View Full Version : Mac media centre solution needed...
What I have at the moment....
Macbook pro 1.83 core duo with 2 gb ram.
Panny pw6
Denon 3803
xbox 360 (but the noise is a bit of a limiting factor)
ipod video 60gb
What I want to be able to do....
At the moment all my movies and music is on a high spec pc which I am not getting the use out of since I got the mbp and is now just gathering dust.
I want a solution that will allow me to play all my music and videos through the plasma and amp and be easily controlled from my sofa.
Not sure wether to upgrade the mbp hd to 160gb and shift everything on to that and try to stream it somehow to the plasma...and I have no idea how to do this or what to purchase in order to do so.
or....
buy a mac mini, throw everything on that, connect it to the plasma via VGA and to the amp by the optical out. Question...would it be possible to wirelessly synch the mini to my mbp so I can remotely operate it to play music and videos / photos without having to strain my eyes using the plasma to read small type (for rating tracks and creating playlists for example).
Mmmm, Think I would possibly go with the Mini.
Should be pretty easy to hook up to the Plasma but you may need some fiddling around with SwitchResX software to eiliminate overscan or black borders.
You could easily control the Mini from either PC or MBP using VNC software (free). OSX has a built in client. You could even leave the movies/music on your PC and connect to there from the Mini. However, I'd prefer a wired network for transfering movies.
If you want your files to reside on your Mini, I would think about buying an external drive or networked drive - cheaper with more capacity than upgrading the internal mini or MBP drive.
I intend to use a mini for a front end connected to a 640+ gb Fileserver.
The new apple tv unit sounds pretty perfect for what you're looking for.
The new apple tv unit sounds pretty perfect for what you're looking for.
as longs as....
You only want to stream ie No physically inserting DVD
You only want to play from you itunes library (and so limited file types)
As much as I want to like the AppleTV....it's limited in many ways compared to a Mini (although cheaper)
whuuf
30-01-2007, 12:02 AM
Thanks for the replys
The new apple tv unit sounds pretty perfect for what you're looking for.
as Jowl says the AppleTV does seem to have quite a few limitations and seeing as money isn't really an option with this I would rather have the extra benefits the mini has, especially as I will be connecting it via VGA so don't need the extra video outs and I don't want to be tied into itunes either.
Mmmm, Think I would possibly go with the Mini.
Should be pretty easy to hook up to the Plasma but you may need some fiddling around with SwitchResX software to eiliminate overscan or black borders.
You could easily control the Mini from either PC or MBP using VNC software (free). OSX has a built in client. You could even leave the movies/music on your PC and connect to there from the Mini. However, I'd prefer a wired network for transfering movies.
If you want your files to reside on your Mini, I would think about buying an external drive or networked drive - cheaper with more capacity than upgrading the internal mini or MBP drive.
I intend to use a mini for a front end connected to a 640+ gb Fileserver.
Am I right in thinking that main advantage of getting a networked drive over a external drive is the transfer speeds? The only downside to either of these is that the system is going to be on show and I want as little clutter as possible and I don't think I'm going to need anywhere near 640+ gb unless I really get into the hi-def scene, but I can always upgrade later if that happens.
Could I just ask about the VNC. I'd almost be wanting to use the mbp as a remote control for the mini. Will the VNC work in real time over wireless or will there be quite a substantial delay. If this is the case I may have to look at other options.
stuart07970
30-01-2007, 7:15 AM
I'm using a mini, iomega do a great little 500gb ext HDD that matches the mini perfectly. I've put all my cd's on there in uncompressed .WAV file format and it works a treat!
Stuart:thumbsup:
When I say networked drive, I meant Wired network would be faster than wireless. a Directly connected USB or Firewire drive would actually have faster transfer speeds. A networked drive would have a bit more flexability (in terms of all machines on the network could access it all the time)
You can get USB/Firewire External HDD's that perfectly match the Mini and sit underneath. Lacie and Iomega are just 2 companies who do this. I believe they also power up/down with your Mini. You'd have 1 extra Power plug and a short cable between Mac and HDD.
As for VNC - VNC is 'realtime' over a LAN - even wireless. What you see on your client (MBP) is exactly what you see on your 'server' (Mini). It's probably not suitable for watching video's over VNC but it's easily good enough to control the other machine from your MBP
Thanks for clearing that up Jowl. Sounds like it could be an ideal solution as I won't be watching videos through the VNC. Which VNC are you using by the way? I have read that chicken of the VNC is meant to be quite good.
