suck a whopping 8GB of hard drive space per hour. That's some seriously phat video, yo!
Remote Controlling your Mac mini: Do Not BYODKM
(subtitle: the Tao of VNC)
One last item on the problem-solving agenda: remote control. You can pipe the video output of you Mac mini to use your
TV as a monitor and shell out for the keyboard and mouse. You'd have to spring for the Bluetooth module in the Mac
mini, plus a Bluetooh keyboard and mouse, if you wanted to control it from your couch. Considering that most of you
probably already have other computers in the house, there is a much easier, and more elegant, way to control your Mac
Mini media server: enter VNC.
Virtual Network Computer (VNC) is a remote desktop protocol used to
remotely control one computer from another. It transmits all input data from screen, keyboard and mouse between the two
machines across a network. It's complete platform independent, and there are client and server applications written for
almost every operating system, including the Pocket PC,
Palm, Java-enabled cellphones, and
even the Apple Newton. 300 bonus points to anybody who
sends us a shot of their Newton controlling their Mac mini.
VNC is also open source code at its core, and most of the clients/servers are open source as well. There may be no
free lunch, but there is free desktop remote control, which means you can turn almost anything into a remote control
for your media center and impress all your friends for the low, low price of $0. Who said the Mac was more expensive?
;> Let's get cracking.
VNC consists of two parts: the machine you wish to control runs a VNC server, and the machine you control from runs a
client. Both work over TCP/IP, which means you can control your headless Mac Mini from any machine on any OS in your
wired or wireless home network. It also means you can control your mini from anywhere you can get internet access.
There are issues to be resolved concerning dynamic IP addressing and security if you want to access your NYC Mac from
your next trip to the Swiss alps, but neither is it rocket science. If you'd like to see this covered in a future
how-to, just let us know.
Installing a VNC server on your Mac mini
You can install the standard UNIX version of the VNC server on OS X via Fink, but it only supports X11 programs. There
is an Aqua-friendly version that we'll use called OSXvnc. Click
on the "Download OSXvnc" link and the application itself will be downloaded to your default download location. When you
first launch the server, you have to do a little configuration.
Most of the information under the General tab should be filled in for you automagically. Display number 0 and port 5900 are both defaults. The Display name will be based on your computer's name. You should enter a password for VNC access to the Mac mini and, ultimately, set up an even more secure connection via SSH. Next, click the Sharing tab:
If you're running other OS X Macs in the house, make sure to check "Advertise Server via Rendezvous" - when you launch a VNC client on a Mac on your network, it will automagically show you the Mini as an available VNC server. Next, click the Startup tab:
Click on "Configure startup item." You will get a dialogue box asking for your password to authenticate enabling OSXvnc at startup. Enter it and click OK, and you will see that the vnc server startup item has been enabled, and the next time you boot up your Mini, the vnc server will automagically run.
At this point you may want to enable any other applications you want to run on startup. When I have had troubles
with VNC, it has often been when attempting to launch programs. Since it's easy to enable what you know your media
server is going to use at boot time and leave those applications running, you can avoid potential program launch
errors. We've set iTunes and iPhoto to launch on startup. You can enable startup items in the System Preferences: go to
Accounts and click on the Startup items tab.
Connecting to your Mac mini with a VNC client
You can find a good VNC client for whatever operating system you want to connect to your Mini from
here. Follow the documentation to see how to establish a connection.
It's usually pretty straightforward: enter the display name/hostname of your Mac, the port number (default is 5900),
and the connection password. Then, hit connect and witness the wonder of your new multiple personality machine.
Other remote control options
As noted above, you can download a VNC client to your Pocket PC, Palm, or Java-enabled cellphone. Better yet, load up
all three and make sure you always have a remote handy wherever you are.
One other option is to use an excellent piece of software called
Salling Clicker. Controlling your Mac mini from
your cellphone is an elegant solution for your living room media center, and inexpensive if you've already got a device
supported by the software. It is not a true and total remote control as with VNC, but it does have support for many of
the applications you would be interested in controlling remotely, plus support for AppleScript so you can hack up other
solutions to meet your needs.
EyeTV/EyeHome come with remotes, also, but they're only useful for controlling their own software domain, and not your
whole Mac. If you want power over the whole kit and kaboodle, give VNC a try. After all, when else do you get to dig on
your old Dell laptop running Aqua?
So price wise....after all the hook ups...software and finding old hard drives and stealing friends drives...how much will this cost? I personally like the look of and silverstone HTPC cases for DVR'ing it over top of the mac mini. So don't flame me or anything but isn't this setup just as expensive once you add everything to it as any HTPC? Yes i know mac people...that u get a mac and not windows...so don't bother with those replies...my point is to the normal consumer...buying one of those HTPC's out of the box looks a lot easier to hook up then all the addons you need for the mini...please someone correct me if I am wrong..
yeah, i may be, but the Mac Mini was not designed to be a HTPC. This guide is merely outlined the "how" should you be interested. The "normal consumer" you refer does not come into it.
Unless they have already bought theirs and hope to turn it into a HTPC.
I have the Keyspan Express Remote (http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/urm17a/), and that works great for remote controling either a PC/Mac or my AirPort Express.
Also good is ATI's Remote Wonder, which also works with both PC and Mac.
So is there any Mac software that'll allow upscaling of DVD to HD res?
You might want to throw in a ReplayTV to record shows. With DVarchive running on the Mini Mac, you can bypass purchasing the EyeTV and easily control your digital cable and satellite. Google it for more info, but its a great solution. It's also easy to offload shows to a laptop for watching on the road. Tivo gets the name recognition, but ReplayTV gets the nod for easy lifting of shows.
Would be great to see how to configure VNC for use across the internet. Hopefully the server side is easy for Moms to configure such that once and for all, I can help her through her Mac problems from my PC.
very cool... this is definatly something to consider when i get my mini, just 1 question. Why woulf you go through all of this trouble if you don't even have cable ?
This post makes absolutely no sense.
Why would you use the Mini Mac as a *back* end? If it's on the back end, why not just use some huge, ugly rig?
The ONLY advantage to a mini mac is it is small and stylish. Frankly, I feel sorry for anyone who buys a Mini Mac and thinks they are getting something "new".
Did I read the part right, where it seemed to imply that you could play MPEG-2 over a DVI connection to a TV and use the TV's decoder (rather than the computer's processor) to decode the MPEG-2? What kind of software does it require? (Maybe I'm stupid. If so, please forgive me.)
Barb, absolutely wicked awesome work! I'm so glad to see someone giving VNC the prime-time coverage it deserves.
My little blog (I never tire of telling people I was first with the how-to, albeit sans photos since it was posted 6 hrs. after the keynote) covers some other minor points as well... Just click my name. I ain't spammin' here.
BUT I would like to work with anyone using their mini, or other mac, to do various tasks around the house. Home automation, robotics, entertainment, security, and education. I'm putting together a little e-book for the vast, unwashed masses of PC users who'll be getting their very first Apple-- probably a mini.
Again, check my blog for info... Barb, you listening? And Phillip, have you duct-taped the mini to the head of an Aibo yet? Inquiring minds want to know.
Last point, regarding DVD to HD. You'll have to wait for BluRay or HD-DVD. Pixels are what they are, and won't "scale" unless there's data there to begin with. That's the point of H.264. Watch Steve's keynote and see what I mean. But it's coming... This is the year of HD after all!
Congrat and thanks for a great article. However, this is way more than I need. What if I just want to (1) play my MP3s on my home stereo using Mac Mini as the output device and/or (2) use my TV as the head for my Mac Mini?
