HOW-TO: Turn your Mac mini into a media center
posted January 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?
You can get one of these for free by getting 11 other people to sign up. The link is http://www.macminis4free.com/default.aspx?r=171854. Get in now before everyone else does. No obligation and you can quit at any time. Get your Mac Mini to build a media center before you know it.
for a better Audio solution check out our product currenly taking preorder
http://unitedpage.hypermart.net/3chometheater/page2.html
its Dolby digital S/PDIF out thru USB for $29.90+shipping
@#101: Cap'n Ken - as well as to the person who said "DVI won't make the mini play HD, it's just a transport medium" - it's true, it's not the DVI connector itself that provides the functionality. It's the *video hardware acceleration* that's the key factor. EyeTV can't take advantage of it, but Apple obviously can. This is why my hunch is, when Tiger ships with full h.264 support, we will see the Mac mini gracefully handle HD playback. Right now, the mini will output at HD *resolution,* so hooking it up to your HDTV and watching a DVD will be a lovely 16:9, 1920x1200 experience. But to play back HD content you've recorded on your EyeTV 500 - I bet it will choke. It won't look completely horrible, but it will drop frames in proportion to how much camera motion is happening in the shot.
So my advice is, if you're looking to do anything other than record HD content, the Mac mini is there now. Run, don't walk. It's too cute to resist. ;) But if it is exactly HD recording and playback you want to do - don't buy the EyeTV 500. Wait. See what Apple springs in a few months. The notable exception to this is if you have a TV that supports connection via Firewire. Folks have had success with playback of HD content via Firewire from machines less powered than the Mac mini.
Hope that helps!
This is what I want to do;
Use a Mac mini to play DVD's from the disk (with dolby 5.1) on my existing Sony TV and amp(composite input on TV, optical on amp), video clips from my hard drive and play my iTunes library.
I have a Sony 5.1 amp.
As far as I can see I need;
Mac mini.
DVI to composite adaptor.
Griffin FireWave (should make my iTunes library sound better? and give me the dolby output from mac?)
Is that it?
Will the whole screen be used for the desktop and look nice opon plug in or is it a setting under OSX. Or is there more involved?
I agree with the previous post by Pete.
There are different levels of function that folks will want from a media center. I've been trying to put this together for years, its amazing how hard it is.
1. At the most basic level, what people want is a unit which resides comfortably as part of a home entertainment system. That means sized similar to other components (not like a tower PC), is quiet (not like a tower PC), and powers on and off easily as needed. The Mac mini achieves this better than any PC I've ever seen.
2. Minimal function is to be able to store a music library on the hard drive and play it. For the Mac Mini, this means hook it up to the TV, audio to the reciever. The critical new piece to add is a remote control. A bluetooth trackball would work, but I can't find one. The ATI remote wonder has been mentioned but it sounds limited to programming 6 keys. The Apple bluetooth keyboard and mouse is another alternative but its not convenient to mouse around on the sofa. With this configuration you could also view photo's and slideshows.
3. Next step is to be able to watch videos played from the Mini. This would ideally include the ability to play DVD movies copied to the harddrive, but the MPAA will never allow that. In any case, the required addition is for an SPDIF digital output which seems sorely missing from the Mini. The converter http://unitedpage.hypermart.net/3chometheater/page2.html has been mentioned, but it sounds like it may have limited software support.
4. The next layer is to support PVR function on the Mini. Sounds like this can be added via the Plextor ConvertX PVR Mac. Sounds like a much better less expensive solution than the Elgato systems. Ideally the Mini would go to sleep somehow and wake itself up for scheduled recordings. I'm not sure if the Mac supports this type of function.
5. Final layer is to add support for recording and playing HDTV content. I'm not clear how this is accomplished, particularly playing, but I don't have an HDTV so I don't need this function so far.
It would be GREAT if someone could try out these configurations and report back somewhere if it all really works. I can envision a huge minefield of incompatabilities and clumsy usability.
1) I absolutely hate [conga line | referral | special offer] idiots. Get a job.
2) There is a LOT of information posted on the AVSForum website, about using Macs (especially the mini) as HTPC's: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=115 and it's much more broken down into multiple threads than here.
