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?
View 24 RepliesI have a Mini Media center that I installed Front Row onto. When I updated to 10.4.11 I found that Front Row was broken and I finally figured out how to get it going again. I'm posting this simply for the spreading of knowledge. What you'll need:
Enabler [URL]
Front Row 1.3.0 [URL]
Front Row 1.3.1 [URL]
Pacifist [URL]
Installing: Put Front Row 1.3 package on desktop. (don't open) Open Enabler and Install Front Row. Enable Front Row (if you get an error you probably already have it enabled). <Restart> Use Pacifist to open FrontRow 1.3.1 package. Find Front Row App (System>Library>Core Services) Install the app and Replace when prompted.
I'm considering using a Mac Mini as a media centre computer and supporting it with a eyetv dongle. Does anyone have an opinion on it's ability to do so. eg. Noise, speed, Graphics power? If it's not going to cut it, is there an alternative? I'm not keen on the Apple TV given it's limitations out of the box.
View 7 Replies View RelatedI have a quick question for all of you with two Apple notebooks (I've seen in many peoples signatures that they have two or more notebooks). I brought a 15" MacBook Pro last week and finally set it up on Monday, the idea was for it to replace my 2007 13" White MacBook! But now i've had a change of heart and don't really want to get rid! I'd like to keep it of I can find a use to justify doing so! Just wondering what everyone else uses a second notebook for?! I was considering using it as a media center and for around the house/coffee shop browsing (My new MacBook Pro's base gets to 40 degrees so can't see myself using it on my lap unfortunately)!
View 9 Replies View Relatedthis is my first post in here, I hope I've come to the right place I'm in the market for THE media center and though the Mini is very expensive I think it has a lot of potential. Well, this is what I need is there any way on the earth that I can have a media player application - namely Plex, Boxee, XBMC - to play 2 audio tracks simultaneously when watching a film? Thing is, I really like learning languages but my girlfriend doesn't, and man this seems to be the only way that I can imagine to keep my relationship while enjoying the original language films were shot. May I ask what the major drawbacks of this device are?
View 1 Replies View Relatedso i've been trying to use my 360 as a htpc to view media from around my network. I've run into some problems with it playing certain media formats as well as it not being able to see certain machines (those not running media center). Does a macmini running xbmc (or some other software) fare better in this regard than the 360? is the mac remote compatible with xbmc?
View 10 Replies View RelatedI'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.
View 4 Replies View RelatedAre there any programs out there that I could send media to my Xbox 360 from the mac without having to go into boot camp and windows. I remember reading about something like this before but don't remember why or what it was called.
View 1 Replies View RelatedFor some reason my iTunes keeps snapping back to the center of my screen whenever I switch to mini-player. It used to snap the location wherever I had it before. For example, lets say I place the mini-player to the bottom right of my screen. If I were to switch to the full-size player to change something real quick, then swap it right back to mini-player mode, it would snap back to the bottom right of my screen. Now, whenever I switch from mini-player to full-size player, back to mini-player, it defaults back to the center of my screen...
View 1 Replies View RelatedMy Mac mini won't move past a white screen with apple logo in the center. What should I do?
Info:
Mac mini
I'm looking to centralize the media storage in our home and would love some feedback on which Mac Mini would best suit my needs, which are pretty modest. The goal is a machine that will:House all our media (iTunes, movies/tv) for streaming to two MBPs & one TV
Be the central location for Time Machine backups on all 3 computers
Run Air Video Server live conversion for streaming media to iPad
Run Plex for viewing media on attached HDTV
Ability to simultaneously stream media to TV in one room while live encoding HD source material for playback on iPad
Regardless of which Mini I end up with, my plan is to remove the Superdrive and install two 500GB Momentus XT hybrid hard drives (Raid 0?) with Time Machine backups for all the computers on external FW800 drives that I have. That said, will an early '09 Mini with the 2.0 C2D have enough horsepower, or do I need a current gen model?
We just bought a mac mini with 2.5 GHz to act as our media server. We wanted to be able to stream, which it handles nicely. But now our desktop has fallen to disrepair and I am tempted to take the 2.5 Ghz mac mini as our desktop and buy a cheaper mac mini for our server. Will this work?
View 1 Replies View RelatedI just got a new 2010 mini to use for some web development, as well as a media streamer for my TV. I want to be able to stream standard and HD mkv/h.264 video from either the internal HD, external HD, or my server. Obviously, the internal HD should work well. My question is, would it be faster to stream from an external HD or my server? The server and mini are wired into the network via Gbit ethernet, and the external would be USB (or it could be FW800 if that would make a difference).
View 1 Replies View RelatedI've just bought a mac mini to run as a media centre. I want to connect it to my 40 inch LCD Samsung TV. I've tried all the preset resolutions and sizes but none of them seem to properly fit the TV, I loose about 2 inches on the top bottom and both sides. Any ideas how to get the Mac Mini to use all of the screen but keeping the resolution at 1080p (which the TV supports).
View 8 Replies View RelatedI have a 20" Intel Imac that will not boot, not even from a CD.Interestingly I never get the chime on boot up, I hear the hard drive and the combo drive spinning, and just wind up with the spinning wheel of death. I've tried unplugging for 30 minutes, all the different various ways to boot (safe, CD, clearing PRAM). Could it be the PRAM battery causing this?