To 8:
On PC they have an app called FFDSHOW that will upscale the image to HD res (or higher) and it gives a noticeable boost to image quality above 480p (also inlcudes a staggering amount of filters to further improve image quality).
It's really something to see and makes a huge qualitative difference in IQ. Since I need an excuse to get a mini, I need an app like that on Mac.
The Mini should also be usable as a MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org) frontend box. Unfortunately, there's no OS X port of the Myth backend yet.
OS X has a VNC Server built in!
Go to the Sharing Preference pane and enable "Apple Remote Desktop." Go into the ARD options and check the box for "Enable VNC Viewers with the password:"
If you don't see it search Apple's site for "Apple Remote Desktop Client Update"
Am I the only one who finds this whole thing a little absurd? I am a mac addict, but I see no real reason for the mac mini to be involved in this. I like the fact that they tried to get it in there somehow but it's just not doing anything for me. I have been looking at mac solutions for a dvr/pvr for some time now. I'v been trying to figure out the best way to use a mini in that setup since it's been announced. The conclusion I've come to is it's just not happening.
First off, the two elgato solutions mentiond would work perfectly fine with just that old g4 and some added storage.
Secondly, This setup will cost more than an HP media center or equivalent, and is much more of a pain to use.
While the ideas are good the implementation is just poor. It was a good shot though. Your best bet if you want to go Mac for doing this is to wait or get the eyeTv and eyeHome and old computer and continue to lust after the mini. You can still VNC into an old G4.
Me, I figure I've waited this long there's no sense in rushing it.
Minor comment: the Apple DVI-to-Video adapter supports both S-Video and Composite video, no need for a separate S-Video-to-composite cable as the article suggests.
To # 2. So the mini mac is not designed to be a HTPC? Its small form factor doesn't make it a perfect accesory for th eliving room where wives hate to have large loud pc's cranking away? Personally I would think this would be perfect for the living room. So the mini isn't targeted to the "normal consumer". Well shiver me timbers I tought that was the target audience they are looking for...maybe the first time mac users...
"The bad news is, youll need either a digital TV with a DVI connector, or a serious horsepower Mac to play back your recorded MPEG-2 content"
This is wrong; please correct the article. The mini cannot (smoothly) play HD content, period.
you could probably get a decent XP MCE box for much, much cheaper and with less hassle. i grabbed a nice shuttle system on ebay, bought a cheap ati ehome tv card, and got XP MCE for about $700. i've used mythtv and tivo before, but MCE blows'em both away easily in terms of ease of use and general awesomeness.
Someone should just port MythTV to Mac OS X with the drivers for the Hauppauge WinTV PVR cards so that we can turn older PowerMac's into PVR's. Sure you could install Linux on a PowerMac and do it that way but I would rather run OS X.
I assume it's about the same for a Mini, but it's very easy to hook a powerbook up to a DVI-capable TV (mitsu diamond series and toshiba cinema series at least) and run it at HD resolutions. The output will be scaled to whatever resolution you select for output (1920x1080 for those CRT-based HD displays). I've done this with those TV's and a 1.4GHz 15" powerbook, which is a very similar rig w.r.t. hardware. I'm sure the mini would do a fine job as a DVD player and whatever other media activities you want (assuming you want to buy the extra hardware where req'd)
The Mac mini is suspiciously missing from Target.com. Any ideas? http://enterprisemac.typepad.com
The Mac mini is suspiciously missing from Target.com. Any ideas? http://enterprisemac.typepad.com
I have a question regarding the following statement: "The bad news is, youll need either a digital TV with a DVI connector, or a serious horsepower Mac to play back your recorded MPEG-2 content over component HD cabling, because in the reverse process, the Macs CPU has to bear the burden."
Does this mean that with a TV w/ a DVI connector, the Mac mini will be able to drive HDTV content over DVI, but not component?
While this piece is very detailed and explains it all, I really think it overcomplicates the process. In fact, after reading the whole piece, I'm wondering what the value of having the Mac mini in the middle of such a connection soup really is.
Yes, the Mac mini is perfect for PVR/DVR use. But I think this "How to..." is a tad much for some. And when you add up the cost, you might as well just buy a set-top DVD-Recorder with hard drive. Heck, if anything I think that using the Powermac G4 400 as the main machine--no front/end or back/end just one machine--would do nicely. Add in as many hard drives as you can and that's fine.
I think for most casual users who just want to watch TV shows and record them, they simply need to get a Mac mini, and EyeTV 200 and that's about it. Perhaps a remote control device like ATI's Remote Wonder.
Definitely a decent effort, but I would really like to see a "How To.." that is a bit simpler and not focused on getting EVERY media source playable/recordable on the Mac mini.
So, let's see: need to buy external hardware to record tv, external storage, and oh, wait, an external computer to playback HD content.
Isn't the current MacMini just a trojan horse, and the truly cool version will be coming in year with all the features we really want?
costs less to mod an xbox into a media center. My media center = Xbox $200CDN + Xecuter3 mod chip $79 CDN + Remote $50CDN = $329CDN
I record and download Video with my desktop since that does not need to happen in my living room. XBox media center is a great program too. I can use the remote, or even a webbrowser to control it.
As a heads up if for some reason you want to use your Mac Mini completely headless (aka no monitor connected at all) the machive will default to 800x600 and you can't change the setting (because the mac can't adjust the res without a detected monitor). Now some people may have no issues with this but if you, like me, prefer higher resolutions (VNC clients can scale the screen at any res so even 1920x1080 looks nice on a 1280x768 laptop screen) then you have to always have a monitor or HDTV hooked up to the mac. Supposedly there are adapters that can fool your screen into thinking a monitor is connected but I don't know if they work with the mini. From there you just get a program like SwitchRes X to make OSX display at the resolution you want (assuming your prefered resolution isn't show by default).
As a side question anyone tried to hook a mac mini up to a Toshiba 26HL83 26" LCD HDTV via DVI? No matter what res I set it at some of the screen is cut off (I found the proper res for my PC using a GF 6800 but its also cut off when used with the mini). 1240x768 gets me the least hacked up screen where I can KINDA see the menu bar.
Build to order options are cheaper now... bluetooth/wireless etc.
I have never understood the fascination with an expensive media center like the mini when simple products such as the El Gato eyeHome are better designed for this kind of task.
I don't work at El Gato, I'm just a happy user.
http://www.elgato.com
You can find the eyeHome for $189 to $239, depending on where you shop for it. It does AVI, MPEG (1,2,4) and more. And, let's face it, between Bittorrent TV shows and ripped movies (MPEG-2), there's little reason to have much more than an eyeHome for your movies and media. It's one of my favorite media-center devices in a long time.
AirmanPika, if you start any Mac headless, the default will be 800x600. But if you login to the machine using a remote access client you can set the resolution to 1024x768. I do it all the time on client's machine I access using Apple Remote Desktop.
Has any one considered the use of Mac mini for in car audio/GPS system, instead of mini-itx setup?
Thanks
your "$19 DVI to S-video adapter from Apple" link goes to an imac page, not a video adapter.
Don't forget that you can also use your bluetooth phone to control iTunes, many movie players and much more (you can even use your phone's joystick to move the mouse) if you install Salling Clicker on a bluetooth-enabled Mac
http://www.salling.com
My understanding is that the DVI connector (DVI-HDTV, EIA-861 standard) on the back of my Sony is incompatible with the DVI connector on the back of my Mac (ADC, convertible to DVI-D? - I believe). If anyone has any information to the contrary, or a workaround, I would love to hear about it. Feel free to email me at wfs3_AT_mail.com
Below is a link with some good information on the different cables, converter and switches.
