Mac Mini :: How To Use Mini As Home Theatre System?
Oct 14, 2010
So I purchased a stereo output to composite red/white cables. I then plugged the HDMI and composites cables into the receiver, but the it reads only the HDMI (which should include audio and video), or composite (yellow, red, white). If you have HDMI plugged it, it doesn't read from the composite, and vise-versa. So how exactly can I fix this? Why doesn't Apple have the HDMI contain audio and video (like most things, PS3, 360, consoles)? This is really odd and I cannot really use it as a home theatre system at the moment. I was hoping that it wasn't my receivers fault (2008 fancy Denon receiver, cost a few grand), but if it was to find some kind of converter that takes HDMI and stereo out, and outputs it as HDMI with audio/video.
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Apr 15, 2009
I have just read a ton of forum posts and want to make sure I am going to buy the right accessories to make my new Mac Mini all it needs to be to run my home theater.1. For 5.1 audio, do I need to buy this product and then just use a standard Optical audio cable to plug into my receiver?2. The new Mac Mini comes with a mini DVI to DVI connector correct? So all I will have to buy is a DVI to HDMI cable?3. Is OWC (other world computing) the best place to buy upgrades for the mac mini? I have looked at the videos on youtube and it seems like something I should be able to do no problem.
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Sep 12, 2010
I have an Early 2009 Mac Mini with Mini DVI and Mini DisplayPort. And I have two 1080p HDTVs. The Mac Mini is capable of dual display, and I've gotten it to work before, so the issue is not the TV or Mac. And I have tried both Mirroring and No Mirroring.
I got a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter (#5311) and a Mini-DVI to HDMI Adapter (#4852) both from MonoPrice. And for some reason I can't get the Mac Mini to dual display, it's only one or the other.
Before I had a Mini Displayport Male and USB Male AUDIO to HDMI Female Converting Adapter (#5969) and I got video on both HDTVs, but not audio at the same time b/c one was USB and one was TOSLINK.
I'm not sure why I can't get video on both monitors. Any help?
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Apr 6, 2009
I need to connect my 09' Mac Mini to my Yamaha RX-V2700 receiver which outputs to my Sony XBR HDTV. I know the mini has both mini-dvi to dvi and mini-dp to dvi or hdmi available via adapters. I was thinking to go with option 1 however I was wondering what is your opinions? Is mini-display port better over mini-dvi or are they the same? Audio will be carried over optical toslink.
Option 1:
Using mini-dvi adapter to dvi: Connect Dvi-Hdmi cable to receiver and output audio with toslink adapter.
Option 2:
Using mini-dp adapter to dvi or hdmi: Connect Dvi-Hdmi cable to receiver and output audio with toslink adapter.
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Dec 9, 2010
I am trying to build a home theater computer. Currently I can either go with PC route, Mac route, or Google TV. I will be using the device to download BT or watch live stream video online. I am looking into mac mini for my home theater setup for streamline video or online download video. I was looking at the mac mini peripheral, I found out that it only have a HDMI slot. At my home theater, I have a HDMI cable wired to my projector and optical wire to my receiver. I can run component cable, but I wouldn't be able to use HDMI port for audio and video concurrently. Does Mac have any other option for me to run separate video and audio source?
I used my mbp to go into one website that my pc was able to watch the streamline video, however, I couldn't watch it with my mac. Are there website that PC can go into or watch the video from that Mac couldn't?
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Mar 3, 2009
I've been planning on getting a Mac Mini for Home Theater use, and was originally going to scoop up the old model, then bam, the refresh hit today, which brought some pleasant upgrades. There are so many threads already about the 1gb model and upgrading it and so on and so forth.
I'm basically planning on using this sytem for playing DVDs and for playing video files, up to 720p though VLC, maybe some light web browsing as well. Probably minimal application use otherwise. How much RAM do I really need in this system?
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Nov 29, 2009
I have a Dell quad core PC with adobe elements but was considering a mac mini with maybe final cut express. Is it worth the spend? I fancy a mac but my dell is a decent machine. Do you think I would appreciate the mac/final cut for home movies?
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Mar 15, 2009
I have 4 Mac's in my household, 2 MBP's, a Mac Pro ,and a Mac Mini. I can find the Mac Pro and both MBP's on Back to my Mac but the problem is with the Mac Mini.I am able to see any of the computers from the Mac Mini but the Mac Mini won't show up on any of the computers. This would be the case using Back to My Mac and won't even work on the Finder within the home network. The Mac Mini simply won't show up in the Finder.
I have Leopard on the system with the latest updates and have gone through the settings and can't find anything that is turned off.
