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?
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
I'd like to go wireless. Please instruct on what I need to purchase for a basic wireless setup. Comcast cable is my ISP, please list what to buy to get started.
I have a iBook G3 that I would like to use for streaming of my iTunes library and videos from other computers in my house. What hardware (video adapters, remote) would I need. I believe that the iBook is a Dual USB model (the kind that shipped standard with a 10GB HD).
This whole thing started with my friend offering to buy my imac... i currently have an iMac (witch has all my music, videos, photos and a few programs i would intend on keeping) and a recently purchased macbook uni... The goal is to keep all my music and photos etc. but i don't want to have any of them on my MB (except the programs).
I started (and almost bought) with a time capsule. I liked the wireless transfer and thought it would be cool to have my music accessed from my MB, that i would have connected to my receiver. This is where reading other threads and reviews got my wheels turning and in turn looking down the avenue of a mac mini instead or possibly a apple tv with a external hd...
The ultimate goal is to have my audio and video easily connected to my home theater. I'm not completely against hooking my MB to my receiver I just dont want to have it stored on my MB... What had started as search for a means of storage evolved into a search for an Apple (or at least apple friendly) media server. So who has the best solution?
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.....
I have an Intel iMac and Macbook connecting just fine to my netgear router. Airport signals are great throughout the house. A friend dropped off an old PowerMac G4 (Quicksilver) which I placed down the hall in my daughter's room.
It didn't have an airport card, so I installed an aftermarket one. The airport setup utility continually kicks out my login password to my home network saying it's incorrect (am sure it's right) and there is no signal indication in the finder.
iMac is running Leopard 10.5.x Macbook is 10.4.x G4 is 10.2
2003 Mac Pro G5 1.6 4 Gb Ram (my first ever Mac, so bit of a soft spot)Old Airport Extreme (using Airport Utilities 5.6-probably bought same time as G5 2003) Recently purchased refurbished Mac Book Pro 2GHz Intel Core i7 and iMac 2.7 Quad Core Intel i5 What I would like to do is bump up the memory in G5 and use it as a home server for my new macs.Have opened file sharing in G5, am testing on mac book pro, so opened file sharing on this but not sure how Im supposed to access the G5 from MacBP? Tried setting up Airoprt and attaching it via USB2.0 to front of G5, and start G5 whilst holding 'T' to start in harddrive mode but no luck.
Info:MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
My home network setup is pretty weird and I am having problems connecting between my G4 with Leopard and my MBP with SL. Basically I have a static ip with a zyntex or something ADSL modem, then I have a switch and after the switch i got a 10Mbps Brack Firewall router and today I bought an Airport Express to get internet at places. I dont want to lay down cables. So anyway I noticed once I hooked up I can see my G4 but I cant connect to it. If I use a cable tho it work. Btw the airport is connected to the switch so is the G4, all the PCs are connected thru the brack router.
I'm traveling for the next 3 months overseas and I wanted to setup some sort of VPN that would allow me to access my home macs over the internet from my Macbook Pro. I've searched for some setup instructions over the net and can't find anything. If someone can help me out with step by step instructions I'd appreciate it. I have and Airport Extreme with a couple of MacPros and external hard drives attached. Having access to them while away will keep me in touch with things I may need at home while away. I'm running Leopard 10.5 on all machines.
I nabbed an old G4 Quicksilver from the office. 1ghz, dual processor, 1.5gb ram. I'm going to use it as a home file server to serve 1 powerbook and 1 pc laptop over a wireless airport network.
I've got it up and running headless in the basement, plugged into the airport. Out of sight, out of...well I don't have to listen to the thing. It's loud! Anyway, I can control it via VNC on my Powerbook. I use Vine Server and Chicken of the VNC for a viewer.
Here's the plan. Right now it has two 80gb drives in it. One has Tiger on it and one is empty. I just ordered two 500gb Seagate Barracuda drives for it. I believe that it is a late enough model that I don't have to worry about the 128gb limit. I hope that's right.
I also have 1 external 500gb firewire drive. 1 external 250gb drive and 2 external 160gb drives.
I would like to set up a home media hub. I have the following devices I would like to be able to access the media:
Powerbook (1.5Ghz) Mac Mini (Core 2 duo) PS3 -> HDTV Old Pentium3 PC to an old Sony tube tv.
I also have an old Pentium4 PC which I was planning to use as the server. I was planning to throw in a 750gb HD instead of running this all off my external (which is what I use now hooked up to the Powerbook). How would I go about doing this? The router is hooked up to the mac mini at the moment.
I use the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station Dual Band as my main router. I use a new Apple Airport Express to extend the range of my AEBS and allow connectivity via Ethernet only. Problem: We want to be able to setup a NAS that will be accessable outside of our home network via the internet. We are looking at using a free software such as Free NAS. We are not able to figure out how to forward a port on the Airport Extreme to allow an FTP. Is this being complicated by the additional airport express? do we also have to change settings inside that router to allow this. We have scoured the internet for specific instructions on how to do this, but cannot get it resolved.
I want to set up a home network but I'm utterly clueless in networking so I turn to you guys for help I believe I should have almost all the components to set one up but I need some pointers.