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/DVI_monitor_cables.html#vid-card
That speaker breakout box will not work with the Mac mini. That breakout box requires the Apple pro speaker port and the last computer to have that port was the PM G4 MDD.
Is anyone else out there thoroughly confused by this whole setup? I would like to see a schematic of the whole setup. I like pictures, but drawings (even sketches) would make the whole deal less confusing.
Apple remote desktop is a $200 upgrade..
OSXVnc has a FAQ that says it doesn't work with headleass systems without a hardware upgrade(!)... so *are* there any remote desktops that actually work properly for OSX?
Will a java enabled cell-phone use bluetooth to be able to control the computer wirelessly?
Also, will the VNC work with WIRELESS networks?
I plugged the DVI connector from the Mini Mac into the DVI connector on my Sony 37XS910 plasma TV, and it works - it detects a whole bunch of resolutions, and looks awesome. I find 720x480 works best for me, just because anything higher makes the fonts too small to read from the sofa.
One problem though - part of the screen is drawn in the overscan area of the TV. That's not a problem for playing video, of course, but you can't see the Mac menu at the top of the screen. I'm using the zoom feature in the accessibility options as a workaround, and OSXVnc.
I'm playing around with DisplayConfigX ($12 shareware), which works - but I'm having trouble finding the video timings that might get rid of the overscan issue - the TV definitely does not act like a regular monitor. Also, when I turn the TV off and on, the Mac will often come back in a different resolution. So there's still lots of tweaking I've got to do...
All of this is just too much work. The Mac Mini is just half baked. Having to add on all of this just to record and playback is nerve racking. And by the way...eyeTV 200 is just plain terrible. I bought it and tried every setting and tweak on my Mac G5 w/ 23 inch monitor and it just looked plain terrible. Until there is a complete solution from Apple, I am opting for a quality 17 inch HDTV ready flat panel TV (There is a new one coming out from Sony at $599) and a dvd-r/hd recorder. I will get all of the quality video and digital audio I can enjoy and burn dvds to boot! I know we all want to support Apple and the mini is quite cute, but its like trying to tow a mobile home with a Toyota Rav4!
If you have to hook up through a VCR for some reason don't use Apple's DVD player unless you use a ripper that strips out macrovision. I recommend Mac the Ripper but anyone who has been ripping DVDs on their mac is probably familiar with this software already. Apples DVD player supports macrovision and it's caused problems for my trying to play movies from my powerbook through TV/VCR combos and VCRs on TV's with no composite or s-video inputs. Not a big problem at home but it's a pain on the road. I HATE ALL FORMS OF DRM!
How about a similar article, with photographs and text, that will show how a Windows PC can be converted or switched into a Macintosh PC using the Mac Mini and the monitor, keyboard and mouse from the Windows PC. In this article you can also show, with photographs and text, how a keyboard and mouse that have connectors other than USB can be made to work with the Mac Mini.
The Griffin "breakout" cable will NOT work with the Mac Mini; it requires an amplified "pro speaker" port, which the Mini definitely does not have.
Re: "Apple remote desktop is a $200 upgrade
You don't need to buy ARD. OS X comes with the Remote Desktop server built-in. Open the Sharing preference pane and check the box next to Apple Remote Desktop, then click Access Privileges. Click the box next to "VNC viewers may control screen with password:" and set a password. You can now connect with a VNC client (over the default port 5900, I believe).
Re: "OSXVnc has a FAQ that says it doesn't work with headleass systems without a hardware upgrade(!)... so *are* there any remote desktops that actually work properly for OSX?"
Most older Macs had a quirk where if you booted the system without a monitor attached the video circuitry was disabled. If you plugged in a monitor after booting without one attached you wouldn't get any video. A side effect was that remote control software (VNC, Timbuktu) wouldn't work either. You could get around this by using Dr. Bott's gHead (http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?QuickSearch=ghead) or an old adapter that goes from VGA to old-style Mac video (or vice versa). I don't think newer systems have this problem, so it's a moot point.
a slightly cheaper solution than elgato would be iTele.
They provide drivers for the main digital tv cards out there. and this software is free!
I am a total Mac bigot, but I'm also a home theater hobbiest. Frankly, this is still a major kludge. Until you can take an unmodded Mac Mini, plug it into your Audio Video Receiver (AVR), it's simply not worth doing. I have many friends that tinker with Home Theater PCs, and even they require a huge effort and frequent tinkering.
This HOWTO is interesting in seeing what it would take to make it work, but the bigger question is "is it worth it" and for now, the answer is NO.
Hey, I love the macmini, and I too saw it and thought "HTPC", but its just impossible - it really is. THe only reason you would ever do this is just to show that you can. For FAR less money you can cobble together a MUCH slicker solution using old windows crap (I know the thought of that 50 dollar license to MSFT makes the extra $500 in hardware worth it I guess).
I've built quite a few HTPCs. They're all cheaper, and do more. THe list of unsupported features is too long to even get into.
And the whole Mpeg-2 -> DVI -> HD thing is bullpuckies as far as I can figure yout. If I'm wrong someone please explain it to me. Unless somehow the raw TS is getting streamed back to an HD TUNER in a TV (if anyone even uses their OTA tuner in their TV).
1. Mac Mini wasn't aimed at this market, it's aimed at current PC users who they want to switch. Hence, no component out or digital audio out (like the tower G5 has.) The suggestion of the USB-based surround sound output is the best one IMO. Having a TV that has a DVI input instead of component sounds like the better solution, but I've seen a device on ATI's site that claims it'll adapt a DVI-I signal to component; I called and the guy said, "ANY DVI-I signal." even though their website does not list the 9200 explicitly.
2. Speaking of DVI, there's some confusion here. DVI-D is digital only. DVI-I carries BOTH digital and analog signals. The Mac Mini -- all Macs with DVI output, in fact -- (pretty sure, anyway!) have DVI-I, so you should be covered. For more info and an intro to DVI, see: http://www2.dvigear.com/introtodvi.html
3. I *love* my EyeTV 200. It's currently connected to an iMac G5. It rocks and does everything I want it to. Plus titantv.com integration is FREE instead of a stupid one-time 'life of device', or a monthly $14+ fee for T*vo. I can record shows by scheduling them from the EyeTV software, from the titanTV site by clicking a 'record' button, or even from WORK (remotely) by clicking "remote schedule" an hour in advance (the EyeTV software 'phones home' to the titanTV site to see if there is new content to record.) I can edit shows to remove commercials with a pretty easy to use interface (I'd give it a B+), then use a one-step process to burn them easily to DVD with Roxio Toast Titanium. The setup is seriously polished and I'm really happy with it.
