Mac Mini :: Got Front Row 1.3.1 With Enabler 1.5 Working (Media Center Mini)
Jan 8, 2008
I 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.
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?
this 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?
so 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?
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?
Im new to the forum for posting but have been around for a while soaking up info. I have a mac mini c2d 2ghz, ive had it for a few years now and its always behaved, its always on and is an excellent computer for what i need, its now running snow leopard. What i would like to do is turn it into a dedicated media centre as im looking at either a new mini or if i can stretch the wallet, an*i3 imac. Is there anyway i can boot directly into front row on my mini, without having to boot to the desktop, then to front row, i know its not so much bother to do the latter, just believe it would look better booting to front row or any other dedicated media centre software, All movies, pics and music will be stored on the minis hard drive or aliased to an external drive. I have searched in the forums and also with google, but cant find anything about the automatic booting into the media centre.
For 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...
Is it just mine or does this new mini power connector come out too easily? I have to be very careful removing the ethernet cable or FW800 cable lest the power connector slip out and cause a hard shutdown. It's a bit annoying.
A couple of months ago my internal speakers in my mac mini, I think a 2007, the speakers are not working, even with external speakers. when i click the sound +,- button the sound icon shows with a full bar but the speaker has a circle with a slash around it. I went ot system preferences and the sound area and the system says that there are no internal speakers. The thing is it does. Is it cause of the version of os x lion i have or is there something corrupt in the hardware.
I have a Mac Mini from 2009. And it stands in my bedroom and is almost always on. So the led light is a bit annoying in front of the Mac Mini. Is there a way to turn this off when it's on?
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.
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?
I 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).
I'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).
Currently 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."
I 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)!
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?
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.
I'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.
Are 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.
I'm trying to connect an iPhone to a Mac Mini via USB. The cable is known to be good. The USB ports all work with other USB devices. The iPhone works with USB devices on other computers AND if I plug it directly into the wall.
HERE'S the crazy part. When restart the computer with the iPhone plugged in, it CONNECTS while the OS is not in the ROM. As soon, however, as the OS starts to boot again, the iPhone disconnects.Let me say that more clearly.I plug the iPhone in and nothing happens, including not indicating that it's charging (this is the problem).
With the iPhone still plugged in, I restart the Mac.After all the open applications quit and the finder disappears, the iPhone chirps indicating that it's connected and charging.It STAYS charging while the Mac cycles through the rest of the restart.When, however, the Mac gets to the point where it starts booting the OS, the iPhone chirps again indicating that it's been disconnected.