Stuart07970 - thanks for the input on the iomega. Do you have your mini wired up the panny pw6? If so, would you mind telling me what connections and resolutions you have had the best performance out of? Are you using SwitchResX as well?
I use Chicken of the VNC on my Macs.
I tend to use UltraVNC on Windows machines.
Good luck with your system. Incidently, I'm trying to wait to see if the yupdate the Mini to Core 2 Duo chips. And I want OS X 10.5 before I get the (media) Mini. I won't wait forever though
Stam Dan
30-01-2007, 4:14 PM
Ah this is just what I'm considering doing, however I'm a bit crap at getting used to OSX so was gonna wack Windows on the Mini with BootCamp.
Gonna have a Xeon workstation as the 'server' in the spare room and then wired to the mini under the TV.
What would be the recomended route to plug in the HD LCD and to link the 'server' to the Windoes based Mini software wise?
whuuf - mac mini is ideal solution for this - I have mine hooked up to my panny plasma and is greta for video playback using vlc ... optical output is hooke dup to my amp for cd/soundtrack playback ... I have lacie external hdd with local storage that sits under macmini and matches it visually (same as stuarts iomega) ... but is also ethernetted to my G5 mac in teh other room for faster transfer/access to files ... don't forget that macmini come swith ir remote and front row for onscreen media management - or you can use something like mediacentral for even more flexibility ...
Stam Dan (and whuuf) - mac mini comes with dvi output so use a dvi>hdmi cable and you'll be sorted for resolution and pixel mapping in one go !!
whuuf
04-02-2007, 11:50 AM
Thanks Jont, The mac mini sounds like it would perectly but I am also cosidering using a macbook instead so I could access the music more easily through itunes and scroll around using the trackpad without using the plasma at all. (I want to make it as easy as possible to get to my massive music collection as I'm really not getting the most out of it at the moment)
Also Jont could you help me with this - I've just connected my macbook pro laptop to my panny pw6 plasma via-
macbook - DVI - DVI/VGA Adapter - vga cable - plasma.
I have found 1280 x 720 resolution works well as it's the correct aspect ratio.
However I still have black bars all the way round and I want to get the picture full screen. Is it ok to use the pannys on-screen picture scaling to remove the black borders as long as I change the horizontal and vertical scales equally? It will probably crop off a few pixels but will this effect the pixel mapping and create problems?
Also Is it this program called SwitchResX that I should ideally be using to remove the black borders and is it quite a simple proecdure?
Has anyone used a pw6 through a mac and have the SwitchResX settings to hand?
ahin4114
27-02-2007, 4:01 PM
as longs as....
You only want to stream ie No physically inserting DVD
You only want to play from you itunes library (and so limited file types)
As much as I want to like the AppleTV....it's limited in many ways compared to a Mini (although cheaper)
Not a lot you can do about inserting the DVD's with the AppleTV, but you can get most file types into your iTunes library.
Just load the movie into Quicktime and then save as a reference movie. This outputs a 1Mb .mov file which you can then import into iTunes and classify as you like. Why they don't support it natively in iTunes I don't know, as it only uses Quicktime libraries under the covers anyhow, but it's this method is pretty much the same as creating an Alias...
theronster
27-02-2007, 9:21 PM
Not a lot you can do about inserting the DVD's with the AppleTV, but you can get most file types into your iTunes library.
Just load the movie into Quicktime and then save as a reference movie. This outputs a 1Mb .mov file which you can then import into iTunes and classify as you like. Why they don't support it natively in iTunes I don't know, as it only uses Quicktime libraries under the covers anyhow, but it's this method is pretty much the same as creating an Alias...
Would that work for the AppleTV though? Surely it's hardware decoding, not software, and will need just the filetypes that we've been told it accepts? You might be able to trick iTunes, but that won't fly when the AppleTV tries to play something that is Xvid or Divx encoded, will it?
ahin4114
27-02-2007, 9:34 PM
Would that work for the AppleTV though? Surely it's hardware decoding, not software, and will need just the filetypes that we've been told it accepts? You might be able to trick iTunes, but that won't fly when the AppleTV tries to play something that is Xvid or Divx encoded, will it?
Who knows what formats they'll support. That's the reason why I restrained myself from pre-ordering. I can't imagine that support for popular codec's won't be included or hacked in shortly.
Until somebody actually gets hold of one much of what anybody says will be speculation.
The method is still useful for those that want front row to play their DivX files however.
Yep I do use that method for DivX files.
However, it's no gaurantee that AppleTV will support them.
I'm happy with using a new Mini on the main set and an 'old' G4 Mini in the bedroom.