4. I really *DO NOT LIKE* my EyeHome. Did the reviewer actually buy one and use it? I found many things wrong with it, including: Cannot have more than one 100-baseT hub between computer and EyeHome (network latency makes program playback die); EyeHome does not do 7-second reply or 30 second commercial skip (like EyeTV does; both come with remotes); playback sometimes randomly 'falls off' and you cannot recover where it was - you have to start over; ffwd/rwd are VERY SLOW to respond and that makes it easy to miss where you're trying to shuttle to - or again it could kill the video; the interface for 'other' tasks (iTunes music, iPhoto albums, web browsing) is WEAK and not even 10% as good as the programs themselves; the eyeHome technology was licensed from Syabas which makes me wonder how often we'll see new models or even software updates; the mac client for eyeHome runs tomcat - which is cool - but does not let you make any changes to the way things worked... compare this to the SliMP3 and Squeezebox 'open server' model, where everything is able to be modified -- the user community is welcome to complain about SliMP3 Server -- but they can jump right in and change things. For example, both eyeHome and SliMP3 have an IR receiver which sends the signal to its server running on your computer, which decides what to do with it. Well, you can customize SliMP3 server to do new actions (like send an x10 'dim lights' command) for new IR signals it receives - not so for the EyeHome. That's understandable since obviously they want an idiot-proof box and they're worried that if people mess with it they'll break it and that'll increase the amt. of support needed - just say 'buyer beware! this is advanced mojo!' or something. Grr.
Therefore, for someone who has the EyeTV already AND the eyeHome, consider that I'm thinking about Mac Mini as a *replacement* for my eyeHome, and attaching my EyeTV 200 and an external HD to it rather than stream the content from my iMac G5 in the other room. Then it doubles as a *computer* instead of a crappy networked front-end to my media. Now iTunes playback doesn't suck. iPhoto slide shows on my TV. etc, etc. I'm still worried about how well the content will play back, given only 32 MB of VRAM, and a slower processor than my G5, so keep that in mind before thinking my solution is the best one; I HAVE NOT TRIED IT YET.
I may also get a second EyeTV 200 so I can tape one show on each computer and watch TV on the iMac in the other room, I like it that much, it's a great product.
There is a mac HTPC forum over at AVS - where people seem to report some difficulty and some success (through some file conversions or a firewire tv) of getting the mini to run HD. Merely using a dvi-port doesn't seem to get it done with out frame drops.
This just doesn't look elegant at all. Although its pretty, I am thinking the comcast hd pvr (which is no tivo) might be the better bet at this point for me. At least that's a rental, so if Jobs delivers a mini-based grand unification device I can always "switch".
I should add two more things that come to mind. I guess I have a lot to say about this issue.
5) Uh, EyeTV 200 vs. 500: they're meant to do two totally separate things.
The EyeTV 200 is only meant for recording *analog* signals; it has coax input (for either 'antenna' (UHF/VHF), or cable TV, input.) It also has composite or S-Video input, and L/R RCA input jacks for recording sound. It is great for digitizing my old VHS tapes, for example.
The EyeTV 500 is only meant for recording already *digital* signals; it has two inputs, one for HDTV/SDTV, which you can get just by connecting a special HD antenna -- and they just revealed that a second connector on the box (cleverly marked "ANT. OUT"??) is actually an input for Clear QAM, or unencrypted digital cable. Check with your provider to see if they offer it first!
The point is, they're two different beasts. I have not tried the EyeTV 500, I only own the EyeTV 200. I do not know how difficult it would be to configure the software to use both devices on the same bus, or if that's even advisable. And like it was mentioned above, I have no idea whether the Mac Mini would be capable of even supporting that kind of bandwidth for playback. I'm just saying, the reviewer made it sound like there was some kind of significant decision between the 200 and 500, where IMO it's kind of a no-brainer.
6) Re: VNC. Apple distributes machines with the OLD Remote Desktop Client (v1.2.4) because the v2 update for Apple Remote Desktop is a PAID upgrade (which rocks, fwiw.) Therefore, to ensure compatibility with the v1 administrator application, you typically need to use the v2 administrator application to "Upgrade Client..." to the v2.1 version. I believe VNC is supported as of v2.0. I'm sure there is a way to upgrade the client on your machine even if you don't have the ARD administrator app, e.g. via the software update website.
Anyway, once v2.1 is in place on your machine, THEN you should see the system preference option saying "VNC Viewers may control screen with password: ______".
(This is confusing to talk 'client' and 'server' because isn't the *administrator* actually running the client, and every machine that you can remote-control is actually a *server*? But hopefully you get what I'm saying here. ;)
HTH!
Can all of this be simplified using firewire? My Sony HDTV, Motorola 6214 settop box, and hopefully new Mac-mini. All support firewire. I am aware of the 6214 fw limitation (no graphics overlay), but all i want to do is use the mac mini as as my DVD player and provide external storage to the 6214 hard drive. My HDTV also has dvi in.
Wow, I can't believe no one's mentioned this:
OS X projected at 300 inches (diag.)!
Half of HTPC is the PC...
and I'd rather it have class.
If the whole point of using your Mac Mini as a media center is that "its diminutive form factor makes it a good candidate to fit unobtrusively into an existing audio/video or home theater setup", then what the hell is the point of using another old G4 or pc laptop in plain sight or at all? I mean doesnt that sort of defeat the whole purpose of embracing the mac mini to begin with? It seems like all the functions of any other computer you guys were using (music from the laptop or files from a fileserver etc) could easily be done by the mini with a firwire hard drive. Admit it you just wanted to use more computers because your all dorks....but I'm not really one to talk. Think about it man...
Just a few comments - this topic is huge, so I'll try not to be as long-winded as in the article - I may fail. ;)
* Will VNC work on a wireless network: yes. It's just TCP/IP, no difference wired or wireless. I am controlling my Mac Mini from my wireless Powerbook as well as my old Dell.
* OSXvnc works with the Mini headless. As someone else pointed out, you just log in to the Mini and change the resolution in System preferences the first time it is booted up.
* Thanks to the folks who pointed out the Griffin breakout cable will not work due to the lack of 'pro' audio jack on the mini.
* As far as complexity of setup goes: my setup is 'complex' because that's how it fits my needs - I'm a tweaker and I enjoy that sort of thing. The benefit of using the Mini over a ready-made HTPC is its flexibility/versatility. If you need a simple setup, just get the Mini and EyeTV 200 and be done with it. The advantage over getting something like a Silverstone HTPC is that, 4-5 years down the road, the Silverstone could never find its way into your kids' room as a hand-me-down PC. It's a specialized product that does one thing and one thing only. Is it a 'simpler' way to set up HTPC? Of course! That's what it's designed for.
As far as needing to think about so many things - storage, etc. - this is no different from what you need to consider when you're setting up an HTPC on any operating system with any equipment. If it seems complex... it is complex. :) The bigger picture is that our society is in the middle of a huge transition from analog to digital, and there are problems to solved in that process. Some of us enjoy problem solving and tweaking, and want a setup as detailed above. Others want something simple they can plug in and go, which the Mac Mini can also pull off admirably *for anything other than HDTV.*
For playback of HD content, the reason the Mini will *do better natively* than playback via the EyeHome is that the EyeHome makes the Mac's processor so all of the work. Elgato cannot take advantage of the hardware acceleration in the graphics card, because Apple hasn't given developers access to that information. However, of course Apple itself has access to that information and its software offerings maximize the usage of the graphics card to offload much of the number crunching from the processor itself. This is exactly why they are able to offer HD editing capability in *iMovie* of all things, which is merely a consumer-level video editing program. If you stop and think about that for just a moment - that's pretty cool.
Now - there is a way to test whether or not any system in question can handle playback of MPEG-2 HD content. There is a handy sample file at the top of this article by EFF:
http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/eyetv500.php
I used VLC to test this file on the 1.25 Ghz Mac Mini out to my VGA monitor. It didn't hose it, but it wasn't perfect, either. In scenes with camera sweeps and heavy motion, there were some digital artifacts that were noticeable when sitting right in front of the monitor. However, I came across accounts on the web of folks who had tweaked VLC to enable smooth playback of HD content on machines even less powerful - 1Ghz Powerbook, e.g. I will be curious to see if VLC can be tweaked to further improve HD playback on the Mini, and I would also be curious to see if the Quicktime MPEG-2 upgrade (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/products/mpeg2playback/) would allow 100% smooth playback. If anyone has tried either, please let us know.
