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Turn that Mac mini into a media center - finally

mac media center

When the mini was announced, about the only person NOT thinking "media center Mac" was Bill Gates. I immediately bought one, and I bought the then-new El Gato EyeTV with that ATI logo on it (the full name escapes me). That El Gato box is ugly, gets hot, and didn't really do what I wanted... So now El Gato has a new version of their baseline TV input device out, and this time it has a remote! So, between a big hard drive, the El Gato EyeTV EZ, and a Mac mini Core Duo, you finally have a nearly-perfect Mac-based media center. And to help you set it all up, there's Chris Hamady's excellent page on his Media Center Macintosh Project. Great. So what the heck am I going to do with my old rig?

Chris sets up his EZ with the mini, and it works great, in no small part because of that nifty remote (curse you El Gato!). He adds a big honkin' hard drive for all that sweet, sweet pep. Then he rips his DVD's using Handbrake, so his collection is accessible using Front Row. To top it all off, he puts XP on there (complete with some security measures). I guess he can use his Windows boot for watching those nifty CNN videos...