3) Comment ~104 from 'Mark': He's trying this crap on AVSForum too. While I have to respectfully appreciate the spirit of American Entrepreneurship, taking pre-orders on the first 100 of these things AND making people wait 45 days is not a valid business strategy. Get a loan. Then make a real, working product. THEN try to sell it to people. Right now I feel like this is just a big scam and a lot of suckers are going to get taken for $30 apiece. If not, my apologies, but ... I'll continue to think it's bogus until I read a review I trust that says it does indeed do what you presently can only say it WILL do.
4) The M-Audio Sonica Theater USB can pass 5.1 and DTS. I tried the Edirol UA-1X, it could not. Griffin tech support told someone that their firewave could not either. I don't LIKE the Sonica but right now it's apparently the best we can do for the mini.
If you want to help change this, write to Apple here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/powermac.html and ask them to put an optical out on the next Mac mini rev.
5) Re: comments from Barb in ~105: h.264 is a codec which, like MPEG4, will require less *bandwidth* but more *CPU*. Current videoconferencing hardware devices which can do the h.261 codec, cannot all do h.264.
The important hardware decoding that Apple is keeping to themselves, is MPEG2 decoding support in the GPU of the graphics card/chip. If they made a framework for this public, then ElGato and other third party software developers could use this to greatly speed up playback of content, especially HD content.
Just because Apple is about to release a new OS, new version of Quicktime, etc. doesn't mean anything, unless either Apple releases a product that replaces EyeTV (and they have an unfair advantage), or Apple opens up the playing field and publishes an API for hardware MPEG2 decoding. If Apple releases a movies-on-demand service, then IT may use h.264. But otherwise I don't see the inclusion of h264 as anything to get excited about, regarding home TV recording/playback.
6) EyeHome 1.5.2 update was recently released. Playback is much better on my system; I can actually ffwd through a show and hit play, and it doesn't just die. It actually starts playing again. So, while I still hate the interface, I think the stability of playback is much better now.
7) Even cooler, the EyeConnect software (also from ElGato) is available now in a free beta. If you have a Streamium, D-Link or possibly Roku device (like a set top box, much like the EyeHome) which supports UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), then try this out. This may be the missing link for many people, and cheaper than the Mac mini. Future versions of eyeTV may be able to access EyeConnect servers as well, to share media between multiple computers.
Couple more comments:
1) For the folks talking about lack of remotes... read this review - I've seen them at newegg.com for under $40:
http://www.remotecentral.com/wonder2/index.html
2) Both FireWire and USB 2 have plenty of bandwidth to transfer MPEG2 compressed DVD rez video. The issue is more of drivers and compatibility. I'd rather have the EyeTV 200 as well, but am seriously considering the Plextor, just because of budget. I see no reason a FW port should cost an extra $100 to $150. Otherwise, the hardware between the two seems identical.
Here is a good review I found on the Plextor:
http://www.bonafidereviews.com/article.php?id=50
-Steve
This is too coool!
Thanks,
Ed
~~~
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I read your how-to article. Most of the popular new PVR cards sold for Windows XP MC are based on Connexant's "Blackbird" design, which hasn't had drivers for Linux or Myth.
We have been working on these drivers and released an alpha version at http://plutohome.com. Pluto even has a self-booting kick-start CD that will automatically install & configure everything for you, including a ready-to-go Myth system. It's the fastest and easiest way to get a MythTV PVR up and running, and also installs Xine, Asterisk and our own software to give you the most advanced media & entertainment, home automation, security, telecom & computing system, controllable with your Symbian Bluetooth mobile phone, as well as PDA's and Webpads.
We're working hard to harden the drivers as quickly as possible and would like as much feedback as possible. These 2nd generation "Blackbird" cards are lower in price and offer better picture quality than the current models supported in IVTV, so be sure to check them out.
visit: plutohome.com, click 'support', 'support site', and choose "CX88 Blackbird Drivers" from the projects menu
Your write-up is describes a Mini "front end" hooked directly into the TV and stereo. What I have in mind is using a Mini to serve wireless content to my Roku Soundbridge and other devices that handle the processing. I'm not looking to build a PVR. All I need is a cheap computer with networking, right?
