Filed under: Audio, Desktops, Hardware, Multimedia, Peripherals, Software, Video, How-tos, Freeware, Mac mini
Turn that Mac mini into a media center - finally
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...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MTigerV said 8:05PM on 4-14-2006
Not that I watch them that much, but CNN's free vids work fine in firefox (Camino too)
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Clark said 8:21PM on 4-14-2006
CNN video work on my Safari though it does always stall half way through every video. I thought that was because they used Windows Media.
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arkowi said 8:31PM on 4-14-2006
i'd love to have a keyboard hanging out of the front of my entertainment center! Where do I sign up?
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someToast said 8:41PM on 4-14-2006
Where do you sign up to get a wireless keyboard? Just about anywhere, I suppose.
Now whether you leave it propped up in front of your entertainment center during the times you're not taking beauty shots of your system is up to you.
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Edsel said 9:33PM on 4-14-2006
As a home media novice I really enjoy reading/discussing other peoples approach in creating their media centers. There just seems to be so many choices of codecs, control software, and hardware that it can quickly become bewildering.
I'm now just begining to assemble the media hardware and formulate a work flow to transfer dozens of home videos, commercial DVD's, family photos, and of course iTunes. Apple software has been terrific in digitizing & organizing most of my media exccepting of course my commercial DVD movie collection.
My inclination now, is to use MacTheRipper software to quickly (30 mins/movie) digitize my movie collection into native DVD/VIDEO_TS/VOB files and store them on an external drive. I can menu select & play these files outside of Apple's Front Row using something like distantDVD http://software.visualunderground.co.uk/
Hard drive storage is cheap & I figure I can modestly fit around 50 DVD/500Gb hard drive, so if I ever decide to re-rip & compress a movie to fit an iPod, I will already have a pristene origional master copy on my hardrive to work with.
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arkowi said 10:00PM on 4-14-2006
just wanted to add...
In my office, i have my dual G5 hooked up to an EyeTV 500 (OTA HD) and an EyeTV 200 hooked up to a HD DirecTV reciever (it's only DVD quality through the 200, but it looks pretty damn good). I also have a nice couch i can sit on and watch recordings (and they both have remotes). As soon as I get my refund check from the IRS, I am going to invest in the 23" cinema display...Should be a pretty good setup. El Gato is the shit. I reccomend their stuff to anyone.
In my living room I have an airport express and an HD Tivo. That is "good enough" for now. Plus it is a little more girlfriend friendly.
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andy said 7:51AM on 4-15-2006
cool, ill keep my dual g5 powermac with front row and alchemy tv card, no unsightly boxes hanging around - and i use keyspan remote for TV - front row and dvd player - as tony would say grrreeeaat
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yoharryo said 9:38AM on 4-15-2006
cnn is playing all happy for me in firefox (mac), i guess the wmv plugin for qt does it...
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John Federico said 10:31AM on 4-15-2006
This is great, but what about those of us with Digital Cable and the dreaded cabled box? Is there an IR Blaster that's compatible with the EyeTV software? Google turned up nothing.
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
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Sam Levin said 3:44PM on 4-15-2006
Chris, you should really check out Keyspan's RF Remote for Front Row. Built in RF plus 9 buttons totally completes the Front Row experience. Additionally, this remote provides Mac users a better way to enjoy their [Mac] media experience.
http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/errf1/
Cheers,
Sam
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Max said 5:22PM on 4-15-2006
Awesome. Been looking for a short review on that EyeTV EZ. Thanks!
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***** NO LONGER WITH APPLE ******** said 3:47AM on 4-16-2006
MICROSFT VS APPLE
------------------------------
My faith in apple has disappeared!!
FORGET APPLE AND GET A PC WITH WINDOWS, JUST BUY MORE MEMORY AND MAKE SURE U HAVE A DECENT GRAPHICS CARD, (will still cost less than a mac!!and for the same price as a mac will run better, even for graphics and videos.)
all we pay for is the design!!!
apple have a history of cover up problems with their machines, just look at all the people with problems with the powerbook, macbooks, and ibooks!!!
** GOOGLE Search "logic board" with "G3", "G4" and see all these people with mac problems.**
If this was a car, u would get a letter in the post calling a recall, if it was windows they fix it with an update...apple, well leave it to us to figure it out and if u get the problem sooner than any 3yr extension replacement program, then great, but any time after that....GOOD LUCK
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Edward said 4:52AM on 4-16-2006
Wow, 'no longer with apple', thanks to your sterling advice, I shall now dump my powerbook (in the nearest river, probably) and invest in a PC, as they are obviously trouble-free machines that have never given anyone the slightest hint of a bit of difficulty! All those people talking about how much better windows runs on the new macs are obviously either high or stupid, right? And surely no mac user has ever even laid a finger on a windows based machine...heavens, no. We lay mired in ignorance of the rest of the world, in our smartly desinged cocoons, awaiting a prophet of computing such as your good self.
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justin said 7:51PM on 4-16-2006
You do know that this is the N-millionth article on this subject, right? Same old, same old stuff. It isn't a "media center" of any sort until I can inexpensively (below $300, preferably $150) output my Mac's video via component or HDMI. DVI inouts are dead as of at least 1 year ago, every new set has HCMI and Component video.
Honestly, in this "age of HD" I'm still kinda shocked that Apple didn't include HDMI or Component connections (or even a good converter dongle) with the new Mac mini. I'd have bought one immediately.
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MisterEric said 9:39AM on 4-17-2006
#9, I feel your pain. I have a useless EyeTV box with no IRBlaster, and digital cable. I bought it way back when it first came out, and have been waiting for the blaster to make it useful ever since. It seems like ElGato is more interesed in doing ANYTHING but coming up with a little blinky IR LED. Until they do that, the box is all but useless. Oh well. I'll just go get a Hauppauge PCI card and toss it in an old PC, and end up spending LESS for the whole thing than a top of the line EyeTV. What a waste of an opportunity!
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consumer_q said 11:44AM on 4-17-2006
Distant DVD looks rather keen! Thanks for posting that s'ware; never heard of it. I have been using Matinee (http://matinee.dizandat.com/), which I really like, but it is only a Video_TS lancher. I will need to compare it with Distant DVD.
One thing I have forever craved was a launcher integrated with my DVD database. There is a piece of s'ware on the horizon called MacDVDOnDemand
(http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=130800)
The installer was hosed when I tried it yesterday, so I have not been able to actually play with it, but it reads promising.
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Johan (Sweden) said 2:42PM on 5-09-2006
I have tinked about buying a Mac mini and use it as a media center for a long time. It's just one thing, no one mention anything about the region lock for the DVD player. I have both region 1 and 2 DVD movies and would like to view them both via the Mac mini. Do any one know how I can solve this or any web-links where I can get the information?
Thanks in before hand.
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