For HD playback, natively out of the box, the Mini is not your best bet right now. But don't be surprised if it becomes the best bet in town in a few months. That's just my hunch, admittedly, I could be wrong. We'll see. :)
Clay - yes, it can be simplified with Firewire. This goes for any HDTVs that support Firewire. Check out this thread for more info:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3616279
Grr, I accidentally deleted part of my comment above. The line,
"Therefore, to ensure compatibility with the v1 administrator application, you typically need to use the v2 administrator application to "Upgrade Client..." to the v2.1 version."
...which makes no sense, should read:
Therefore, to ensure compatibility with the v1 administrator application, Apple left the 1.2.4 version in. The idea being, only after you buy v2.1 of the ARD Administrator, you'd need to use it to "Upgrade Client..." to the v2.1 version.
* * *
Also, "Amy" (around comment #36) asked for diagrams. Well, here's mine: http://www.unithom.com/avstuff/ -- hope it helps.
What about surround sund ?
How do you get the mac to play back Dolby 5.1 or even DTS-ES 6.1 ?
:(
Like a few others here, I have to say this is complete nonsense. "The mac mini makes a great HTPC, except, except, except...". I agree with another poster, the only reason to do such a setup would be to prove that it is possible. I have both a mac and a pc and it seems a whole lot more reasonable to hook up my shuttle pc as a HTPC...it has an ATI AIW, DVI out, dolby digital out, 250gb SATA, DVD burner...it's capable of RAID...so the only real problem is there's no current way to record in HD. But it's a whole heck of a lot closer than the mac mini!
+ Mac mini with wireless whatever
+ USB to S/PDIF
+ Panasonic Projector PT AE 500 (has DVI)
+ AV Reciever with S/PDIF
+ Loudspeaker Boxes
+ Your laptop with the same wireless whatever
+ USB or Firewire TV tuner
+ USB or FireWire video input card
-------------------
= Home Multimedia center
+ Remote control
+ USB Hub
+ ...
See, hardware part is EASY! Challenge is there to make it as simple to use as an all in one DVD-Recoder or TiVo.
How do you get the mac to play back Dolby 5.1 or even DTS-ES 6.1 ?
http://www.midiman.de/transit.htm S/PDIF, Dolby Digital 5.1 (AC3), DTS and Dolby Pro Logic
To the retard saying she was the first one to write a how to, let me say this:
Not really, you just pointed out what we were all thinking when it debuted, it might be a great HTPC, you didn't really say anything comprehensive or how to put it together. Get a brain retard.
As for this, this is totally ridiculous.
1.
Size, mac mini is great for size, but if you have to add an external enclosure/tower, and on top of that some capturing hardware, and it can't eve output HDTV nicely, than what is the point?
2.
Price. Ridiculous, get yourself an HDTV tuner, mini-ixt mobo+cpu, half-decent video card, some cheapo ram and a hard drive, and for something twice as large as the mini, you'll get a functioning hdtv capable HTPC without the stupidity, hassles, LESS POWER CONSUMPTION, probably less noise than running an HTPC+external file server+tv capture unit.
#59 egork
Yes, but does the Apple DVD player support surround sound ?
In any format ?
#59 it is not the DVD drive, it is the player software and the soundcard hardware that should.
This is a great article! Just what I have in mind for when I get my mini! I'm hoping to get a free one from the same guys who brought us free ipods.. If you sign up, please use my link and help a poor guy get one of these expensive little devils!
http://www.FreeMiniMacs.com/?r=14229502
Thanks!!
why even bother with all that when you can mod an xbox and run the MEDIA CENTER, it's Cheaper and it's desingned to run on your TV it even has (with the special adaptor ) a 5.1 optical outpout
If you've got an old VCR lying around, or pulled a "dead" one of of a dumpster, they work fine as an RF modulator, provided macrovision isn't an issue.
Please check out our Envision software, as this is the exact type of thing it's intended for. A Mac mini connected to an HDTV running Envision (along with other things you describe) is a great conversation piece and party pleaser, as well as being just way cool (IMHO).
http://www.opendoor.com/envision/
Just thought I should mention that if you don't want to fork out the $20 for the Salling clicker there is a free (provided you don't decide to donate money towards the developers iBook fund) option, Romeo, which I find works perfectly fine with my T610. It has support for iTunes, VLC, DVD Player and more. Plus like Salling clicker it is also Apple Scriptable so with a little know-how it can do all the same things.
http://www.irowan.com/romeo/
if your g4 server is agp, i suggest running it in firewire disk mode, you didn't mention if you were doing this or going through a network, but i suspect the latter.
This article is about as useful as:
"How To Turn Your Mac Mini into a Ferrari"
Buy a Ferrari, and put the Mac Mini in it
You Applets never cease to amaze in your blind following of this company. The iPod Shuffle is a flash based MP3 player with no LCD. The reason it's so cheap is because it has no features. Yet you line up for them because it's white and Steve Jobs tells you it's cool.
I will say one thing - he IS the genius you make him out to be. Anyone who can build this kind of following around these products deserves all the respect in the world.
to all you wet blankets who keep saying "i can make a cheaper HTPC out of a transistor radio, a tube of toothpaste and an old sock!" why don't you bloody well go off and do it then and leave the rest of us alone? you're missing the point entirely. oh look - your HTPC neds some duct tape, you'd better go attend to that.
hey cool, creative hack for a mac mini. nice work.
.dark - I couldn't agree with you more. How many Engadget how-to's tell of a simple process? Rarely.
That's why they are fun to read. Personally, I've already got the mini firmly planted in my home theater, took no longer to set up than my TiVo and DVD player, and it's a computer to boot. I want to browse the web, check my email, watch a DVD, record HD content - doesn't matter. It'll do it all!
To each his own. Remember that folks.
I just went back to the Apple Store website to look for the USB Surround output device I'd seen there before. I was pretty sure it was the M-Audio 'Sonica' (I confirmed this on their site) but I didn't see it on the Apple Store site anymore. Was pretty sure I'd seen it there when helping a friend buy a Mac Mini.
Personally, I'm surprised that Apple carries ANY M-Audio gear on their site, given that M-Audio is owned by Avid. (Who competes with Apple because Apple makes Final Cut Pro, etc.) But there were still plenty of other M-Audio devices listed, just not this one.
Anyway... more information is here: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/SonicaTheater-focus-1.html
I want a Mac Mini, but I can do all that you have outlined with my $99 Tivo Series 2.
(BestBuy has them on sale usually)
Fellow nerds, hax0rs, dorks and couch potatoes:
It's JUST T.V. for christsake! Is tv really that good nowadays?! I say, just like when someone asks me if I'll ever watch the last two Star Wars again, hellll no!
I'm just as obsessed with my Mac, be it Salling Clicker via Bluetooth phone, iMic adapter, AirTunes at home and even JHymn-ing (which rocks btw!) all my tracks out onto an external drive on my home network (which has an imap and various other servers on it). However, I gotta draw the line with the monstrosity described above.
What really killed it for me was using a x86 laptop to remote into the mini! Plus, having iTunes visualization on it via, above all, the slug that is Vnc! I mean, think about this one point: people strive endless hours to get huge frame rates out of their video games and that performance will run roughshod over the mini's 'underpowered' video.