My main computing platform is a laptop running Win XP. I guess I could relegate this laptop to the closet to handle server duties and buy a new computer for my computing use. But the Mac Mini seems to fit the "cheap computer with networking" criteria, especially since it includes the OS but not the extras. Then I would have a tiny, cool (temperature), elegant server in my closet.
What are your thoughts about this type of setup? Any pitfalls with cross-platform wireless networking? Can I use VNC from the laptop to configure the Mini, or would initial installation require a separate DKM?
QuickTime 7.0 now supporter H.264, tie in HDTV just ! I like Apple!
Ok, wow ya I definetely want one now. Has anyone tried mounting one of these in their cars?
Oh ya, if you want to find out how to get one for free, check out this blog:
http://macminiconga.tblog.com/
Can someone please clear up the issue of whether or not a mac mini is capable of HDTV playback when connected to a DVI TV? If so, why is this the case? Why does elgato not having access to apple hardware information matter? Once video is recorded into a standardized mpeg2 stream, shouldn't mac mini's video card's hardware acceleration work anyway?
-- HD content playback --
How sad. I own a Shuttle PC containing a 2.4G P4 and a basic (cheap) Nvidia card with MPEG-2 hardware decoding. Video output device is a Mitsubishi MD-62725 (62" HD DLP). Set up with MythTV (frontend) running on Linux, it plays back HD content (1920x1600) smoothly, with momentary choppiness only while intentionally skipping around the content. I thought the slight choppiness gave me a reason to give the Mini a shot.
So enters the Mini. Bought a separate 1G memory upgrade. Bought a M-Audio Transit for AC throughput to an external receiver. Bought a wireless keyboard via USB.
My Linux MythTV backend has two tuners - a pcHDTV 3000 and a Hauppauge PVR-250 - the pcHDTV does my OTA HD recording and the PVR-250 does my analog cable recording.
Installed the MythTV frontend on the Mini. Not bad. Played back analog content acceptably, even though transitions while skipping around the content are borderline acceptable. It was better on the Shuttle.
[HD (1920x1600) playback on the Mini]
I've got nothing good to say here. It's not just choppy. It's hardly visible. Needless to say, the Mini cannot keep up. The M-Audio Transit does a fine job with the AC3 signal, as I had hoped.
I've had the Mini for a week now and think I may need to return it since playback of HD content is important to me. I love that the Mini is smaller and quieter than my Shuttle PC, but MPEG-2 decoding is... painful.
Did anyone else have a different, more positive experience with HD playback?
-- HD content playback --
How sad. I own a Shuttle PC containing a 2.4G P4 and a basic (cheap) Nvidia card with MPEG-2 hardware decoding. Video output device is a Mitsubishi MD-62725 (62" HD DLP). Set up with MythTV (frontend) running on Linux, it plays back HD content (1920x1600) smoothly, with momentary choppiness only while intentionally skipping around the content. I thought the slight choppiness gave me a reason to give the Mini a shot.
So enters the Mini. Bought a separate 1G memory upgrade. Bought a M-Audio Transit for AC throughput to an external receiver. Bought a wireless keyboard via USB.
My Linux MythTV backend has two tuners - a pcHDTV 3000 and a Hauppauge PVR-250 - the pcHDTV does my OTA HD recording and the PVR-250 does my analog cable recording.
Installed the MythTV frontend on the Mini. Not bad. Played back analog content acceptably, even though transitions while skipping around the content are borderline acceptable. It was better on the Shuttle.
[HD (1920x1600) playback on the Mini]
I've got nothing good to say here. It's not just choppy. It's hardly visible. Needless to say, the Mini cannot keep up. The M-Audio Transit does a fine job with the AC3 signal, as I had hoped.
I've had the Mini for a week now and think I may need to return it since playback of HD content is important to me. I love that the Mini is smaller and quieter than my Shuttle PC, but MPEG-2 decoding is... painful.
Did anyone else have a different, more positive experience with HD playback?
Just adding, Mac OS X has built in VNC server, just go under Sharing in System Prefs.
I bought a mac to use as a media centre, connected directly to my TV, and I am happy with my purchase. I have been a die hard PC and have 2 on my home network.