I'm the only person in the house who uses a Mac, also have two Windows 7 desktops (one connected via wifi and the other ethernet). I also have a printer and a 500GB hard drive (the 3.5" IDE ones) that I want to hook up to the network.
I guess my end goal is to have all three machines in a "LAN" and play nicely together (file sharing and stuff), print documents through the network and have a "central backup".
Currently I have a Linksys wireless router with SpeedBooster (model WRT54GS), it doesn't have any USB i/o so I guess I will need a router with USB? If I don't get a router with USB then will I be able to print from my MacBook if the printer is plugged to another desktop? Perhaps a TimeCapsule?
What is Best setup for iMac with SSD and HDD? Best location of scratch & home folders? Computer: iMac 2.93 GHz Quad core i7, 8GB RAM, 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SSD There is not much info from Apple about the best way to set up an iMac with a Hard Drive and Solid state drive. I've looked at a few of the forum posts across the web and came up with a plan and lots of questions. (I do use photoshop frequently, but not on a professional level):
1.I will keep OS and Applications on SSD 2.Would you do it differently or not at all about moving the home folder? I saw some posts about moving the entire home folder, but it makes more sense to me to only move selected folders withing the home folder to take advantage of speed of SSD. So will keep the home folder on SSD, but move certain folders (document, music, iphoto, download, etc.) to 1 TB HDD via instructions I found on the macintoshperformanceguide website (**is this the same as creating an alias?): cd sudo cp -r Documents /Volumes/Master sudo rm -rf Documents sudo ln -s /Volumes/Master/Documents Documents 3.I will attach an external hard drive for most of my documents and backup storage 4.My main question and here is where I'm not sure what's best?
I want to speed up photoshop as much as possible? Should I make a partition on the internal HDD for a scartch disk? If so, how big? Is there a benefit to partitioning for scratch disc use? Should I not partition HDD and use for data and scratch? Any other way? I wish apple had a how to maximize use of the imac with HDD and SSD page!
I have a new IPAD and just bought APple TV. Need to set up home sharing on my account and have followed Support options wherein you log into ITunes, choose advanced, then allow Home sharing. There is no place to even sign in to ITunes as i have always seen before. Cannot start ITunes on Laptop (linked to IPAD) at all but can from Browser. Trying to share content from my IPAD and APple TV.
So I'd like to do some home recording - nothing fancy at all, just the ability to lay down vocals, accoustic guitar, and hand drumming into either Garage Band or a more serious music editing program (I used to use Cool Edit Pro a while back).
I have no idea what mic to get, and what setup is necessary.
It seems that the easiest thing would be to have a USB mic, right? That way I don't need an interface between the mic and the computer? Or can a normal mic plug just fine into the line-in jack?
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.
I am eager to setup a home system with a few Macs, a few iPhones, a Time Capsule (and soon an AppleTV).
I'd like to have my music and photos available from my wife's Mac and vice versa. In addition, I'd like a central backup place. Here are my questions:
1. Am I correct in believing that both of us can use the same Time Capsule for out individual Time Machine backups? If yes, do you have any configuration tips?
2. Can we use the Time Capsule as a file server in addition to a backup hard drive? In other words, can we put our shared photos and music on the Time Capsule? Is this desirable?
3. If we put our photos and music on the Time Capsule (assuming that possible and desirable), how would we sync subsets of the music collection, etc. with our iPhones?
4. Since we have multiple Macs, should we dedicate one to each of our iPhones for syncing and updates, etc.? Or is it just as easy to setup each computer with multiple users?
5. How would we integrate our TV and stereo? How exactly do AppleTV and Airport Express fit into the picture?
6. Finally, how important would a multiple (home) version of MobileMe for creating the glue or some flexibility in this setup?
i have tried trawling the net for this info but have not found much that makes a lot of sense. i would like to move my current office network setup to a slightly more (semi)pro approach. instead of just linking four macs together at the Broadband router and using very simple file sharing etc. if i start with a mac mini server. i have found that people generally warn you away from using the broadband router as a hub/switch. would it be sensible to connect the mini to a dedicated hub/switch/router and have all the clients/modem/NAS etc connected to that? is it really as simple, in hardware terms, as that? is anyone able to suggest a hub/switch/router that might be suitable for the job of about 4 clients. also would network attached peripherals (printers) be best attached to the server and everyone access them through it? lastly, this is not a really data/processing intensive office, just documents flying about. whilst the mac mini server seems like a great deal for the software included, it does strike me that the hardware is a little over kill and that a simple mac mini would do the job (regrettably without OSX server)
So I bought a new Mac Mini today to be used simply with my TV. I hope to control the Mini through Screen Sharing but I have ran into some problems.
First, I do not want to purchase a keyboard and mouse because I will never use them. However, is it possible to setup the mini without it. As of now I am struggling to even bypass the mouse installation screen.
I am new here but I have been wanting to turn my mac into a server, or make it possible to connect to it and the hard drives connected to it, anywhere. I would like this for school as well as for my family and friends. I have a lot of movies and things of that nature that are on my mac mini or the hard drive connected to it, that I need. And most of the time when I need the files I am not on my home network. I tried macinstructs thing about the turning my mac into an FTP server. but it didnt work.
I am looking to run a dual monitor setup with my mac mini. Can someone point me in the right direction on what is needed (if anything). Both monitors are brand new, but neither have hdmi.