Now, running any kind of music visualization under 30fps is noticably lame. So how many fps will you get over Vnc? Not much, esp. if you're running over 802.11g which averages around 35Mbps. Sure the screenshots looked like the visualization was on a host of 800x600, but still, doesn't matter.
Now that that minor point is out of the way I still don't see, as much as I would like to, any reason to buy a mini over something like Tivo. Personally I don't see much for Tivo as I consider myself a nerd WITH A LIFE, but some pople like it.
Anyway, until there's something that actually works at turning your mini into a not-so-fugly Win media center, there's really no point to this whole exercise other than to say to fellow nerds/hacker crowd: "oh yah, well look how *I* spent a $1k bucks this weekend!"
re: #74. Larry: I'll start out by saying that you're right. TiVos are great! They're a nice, self-contained box, they've got fast and responsive playback, they do what they advertise.
But Larry, one quick question. Did you pay the up-front, one-time 'life of your device' fee to TiVo? You know the one I'm talking about -- the TiVo "plus" service? Which gives you up to TWO WHOLE WEEKS of advance TV listings, instead of just THREE DAYS?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that fee cost something like $300? As opposed to a monthly $14 fee? Those are two great options. [/sarcasm]
I'll be up front that this solution (EyeTV + Mac Mini) would cost more than even your $99 TiVo + $300 device activation fee. But does your TiVo burn DVD's of program content? I know there's a Phillips DVD-R + TiVo box that can do it, but last I checked it was around $800. That's a Mac Mini and a EyeTV. Hmm. Dont' forget the $300 one-time fee! $1100. Heck, that's a nicely equipped Mac Mini, etc.
And what happens when your $99 TiVo's (what? 80GB?) hard drive fills up? You have two choices: Delete Stuff, or Don't Record Any More Stuff. Unless, of course, you've hacked your TiVo, in which case you've voided your warranty. :) And you'd still need a computer in order to do something with that content.
If you'd even have said ReplayTV, I could give you props, because you can at least get your content OFF of those (iirc, I don't own one of those, either.)
Furthermore, does your $99 TiVo do anything ELSE? You know, like surf the web, play games, play DVD's you put in it, create archival 'backup' copies of those DVDs (strictly legal, of COURSE), do iPhoto/slide shows, iTunes music playback... etc? Heck, word processing, if you wanted to on your TV? (With DVI input to a good enough TV, it'd probably be do-able.)
I guess it's all in what you want it to do, and how long you want to keep paying for it, huh? Well, I don't like the idea that I'm still subject to the whim of the TiVo corporation making their box 'phone home' so they can see what I've been watching. Nielsen is dead, this is a much more scary way to gather data about you, Larry. Screw that. If they want to collect that kind of information, let THEM pay ME for it. (How many times did YOU replay the Janet Jackson wardrobe mishap, Larry? Is that clip still stored on your device? Big Brother is watching, Larry. He knows if you've been naughty.)
Same goes for, "Oops, we decided not to let you record certain programming." You know, the same kind of stuff you can record on your antiquated VCR? (Better keep that thing around.) After this Broadcast Flag garbage, it'll probably get even worse. They don't just *prevent*, by the way. They go in and DELETE, if they feel like it, if they think something you've got on there isn't entirely above board. Shouldn't YOU be the one making that decision? Maybe it's a relief to you to not have yet another choice to make.
Besides: it's the mentality of the thing. Remember DivX, the thing that was supposed to compete with DVD's? They were 'pay to play' DVDs that phoned home every time you wanted to watch a movie. Pretty dumb, huh? Well, what would happen if TiVo decided to shift their pricing model? Better keep that box from phoning home! I'm not saying something that drastic would ever happen (they'd tank), just that they COULD, if they felt like it.
Enjoy your TiVo, Larry!
This is all very interesting, but my needs are simple. I would like to add a mini with airport and bluetooth and use it to play my 800+ albums through iTunes and my surround AVR (well explained here). Problem is my TV is analog (Mitsubishi 60" HD-ready). I'm content to use my HD-DVR for TV but would like to surf the web also. When I test the TV with my PowerBook & S-Video cable I can get 1024 x 768, but poor text resolution. Is there a device to improve this? Would and adapter from S-Video to component improve, or is it GIGO (garbage in-garbage out)?
It seems to me that one of the greatest uses for a Mac mini has got to be in car... How about building it into one with a nice little control panel on the dash for all that music + Sat Nav + a heads up display for the Sat Nav (easy enough to do with a small monitor working backwards sitting on the dash and some sort of plastic reflector) Chuck out the old dreadful music player in the car and put a power amp under the other seat!
re #79: who needs a Mac Mini for that? Take a look at this:
http://www.mujmac.cz/art/hw/tatra_mac_eng.html
Everything you suggested and more...
See, one thing must be clarified (the article was excelent, in my opinion!)
1 - DVI doesn't make the mini able to play HDTV properly, as it's just a video-signal transport medium.
2 - A good way to make it play decent HDTV is using firewire, in case your TV has it. At least that's what I heard at www.pbs.org/cringely this week.
Cheers,
oculos
I have a really important question and would SO grateful to anyone who can help:
I have a Mac Mini and an HDTV, a Panasonic 47 inch projection screen. I have it hooked to the HDTV through the DVI connection, but I am experiencing significant overscan - all edges are off the screen by a considerable degree. This is may be some limitation of my television. I have been searching the web for solutions, and on the mac, it seems there exist a couple applications which allow for the creation of "custom resolutions" - two of which are "SwitchResX" and "DisplayConfigX."
I am not sure how to configure an application like this. Any time I tried a custom resolution either the problem remained or the screen went black! I could not revert back, and everytime I restarted the Mac Mini would go back to the poorly chosen resolution and make my HDTV go black. I was able to hook it to a Dell monitor but when I hooked it back to the HDTV it was again black. I had to reinstall my OS just to get it back to default - even resetting the PRAM hadn't worked! Also worth noting, my television does not have settings to shrink the screen or anything like that.
Does ANYONE have any way of helping me with this significant OVERSCAN? I would reward anyone who can provide a practical step by step solution. There are many individuals out there experiencing similar problems and who cannot enjoy their Mac Mini in a way they originally anticipated being possible.
Kind regards,
Bradford
I have a really important question and would SO grateful to anyone who can help:
I have a Mac Mini and an HDTV, a Panasonic 47 inch projection screen. I have it hooked to the HDTV through the DVI connection, but I am experiencing significant overscan - all edges are off the screen by a considerable degree. This is may be some limitation of my television. I have been searching the web for solutions, and on the mac, it seems there exist a couple applications which allow for the creation of "custom resolutions" - two of which are "SwitchResX" and "DisplayConfigX."
I am not sure how to configure an application like this. Any time I tried a custom resolution either the problem remained or the screen went black! I could not revert back, and everytime I restarted the Mac Mini would go back to the poorly chosen resolution and make my HDTV go black. I was able to hook it to a Dell monitor but when I hooked it back to the HDTV it was again black. I had to reinstall my OS just to get it back to default - even resetting the PRAM hadn't worked! Also worth noting, my television does not have settings to shrink the screen or anything like that.
Does ANYONE have any way of helping me with this significant OVERSCAN? I would reward anyone who can provide a practical step by step solution. There are many individuals out there experiencing similar problems and who cannot enjoy their Mac Mini in a way they originally anticipated being possible.
Kind regards,
Bradford
Dark, you're an idiot.
THIS IS NOT A HACK!
THIS IS NOT A HACK!
THIS IS NOT A HACK!