I too cannot see the point of using the Mac Mini as a back end. The whole point of a setup like this is to use the small formfactor and quiet operation of the Mac Mini in place of a noisy PC. Mine sits on the shelf where the VCR would go if I had one, and is almost invisable most of the time, except for the small white LED. So much for eye candy.
I already have a PC with a TV Tuner and lots of storage, so I was really looking for a playback device that would be flexible enough for other tasks like watching internet video streams and also playing the occasional game on a console emulator. So far this all works well. This would be my suggested setup. Get a cheap PC to record your shows and play them back on the Mac. I used to run a cable from the PC to the TV but it was cumbersome.
I had already found the OSXvnc, but thanks to the tip above, have now enable the built in VNC support in Tiger.
BTW, the DVI to TV adapter info has now been corrected on apples website. I bought my mac mini and the TV adapter direct from apple, and the DVI adapter even said on it's packaging that it is for G5 or Mac Mini.
I do have 2 complaints though.
1) The mac comes with all this great software, most of which I'll never use but looks great, but then they skimp on the media player. The quicktime player included is useless because it doesn't work fullscreen unless you buy the full version. This is just anal, and there is no way I am shelling out for the full version just so I can use full screen mode.
2. The Core Video/Quicktime library interprets my MPeg-1 files (which my TV Tuner spits out.) as being VCD files and thus does not display them at their native aspect ratio, but resized them to a leterbox ratio. This means that both quicktime and players that depend on it show my TV shows all squashed up. There doesn't seem to be any simple way to fix that. NicePlayer lets me manually resize the window, but it's a hassle to do so. At the moment I am switchin screen resolution to get a better aspect ratio. Easier to do, but a bit of a kludge. It seems like the quicktime engine needs a basic fix to allow you to specify aspect ratio or at least to turn of this resizing that it does. On the PC I sometimes get the same problem with some player, but not others, but there I have more choice and so just pick one that works.
What I was really looking for when I googled this article, was some info on some kind of front end menu system, like the Windows Media Centre, that would allow me to browse files without being so reliant on the mouse. I always thought that windows was way too mouse centric, but the Mac is seriously over dependant on mouse action and needs to get over itself because it is not user friendly to limit the interface so severely. I mean, I can't even delete a file with the delete button. Get Real!
On the upside, even though I have VNC set up, I never considered digging out my old Toshiba laptop to do duty as a VNC client to control the Mini. I'll have to try this.
I am in the progress of building my own Mac mini HTPC and have found a perfect replacement for a VNC. Belkin makes a wireless keyboard called the Media Pilot. This keyboard has a "mouse" built in. There is a button style trackpad device on the top right corner and a two-button with scroll wheel on the top right corner for controlling the cursor on screen. The keyboard also features a built-in universal remote with lots of programmable features. It is also rechargeable on the base station that plugs into the mini's USB port. I highly recommend it.
I just found this, may come in handy. http://centerstageproject.com/ Open Source control software for your media centre Mac
Can the mini mac support video mirroring? I'd liek to use my DVI monitor and hook it up to a LCD projector at the same time for classroom use.
Just one FYI, you can simply enable apple remote desktop on the mac mini and it serves vnc. I've found it's a much better solution then using an additional app.
I'm waiting for 1 of 2 options
1) Mac Mini with an infrared port that will work with the new Apple remote and Front Row (to access my music library from my G5 over wifi) connected to my TV via the DVI-S-video adapter.
2) An updated Airport Express that has an infrared port and an S-video output, so I can control my G5 over wifi and view Front Row on my TV.
If either of these options goes on sale I'll buy one.
I looked into the CenterStage Project and it definitely looks promising however the Windows Media Center is ready now and works terrific. I'm an avid Mac user and still use my Mac for everything however I am using the WMC to display all of my Mac media on my TV through file sharing over a LAN.
Another Remote client for OS X that I use a lot is Desktop Transporter which I prefer to OSXVNC.
Hi,
I got a Mac mini to act as a fileserver as well as to play and store DVDs on my 42" plasma. It seems terrific as the former, and is much quieter than the old PC I'm running Linux on. The trouble I'm having seems to be the aspect ratio. How do I tell it that my pixels aren't square, to use the 1024x768 pixels without squashing the vertical?
Mac Mini Forums has a forum dedicated solely to Mac Mini Home Media http://www.macminiforums.com