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Sep 22, 2010
I'm thinking of getting a mac mini and moving my iTunes library to it and accessing the media via home sharing on my laptop. Is it possible to have my iPod/iPhone plugged into the laptop and sync it with the Mac Mini via home sharing?
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Nov 14, 2009
What is the least I need to get a really great setup using a Mac Mini as my main entertainment source. I am planning to drop all cable/satellite and just watch shows on Hulu and stuff.
Specific questions:
1. Do I need more than 2GB of RAM to run the video without jumping?
2. Can I buy an older, used Mini or should I just buy a new one?
3. What hardware do I need to successfully run this setup?
4. Should I buy an external HD or upgrade the internal one?
5. What software do I need to successfully run this setup?
Here's the hardware that I either have already or plan to get:
1. LG42LH40
2. Mac Mini
3. HDMI cables and adapters
4. Optical Audio cable
5. Wireless mouse/keyboard
What is this Boxee and EyeTV all about?
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Apr 28, 2010
I have a black macbook now that I'm using to stream to my ps3 so I can watch on my LED HDTV. I was thinking of getting a mac mini, external hard drive, and running Plex on it to make it a dedicated htpc. But I was also contemplating on maybe just using my macbook with plex for now and purchase this
Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W 5.1-Channel Theater System [URL]. MacBook is going to run me about 700 with the external hard drive and the home theater path will run me about 400 and I'll most likely get an external for my MacBook since I am running out of space.
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Jun 22, 2010
I should be receiving my new Unibody Mac Mini Server to replace my current Mac Mini by this Friday but more than likely Monday. I hope to give a detailed review of the Mac Mini Server with pictures. I went with the Mac Mini Server purely for the dual 500gb hard drives which I desperately want. Currently I use my Mac Mini as my Media hub. Its connected to my TV via a DVI to hdmi cable. It has a Turbo.264 HD, 640gb usb external hard drive, and a wireless keyboard logtiech mouse and keyboard attached to it as well as a EyeTV 200 and EyeTV 500 that I use for recording TV shows and digitizing VHS tapes and other media to a digital format (Old analog camcorder tapes, etc). I do a lot of video related tasks with this Mac Mini constantly. My current Mac Mini was originally given to me because a co-worker who upgraded to a better Core 2 Duo Mac Mini, this Mac Mini was originally a Mac Mini Core Solo 1.5ghz. I have had this machine since late 2007. I upgraded the cpu to a 1.66ghz Core Duo immediately when I got it, and maxed the ram out to the whooping 2gb (yeah . . .). Also last year I upgraded the hard drive to a 320gb drive. This Mac Mini has been on running 24/7/265 literally since about December 2007 and its never crashed on my once. I love this Mac Mini its a tank. The only other upgrade I have performed on the Mac Mini was installing Artic Silver thermal paste which made an amazing difference on the Mac Mini.
The reason I'm upgrading is all my media and everything right now currently resides on an external 640gb hard drive that every now and then "disappears" from my Mac Mini, it doesn't even show up in Disk Utility or terminal, and I have to restart the external enclosure. YES I know I could just get a new external hard drive enclosure but I don't want to, I like that hard drive, it works well like 90% of the time. However I now have an HD Video camera and HD content I record via my EyeTV 500 and trying to watch that over my usb connection seems to be pushing the limits. So I'm going to raid the two 500gb to a 1TB drive and use the 640gb drive as a Time Machine drive, or maybe I'll just get a 1TB Time Machine drive . . . not quiet sure yet, for now it will just be the 640gb drive.....
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Mar 2, 2009
Just curious can use both to drive the 24" LED ACD AND another 2nd monitor via mini dvi?? That would be a dream come true!
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Jul 16, 2006
I am thinking of getting a mac mini for a home theater. I want to set it up in the home theater to hold my dvd's. Is there any way to get front row to view video_ts folders? I know there is another program that will, but I really like front row. Also anyone out there that has done the same thing that can give me some pointers? I want surround sound (optical out) and it would be connected to a projector.
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Dec 16, 2010
From an external tray drive, iMac will not import mini disc home movies to edit. Is there a downloadable application to permit mini-disc import?
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Oct 23, 2009
There's speculation that it's L2 cache is bigger than the 3mb used on the slower mac mini core2duo's.
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Jul 5, 2010
I have Mac Mini that i bought back in late 2007. It currently has a 1gb Ram and I'm hoping to upgrade it by another gig manually (it's long past its warranty).
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Sep 6, 2010
I'm considering getting the base Mini and using it as a media hub to replace my AppleTV. I've hacked my AppleTV to run Netflix, Boxee, etc., but playback in Firefox can be slow. The only issue is the lack of Blu-Ray in the mini which would mean getting a Blu-Ray drive and cracking the mini open. Seems like a lot of work but it could replace my Sony Blu-Ray DVD player leaving only my Denon receiver, Cable box and Mac Mini.