THIS IS NOT A HACK!
THIS IS NOT A HACK!
This is a mac, and purchasing peripherals until you're broke, favorite quote from comments,
How To Turn Your Mac Mini into a Ferrari
Buy a Ferrari, and put the Mac Mini in it
That's what this is, it's not a hack, it doesn't turn the mac mini into an HTPC, it just gives it the ability to act as the backend of an incredibly stupid, expensive, and power consuming system of hardware boxes, from server to tv tuner to mac mini.
How is the mac mini an HTPC here? All it does it output to your tv, that's not an HTPC, it can't do much of anything besides give you a pretty interface. This is totally worthless.
I scanned through your article. I understand the rush to get it out before 20 other souls write exactly the same thing. It's kind of kludgy as a result -- I would not want this in my living room. Keyboards and mice are for computers -- not TV's. You have managed to hot glue a bunch of related equipment together -- but it has about half the functionality of a $400 Tivo ($99 + $300 life time service) at almost 3 times the price.
Plus you didn't once mention CyTV. Tsk. Tsk.
I am in the process of writing up my experience with HT/PC integration over the last few years. Synopsis -- Microsoft has it horribly wrong, and I can prove it.
--hal
I scanned through your article. I understand the rush to get it out before 20 other souls write exactly the same thing. It's kind of kludgy as a result -- I would not want this in my living room. Keyboards and mice are for computers -- not TV's. You have managed to hot glue a bunch of related equipment together -- but it has about half the functionality of a $400 Tivo ($99 + $300 life time service) at almost 3 times the price.
Plus you didn't once mention CyTV. Tsk. Tsk.
I am in the process of writing up my experience with HT/PC integration over the last few years. Synopsis -- Microsoft has it horribly wrong, and I can prove it.
--hal
I've had a quick scan through the comments and am surprised no one's mentioned that a project has already started to try and act as a front end for the mac in order to act as a media centre. I'm not involved with the project, but am hoping that they pull it off :-)
MAC MEDIA CENTER PROJECT
http://mrzippy.org.uk/macmediacenter/
re: Mark Dorset's comment above: I have the eyeHome. It's got a 'simplified' interface for interacting with your media on your TV, and is available right now for $150. Maybe this is useful at a low screen resolution, for appearing on a 480i (standard def) screen. But my intent all along has been to use the *DVI* port on the Mac Mini, to drive an LCD HDTV. At that higher resolution, I hope I'll be able to see everything from the 'actual' apps in sufficient detail (maybe I'll map function keys to the Universal Access zoom on/off and in/out?)
I can appreciate the iTheater project, but I don't expect to see anything from it for a long time, if ever, forgive my pessimism.
While using eyeHome and directional buttons (only) for navigation, I keep finding myself wishing that I had the actual apps themselves for interacting with my media: iTunes for music, iPhoto for slideshows, Safari to surf the web, EyeTV for playing back TV shows it recorded in the first place, etc. Even if eyeHome were just able to run a VNC client... but it's just better to have a dedicated HTPC (eg the Mini) running the Mac OS itself.
By using a BT kbd/mouse (on the coffee table), that's better and a lot more powerful than any remote control, IMO. But if I want to use one, I've got one with the EyeTV.
re: #82 (and #83) by Bradford Riley. I can't help specifically with your issue because I don't have that TV, but I can offer some pointers
There are a few people on the AVS Forum website who have had success with their differing cards / mac minis, and different TVs:
This guy has a Loewe Anaconda 30"
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=5039291
This guy has a PowerBook 15" and a Sharp Aquos 37":
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=5050713
He attached a 'test pattern' graphic you can use to help calibrate.
He also wrote a 'helper' FAQ, located at http://est.org/~dorfman/HDTV/SRX-FAQ.html
Hope this is useful.
who cares if a TiVo's cheaper? a tiVo is only good for being a TiVo. if you can do your video recording on a *REAL COMPUTER* that has umpteen million other uses for a bit of extra investment, then that is a no-brainer, IMHO.
Well, after reading some of the comments, I have a few observations:
1) Not everyone needs to do HD rez.
Basically, my wife and I want a replacement for the VCR with better and easier scheduling. A Tivo would do fine, but IMO, its way too limited for its price. Its hard to get media off it and you have to depend on Tivo to create every feature you might want. I'm sure its a better solution if you ONLY want to just record and play back broadcast video. Heck, the Tivo is like a PS2, in that its a custom chipset and PPC processor doing nothing but its primary task. Just like you have to build a pretty expensive PC gaming system to equal a PS2, you'd have to build a pretty nice system to be quite as good as a Tivo. But, some people want a bit more in capability and open architecture.
Besides, if you want to do HD, then you're WAY better off building a MythTV, than messing with any of this Mac or Win stuff at the moment, price and performance wise. I'm guessing this may change soon for the Mac... which is the only reason I'm doing a lot of research on this, and haven't just run out to buy one.
2) Mac mini isn't a wimpy machine as some keep trying to emphasize.
Basically, the Mac mini is similar to the PowerBook computers. Sure, its slower hard drive, bus, etc. make it 'slow' in comparison to the better desktops. Its no G5 for sure. That said, I do all kinds of stuff with my PowerBook, to which a Mac mini is very similar. For example, I create 12+ track compositions in GarageBand. I have a pretty large iPhoto library from the digital camera. I often create killer presentations in Keynote. I burn DVDs. I do word processing and internet research... in other words, for just about every typical task an average or above average computer user might want to do, a PowerBook or Mac mini is going to be excellent at.
But, I don't stop there. I also do quite a bit of 3D animation and rendering. Sure, if portability wasn't important to me, I'd get a G5. But, my PB 1.33 holds its own for the most part. I render an equivalent scene at a similar rate as users on a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz machine. (and I could always use a Mac mini as another render node if its not busy doing something else).
I also work in IT, and often have 6 to 8 Timbuktu connections open, many terminal window, FTP client, E-mail, spread sheets, utilities of various kinds (and I usually also run Folding@home at the same time as all this).
My point... while a Mac mini might not be the most snappy computer money can buy, unless you're a hardcore gamer or in some special field, its a fine little computer. Granted... for doing video encoding, speed is important... but for the topic of this thread... the Video hardware should be doing that... not the CPU. If you need to do a bunch of heavy encoding... then build a AMD based MythTV box, and hide it in some closet.
3) Tivo is great... but Mac mini is much more
We looked at getting a Tivo, but there were a few problems. My wife and I determined 3 minimum things we wanted to do when adding a device to our stereo / TV center.
a) It had to have the basic capabilities of a Tivo like system.
b) It had to be able to stream internet radio, or audio from any web source we want to our stereo system.
c) It had to be able to play all our iTunes libraries (and even better if it could play the encrypted AAC files from iTunes Music Store... though I could run them through Hymn... but that takes time).
There were a few other things that would be nice to do as well... web surfing could be nice. Watching a DVD with it. Playing iPhoto slide shows for people who come over. Easily using recorded materials to burn to DVD. Easily convert old VHS tapes to DVD or use them in iDVD or iMovie, etc. Running a network rendering on it when its not busy... the list goes on and on, because it is a full computer.
4) Cool article, but overkill... also agree the EyeHome just doesn't do it for me.
The EyeHome takes away just about every nice thing I've listed above. I suppose its interface is a bit more remote friendly, and it leverages the existing computer equipment better... but its just not what I'm after at all.