View 3 Replies View RelatedCurrently I stream media (videos only at the moment) through my older MBP C2D Laptop using PS3 Media Server. I find the PS3 is loud and annoying so thinking of picking up a new generation Mac Mini to run my Media Serving Needs. My Equipment list is:
Pioneer 5080HD 768p Plasma
Yamaha RX-V3900 AVR
The rest of the equipment does not really matter. Thinking of hokoing it up by HDMI through the AVR to the plasma. Want to run Plex as my media front end. Now I also have an Acer Windows Home Server box kicking around with 1TB drive in it. Is it possible to use that on the network as a type of Media Storage that can be accessed by the Mini through Plex? Should I just use the WHS box as an archive unit? I know I will fill up the mini's HD fairly quickly.
Also I usually watch 720p MKV files through my PS3 so would I be fine doing that on the mini as well using Plex?
I have a 2009 2.0 C2D Mac Mini that I upgraded to 4 GB RAM from the standard 1 GB RAM. It does not read CDs/DVDs or any other optical media. When I check the profiler for the SATA connection, I get:
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S:
Model:OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S
Revision:2AHF
Native Command Queuing:No
Detachable Drive:No
Power Off:No
Async Notification:Yes
When I check the profiler for disc burning, I get:
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S:
Firmware Revision:2AHF
Interconnect:ATAPI
Burn Support:Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache:2048 KB
Reads DVD:Yes
CD-Write:-R, -RW
DVD-Write:-R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies:CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media:Insert media and refresh to show available burn speeds
It seems the controller is good and is seeing the DVD drive, but it just won't read anything included DVD movies and CDs that I bought off the shelf.
I would like to download talking books from my public library but cannot set up the OneClickdigital media manager software. When I try to download the Mac version the next page goes very briefly to the App Store followed by a a message saying "Cannot complete your rerquest."
Info:
Mac Mini
I sold my MacBook Air to a co-worker some months back. Turns out he wanted it so he could do some hardcore media conversion - I'm talking Handbrake and DVD ripping and the whole nine. Upon finding this out, I cautioned him that there was a chance he could kill the lil bastid, he didn't listen, now he says it won't turn on. I advised him to bring it to me so I could take a look at it. Symptom is that the power button does nothing, apparently. Before I get into it, what do others think it might be? Inverter?
View 12 Replies View RelatedI'm thinking of getting a Mac Mini as an HTPC and for holding my iTunes library and AVI's. I currently have an upscaling DVD player that also has a USB socket for DivX stuff and would like access to my iTunes library also. I was thinking of simply adding an AppleTV to the set-up but I've been considering a Mini also. My questions are:
1) If I have a Mini in the living room with all my AVI's and iTunes stuff on it- can I Wake-On LAN it using a Mac laptop, my iMac or an AppleTV in another room to access my library if it's sleeping? If I wanna watch a movie in bed on an AppleTV I don't want to have to nip downstairs to wake my Mini 'cause it's power-saving.
2) Would a Mini work well as an iTunes media server? Not bothered about accessing it from the internet, just want access through wired and wi-fi within the house.
3) Could I control the Mini remotely from the iMac or laptop over the network to save connecting a keyboard/mouse to it? For example if I need to perform a software update or move some files? I can do that over the network with another Mac, right? Sort of remote desktop?
4) Could I control the Mini, purely for playback, from Remote on an iPod Touch?
5) Is there a hack/fix/workaround to add AVI's (DivX and xVid) to Front Row? I understand these wouldn't be playable on the AppleTV.
I've tried searching for individual answers to the above but it's a bit confusing. I'm not sure of the difference between Back To Mac or Apple Remote Desktop. And I'm not sure about the WOL stuff either.
There's speculation that it's L2 cache is bigger than the 3mb used on the slower mac mini core2duo's.
View 1 Replies View RelatedSo 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.
View 6 Replies View RelatedI recently changed the iTunes Media Folder default location to a different area on my drive. I waited a couple minutes and the files did not move. I was unaware you had to go into your settings and also select to consolodate files. Since the files didn't move I reselected my default location and kept trying to go back and forth a couple times. After letting it sit for a couple more minutes I noticed over 200 GB's of files were missing. I looked in each folder I tried to change the default Media Folder location to but they were not in either of them. I have also ran multiple system file recover programs and been unable to find them.
Info:
MacBook
Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
I have a Mac OS X install on a hard drive which I've removed from my system due to installing a new SSD with a brand new install of OS X. I'd like to use the old 500GB drive as a storage/backup drive, but the file system/all my data is still intact on the drive. This could be useful as I want to keep all my data and would save me having to copy across to another drive, format the entire disk and then copy it all back.
I'm just a bit worried about what to do with the system files that were on there... can I just move all the files I want to keep out of the usual Mac home folders and then just delete all the system folders as if they were never there? Or do I have to re-format/re-partition to get the most out of the 'new' media drive?
If you can stream the Mac as a media server on your PS3 just like how it does on Windows for Windows Media Player....
View 11 Replies View RelatedI 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).
View 5 Replies View RelatedI'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.
View 5 Replies View RelatedI 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
How can I find out if my Mini is 32 bit?
Info:
Mac mini (Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
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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