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Apr 20, 2010
I'm looking to replace my parent's cable subscription with a mac mini, the Apple TV seems too outdated and restricted. I plan to couple it with OTA broadcasts, but what else can I do? I see things like Boxee and Plex, what are these and how can I best use them? Are there any better software to use? I planned on using Hulu, getting some massive storage and putting seasond and seasons of shows on there. Note, I don't really need HD content as much, they just don't care. I know I can buy off of itunes, but is there a way to get the news? Like a program that will take a RSS feed of CNN or something? Basically I want Hulu to have news. Can all of this tie into front row? What hardware addons can I purchase? like a tuner or somehting. I'll probably get a used Mac Mini to try it out on first.
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Apr 26, 2012
I will change my current HD to a new SSD HD (the question is not about replacing physically the HD as it is not supported by Apple..).
This is the system disk that contains
- OS X Lion
- apps
- user work/personal data
There is a big external (SATA, RAID1) HD that receives the Time Machine backups... (and contains user files, pictures, ...).
Question:
- Is there a way (eg via Time Machine) to save the whole system HD on the external drive
- Then boot (from? Lion comes from Apple Store)
- And recover everything - apps and settings... - from the external drive?
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3), Lion
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May 28, 2012
How can I find out if my Mini is 32 bit?
Info:
Mac mini (Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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Jun 23, 2010
The old Mini worked fine with my Westinghouse 24" LCD monitor (HDMI input -connected to Mini via DVI->HDMI cable).The new Mini Server 2010 has HDMI out, so I used a straight-through HDMI cable. The display looks terrible! All of the fonts appear to have a 'shadow' next to them - almost like an old analog VGA with 'interference'.Thinking it could be the cable, I went back to my old Mini's DVI->HDMI cable (and used the new Mini's HDMI->DVI adapter to connect to it). Same results.The Westinghouse monitor's native resolution is 1920x1200. The Mac says that it's configured for 1920x1200.
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Jul 1, 2010
I do have a copy of the the Mac Mini SL Client software but I don't have another Mac to create the USB restore disc in order to load the client on the Mini Server via usb drive. I don't intend to use the Server Software and don't want to 'activate' the license so I can resell it instead. Can I just use the Server to create the bootable restore disc without 'activating' the Server License and locking it to my serial number? Or is there another way to create the restore disc if you don't have access to another Mac to run disc utility?
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Feb 6, 2012
Have a new Mac Mini, using an external drive but I can't get it to show up in finder. It's a Lacie 1TB Porsche design HDD, using a USB connection directly into the mini. I tried it at first by connecting to an open usb on my cinema display..no good. Also no good when connected directly into the mini.
Info:
Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Apr 15, 2012
My old Mini is in the next room to the wireless DSL modem. It gets one to three max bars, usually two, and it's just through one interior wall. I don't want to spend a bunch of money, I just want to get a little better reception in the next room. I have seen USB wifi antennas advertised. Would that do anything for me? My iBook G4 in the same spot gets full reception no problem.
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May 25, 2012
Is there an adapter that connects a mini DVI to a mini Display port so I can use one computer as an external monitor?
Info:
iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Sep 21, 2010
Just wondering how many of you guys here have been using the new Mac Mini as a Media Centre mac, and what your general opinions of it are? I'm fairly sure there is HDMI, but is the media playback up to par, and how easy is it to use from the couch?
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Dec 13, 2010
It's been nearly six years since that fateful day in January 2005, when Steve unveiled the $499 Mac Mini and I promptly bought my first Mac.Flash forward to a few days ago, and the hard drive started making some awful noises hard drives should not be making. It was six years, my first real drive failure. It was time.So I ordered a replacement drive and it arrived today, however I am having some difficulties.
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Jan 16, 2008
I have set up my Intel Mac Mini in the living room to act as an "Apple TV" but every time I start it up it complains that there is no keyboard and mouse connected. I then have to attach a keyboard and mouse before it will continue booting. Is there a way to disable keyboard and mouse completely? I will either control it remotely or use the remote control for Front Row.
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Apr 7, 2009
I'll be fitting my new 09 mac mini internal hard drive hopefully tonight. I want to copy all the information (programs etc) onto my new hard drive before I install it. Whats the best way of going about this? I already have an external caddy, so am I right in thinking I can put the new hard drive into that, connect it up to my mini, format it, install osx, and use migration assistant, or I vaguely remember something called 'cloner' or something similar to that name to copy all the data? That when all the info is copied I can take out the stock hard drive, remove the new drive from the external caddy and place it into the mac mini? Then it should boot up fine?
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