HOWTO: Connect Your Mac Mini to a TV

At what point do I have to disconnect monitor and connect the TV?

Where are detailed step-by-step instructions?

Can it be done without restart?

I have Intel Mac mini, DVI to video adapter (PALvideo) Designed by Apple in California (Made in China) and old 32 inch stereo TV with SCART.

Will the computer switch the resolution automatically?

A mac mini does exactly what the Apple TV does, except the (unecessary) syncing and arguably, Apple TV's modified Front Row is nicer to look at. So, it should not be too long until both these are available for mac minis, either as hacks or form Applte themselves.

As to the setup, its dead easy and not much different from Apple TV:plug the mac mini into your TV using an appropriate cable (you have to buy one for Apple TV, you can buy one for mac mini), just make sure you get the right one: mac mini has DVI or VGA Outs. You only know what your TV In is. Then you plug in the mac mini's audio Out to your TV or your stereo (again, it depends on your TV/stereo wether you use an optical or analog cable.
You now have a choice:
1. If you have your music/movie/picture library on another computer (which is assumed if you buy an Apple TV), then just make sure iiTunes on that computer is set to "sharing", start front row on the mac mini using the remote and stream your media to your TV using "Shared Video", Shared music" etc. You never have to leave Front Rowe again, except for occasional software updates. Just like Apple TV.
2. If you DONT have your iTunes library on another computer, you can use the mac mini's iTuines to store everything. This is something Apple TV cannot do at all, so its a nice option and a good one if you dont mind using wireless mouses and keyboards and sitting in front of your TV to download media, work on your pictures, etc. I do, so I do everything on my mac in the den and use the mac mini only for streaming.

Why use the mac mini instead of Apple TV if its only for streaming? Three reasons: I set up the mac minis iTunes to play music to more than one stereo in the house via Airport Express (this works even if I play the music using Front Row), I have the OPTION to use it as a full computer if I wanted to (eg browse the web on my TV), I can play CD and DVD with the mac mini when I want to (i.e two less appliances in my living room). Apple TV cant do any of this.
App,e TV cant do any of these, but mac mini is just as good at streaming and the usbality through Front Row is also as easy as Apple TV's.

I've been doing this since september 2005 - what's the new knowledge involved in this?

My flat is small enough that I have my dining table conveniently situated relatively close but at slight angle to the 32' flat screen TV that serves the sofa also. This means that my girlfriend and I can read the morning news online while we eat breakfast.

Next thing I presume you'll be running a story on how to plug a USB camera into your Mac.

Try out RemoteBuddy (http://www.iospirit.com/remotebuddy/) Pretty sweet way to actually make the remote more useful. It's scriptable, has virtual imput devices (keyboard, mouse, etc), and also can use other remotes other than the the standard Apple one (WiiMote!).

For cables don't bother with e-bay... monoprice.com beats them all for brand new cables from a known entity.

Mini entertainment center is one option that I'm exploring since you can add 1 or more eye tv tuners and watch and record TV as well.

@ChzPlz
I was directly referring to XBMC, but tangentially referring to the Mac Mini(which is of course, not ugly, but a slight bit chunkier than the average home media player).

The AppleTV *is* much simpler to use than a Mini; you just turn it on and select the media you want played. I'd love to see an AppleTV look-and-feel-alike application for a Mac Mini, but MediaCentral and CenterStage aren't quite there yet. Hopefully FrontRow 2.0 will fill this gap.

I don't know about you, but I keep my iTunes Library on my iMac; You still can't sync two iTunes Libraries, and playing content from Shared iTunes libraries doesn't affect Play Count or Last Played.

For a media player, your best bet would be vlc for the most formats and fullscreen Cross-platform, free, what mor can you ask for? www.videolan.org

For some reason(i did this a while ago)the aspect ratio is no good. Not when playing movies; thats fine. But when i start up i can't see the whole screen, so to shut it down i have to guess where the upper colums & programs are. Can anyone help me on this? Thanks.

To all you idiots griping about the post, sod off and start your own Apple blog.

I have been thinking of going this route to play back 720p stuff, since my xbmc doesn't have enough horse power. I just got a nice new 1080p tv so ill see how it does for me. I guess with the added on additional codecs this might be the thing. Now If i could only stream video podcasts as well?

http://ibareitall.com