I also think the described setup is overly complex, and some of it kind of defeats the purpose. What I plan on getting are the following so far:
Mac mini with 512 MB RAM - $574
ATI Wonder Remote - $33 (or v2 of it for $48)
DVI to Video adapter - $19
Plextor ConvertX PVR Mac - $159
(basically similar to a EyeTV 200, but USB2... maybe a EyeTV 200, or maybe the new EyeTV Wonder 2 when it comes out... need to do more research... EyeTV Wonder 2 does not compress to MPG in hardware it seems).
So, that's a total of: $785
If I need more or faster storage, I already have a FireWire 80 GB HD I can just plug in... and hide that down in the entertainment center somewhere. But, even with the default drive in the base model Mac mini, it seems similar to the base model Tivo in storage at similar quality.
(I might at some point add a wireless kbd/mouse... like the Logitech for $80, but I think we'll mostly use a remote and I can hood USB keyboard and mouse to it to set it up... and control with VNC or TB2)
5) There are a lot of Win users who need to get a life.
I can't believe all the silly troll posts here by PC hacker wanna bees who have obviously never used a Mac for any time. If you want to use Windows media center with a nasty looking box in your entertainment center... more power to you. But, some people care about their OS and only a fool would think any of the cheap PC cases are even close to the elegance of the Mac mini (and before you flame... I realize if you're willing to spend as much as a Mac mini, you can get really nice entertainment center cases for your PC hardware).
I also realize that if I were serious about HD or raw performance, then I'd build a MythTV box (not Windows Media Center)... or if about the lowest cost to just do PVR, then a Tivo. This is a compromise to do more than either could do towards meeting our goals, yet in a very elegant package and reasonably good interface, and at a reasonable price for all it can do.
The only thing I'm still debating, is as indicated, which model of Elgato (or Plextor) interface to go with... and also the nagging suspicion that Apple will be bring something to market in this area soon after Tiger ships (with the new codecs). However, I doubt it would be till fall... so I'm not sure my patience won't run out before then. :o)
-Steve
Yeah, what Steve said.
It's worth mentioning that my original idea WAS to have the Mac mini as the 'front end' as well as the 'back end' - but I could only score one of them before they were gone gone gone. ;)
Note also that I really have/intend to have two 'front ends' - one in my office and one in the living room, using Mac mini for both. But as I tried to make the disclaimer in the article - I *don't* think my setup is typical and is certainly not the simplest route. Which is why the article reads more like "this is what you should think about and one or other of these solutions may work for you" instead of "this is the only way to set up a Mac mini media center."
I also said you only need the EyeHome if you need to hook up to a TV with component video.
So... if you strip away the extra cruft from my audiophile and my front end/back end uniqueness, the setup is quite similar to the one you descirbe, Steve.
My only advice for you on the Plextor PVR vs. EyeTV 200 issue is - go with the firewire (eyetv) over the USB interface. Firewire will handle throughput for HD if/when you ever decide to go that route whereas USB is not going to cut it.
I also have to say, really great of you to point out the 'distributed computing' aspect of the mini via using its spare cycles to render. It's got to be only a matter of time until distributed computing becomes the no-brainer approach over trying to build one machine to rule them all (not that i don't want it!) and will do every single task a single user/family requires. Why quibble with dual processors when you have 8 machines in your house already that are always on? Distributed computing is where it's at. Take that, TiVo. :)
What are the real differences between the Plextor PVR and EveTV 200? The Plextor costs $100 less, but is that only because of the USB (instead of firewire)? It says that the Plextor can connect to satellite, cable, or broadcast. I can only find EyeTV 200 mention cable. Also, it looks like the Plextor comes with all the EyeTV software, just a different tv tuner.
For a simple user like me, who just want to watch and record tv in high quality (and be able to easily edit and burn those recorded shows to dvd using toast), which product would you recommend? Also, any recommendations on the best dvd burner available that records all kinds of media (including dual layer)? Thanks a lot for any help you can give me.
Griffin now offers a surround sound output device for Macs via Firewire.
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/firewave/index.php
EyeTV records to your Mac via a FW interface. It is a high quality recorder.
EyeTV 200 records analog TV
EyeTV 500 records digital (there are various resolutions broadcast from standard digital up to high definition. The same stations are broadcasting digital and analog. Often they broadcast different programs at the same time. In a few years, no one knows for sure when, analog broadcasts will cease.)
Most Macs should be able to display all sorts of TV except high definition. You may need a G5 to display HD without dropping frames. Slower Macs will drop frames at HD resolution on a large monitor.
A possible way around this is a TV that accepts FW inputs. I think any recent Mac can pump through even HD video in MPEG4, about 2 MB/s. I don't know details about driving a FW equipped TV screen.
Rather than buy a bulky 50" HDTV with DVI, our son connected a COSTCO video projector with direct DVI from the Mac Mini for excellent 90" projection of DVDs, Web, CDs, Norwegian Television (Nett-TV @ http://nrk.no ) or whatever. I assume with your tuner/cable allows watching US HDTV also?
>Isn't the current MacMini just a trojan horse, and the truly cool version will be coming in year with all the features we really want?
Yes.
All this bitching, I'd be happy just to know what the sam hill "DKM" is --- i mean i get the BYO / buy your own bit, but... DKM? Digital... something or other. WTF? :)
By the way iPod fans, novatech.com now sell their NPod gadget with a 20gb, 1.8 inch toshiba hard drive. It's got all the features, ease of use and storage space of a full size pod, the size of a mini, less battery problems, looks good without being this-was-the-cheapest-plastic-we-could-buy white, oh and did i mention a built in FM radio you can record from?
For half the price of even the closest apple equivalent (full size 20gb pod) and far less of a crime target.
Yes, half price (133 including delivery in the uk, vs about 259 raw for an ipod). Think of all the goodies you can get with the cash you're not wasting. Even if that does boil down to "60gb 1.8-inch drive".
Sure you lose AAC playback, but I for one see that as no big loss when comparitive listening tests always come back inconclusive on it's goodness or otherwise (remind me - is iTunes AAC only? if so, im sure either a decoder, or a suitable firmware update is available, if you want to use that particular downloading service). But it DOES handle OGG Vorbis.......
(personally i'm sticking with buying CDs and encoding them because thats just the sort of anachronistic sod i am)
Soon enough some resourceful PC guy will come along and replicate the mini with *slinky* success...... it may have pioneered, but its exclusivity won't last. Already you can get PCs squashed into cases the size of 5 1/4" bay CDROM drives, not so much smaller than a mini.
Anyway - if you are so stuck for space, why not get a cheap laptop? The keyboard, mouse & power supply (mac mini's is external, isnt it?) take up less room then, too.
@#93: Colin, the EyeTV 200 will do satellite and broadcast also. check out the "product matrix" comparison sheet on the elgato site; it shows all the possible sources.
as soon as you say the words "high quality" - you're really going to want to invest in the firewire interface over the usb. usb just has limited bandwidth, and down the line when all cable broadcasts are high-quality digital, you would kick yourself for being stuck with a legacy usb video interface.
hope that helps!
Hey Barb (if you're still monitoring comments on this ...):
On HD via Mac Mini and EyeTV 500 - you said if my HD set has a DVI input the Mini can handle playback? Is that correct? I love the idea of getting a Mini and the EyeTV to create an over-the-air HD DVR system (rather than paying the satellite company probably more money to upgrate to an HD DVR), but this is the first place I've heard mention of being able to play HD back on anything less than a G5.
But through DVI there's less processor capacity involved or something?
If you can give some clarity, Mr. Jobs will sell another Mini, and Elgato will move a 500.
Thanks