The Apple TV has been out for less than a week and already the thing has been ripped, hacked and tweaked to do the things existing computers already do. Yes, the $300 price tag looks nice but if you’re like me and prefer convenience over confusion, then the Mac Mini might be perfect for you.
For the past couple weeks I’ve been building my own entertainment center using only a handful of tools and the outcome thus far has been more than pleasant. I wanted a set up that could download TV shows, rip movies and output at a crisp resolution … you know, like an AppleTV.
Now I would like to share the steps, equipment and software I went with to complete construction on my first media center and if it’s worth putting together over buying the AppleTV.
Hardware:
1. HDTV (recommended) - The Mac Mini has a maximum output of 1080i with the proper cabling. If you want to get the best screen resolution then you’re going to face up and get that new LCD you’ve been just dying to pick up. I got one here for under $800 and it looks very nice.
2. DVI to HDMI and Auxiliary converter cables - If your TV supports HDMI, use it. The DVI to HDMI converter cable will allow a maximum output of 1080i (on my set up)**, you can take a look at some of them here and here. HDMI does support sound output, but because we are converting the video only you’re out of luck, that’s why you need the AUX converter/splitter cable-adapter. Hopefully your TV supports HDMI and sound in, otherwise you’ll have to pick up separate speakers.
3. Wireless keyboard and mouse - I went with the Apple bluetooth keyboard and a Logitech trackball mouse. Using the trackball eliminates any need for a mouse pad or hard surface, this way I can do all my computer stuff and still lay comfortably on my bed.
You can use a Wiimote as a mouse, but from a personal standpoint I have to say doing so is a waste of time and effort. But if you just have to, go here and learn every thing you need to know.
4. External Hard Drive (optional but highly recommended) - I picked up a Western Digital 500 Gig USB 2.0 for around $180. I am fully aware I could have built my own for cheaper but I just don’t want to deal with the extra hassle of it randomly failing on me. I just want stuff that works and have it come with a warranty.
5. The Mac Mini - Kind of obvious, I know.
Software:
1. Flip4Mac and Perian - WMV, XVID and other popular video support for the quicktime player. This makes it a whole lot easier to watch your downloaded shows in Front Row.
2. Drive-In - This is my recommended DVD ripper. It’s from the guys who created Flip4Mac and it’s still in Beta but offers some of the coolest features for DVD backups. Drive-In will back up your DVD to any desired directory and create a Drive-In file, a proprietary format that can only be played using the program, so pirating isn’t much of an issue. Just open the file after it rips and an emulated DVD will appear on your desktop. This way you can back up or save unwatched rented DVDs on your hard drive and watch them when you want without fear of late fees or rental retardedness*.
3. Transmission - Or your favorite BitTorrent program. So far this one has treated me the best so I am featuring it here.
4. Your choice of web browser with a homepage saved to your favorite TV Torrent site. Here is a quick list of some great ones that have done me no wrong.
And that’s it. I’ve had this particular Mac Mini set-up now for a little less than two weeks and am not missing cable TV one bit. In fact, I cannot imagine ever going back.
But please keep in mind, this by no means a cheap solution or perfect alternative to AppleTV but a setup that ends up falling somewhere in the middle. This entire project took me about a year to plan out, where I watched prices and tried to get all the best deals on most of the equipment. Obviously my main deterrent from getting the Mini right away was AppleTV’s cheap price but after such lackluster reviews and revelations of it’s limited potential, I am confident the Mac Mini is the way to go for any true movie or TV geek.
One last bit: Below is a picture of my external hard drive. With some velcro strips and a little love, I have hidden my ugly black hard drive from the world and attached it to th back of my TV. It’s probably the only real unique thing I did in building this sucker.
*Rental Retardedness
ren·tal re·tard·ed·ness
One’s inability to watch movies or shows rented from the store. Rental Retadedness normally results depletion of funds and lack of viewing pleasure.
**UPDATE - Mac Mini does 1080p, just not on my rig, thanks Digg.
March 28th, 2007 at 6:59 am
Another easy thing to do is..
Get an old Xbox (not 360) (cheap nowadays)
Add a modchip. ($40)
Put a big HD in it.
Get component cables ($10)
Put Xbox Media Center on it.
Works very nice, good upscaling to 1080i.
Problem is, it’s a little bit to slow for real 1080i content.
I’m hoping Connect360 will soon update with transcoding functionality so I can watch everything on my 360.
March 28th, 2007 at 7:57 am
This is GOOD! Thanks for that run down. What’s the deal with HiDef and this set up? …any limitations? The Xbox idea could be handy for HD discs, but you won’t get all the optional computer features of having a Mac. I’d opt for the Mac. BTW, I’ve tried it and Drive In, from the Flip4Mac people, is excellent.
March 28th, 2007 at 8:41 am
The reason I prefer this set up over the Xbox (I have one too) is the that there is no need to mod anything, everything is pretty much ready to go out of the box.
So far I’ve seen a pretty big difference in HDMI picture over component, especially when DVD’s are upscaled. But that might just be my TV.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
You should’ve gone with the Lacie Mini Hub drive, they match the Mac Mini perfectly.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Minor correction, the mini can output 1080p (1080×1920) as well as playback 1080p24 trailers off Quicktime.com. I have the Core Duo model with 2 GB and it’s great. I also use iRecord and a Firewire connection to my digital cable box to make it an HD-VCR without spending money on a tuner like the ones from Elgato. iRecord only has manual time/channel setup so I wouldn’t call it an HD-DVR.
March 28th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Um, my Mac Mini does 1080p. You just have to build it as a custom resolution, but my HDTV definitely sees it as 1080p.
March 28th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
pretty neat
March 28th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Hey ClarkNova,
you mentioned turning an original xbox into a fully functional XBMC
I recently got a wii and really have no need for the xbox. turning it into an XBMC sounds like a great project. I have a few questions about how to do it though. any websites you know of that can talk me through the process.
March 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I did the same with a 46″ DLP HDTV. I still need to get an external hard drive, but other than that I’m set.
http://raydehler.com/photos/v/raystuff/htpc/IMG_3740.JPG.html
I wish Front Row had VLC Support, that’s all I’m saying… I have an Mac Intel codec pack, and Flip4mac, and it still has trouble playing some Fourcc codecs.
March 28th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
For the XBOX Media Center mod, check out this site:
http://www.productwiki.com/microsoft_xbox/article/how_to_go_from_xbox_to_xbox_media_center_in_30_minutes.html
Very nicely laid out step by step instructions. Hope that works for you…
March 28th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Mac-mini simply will NOT work with a component HDTV. Early HDTV adopters have no hope for the Mac-mini. Maybe with my next HDTV purchase?
March 28th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
This is almost identical to my setup. I am just using a Western Digital 320GB drive instead of a 500GB and a samsung 40″ LCD with the VGA input(no overscan issues, I dont’ know if there is something wrong with the DVI to HDMI switch, all I know is it looks great on my TV). Nice article though. i actually upgraded from an xbox running xbmc and find it a lot easier to use.
March 28th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
If you download TV shows through bittorrent, then you can make the process a lot smoother by using Azureus and an RSS plugin with rsstv.net. This let’s you program which shows you want once, and they’ll automatically be downloaded whenever they’re available. This blog entry describes the process:
http://stephendv.livejournal.com/1199.html
March 28th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
@stephend
Normally I would look into the automated download, but my experience with Azureus up to now has been so-so. The program, in my opinion, is a memory hog and eats up too many resources especially if I am trying to do more than one thing at a time. Not to mention the Mac Mini (not upgraded) doesn’t have all the much RAM to begin with.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:08 am
Lots of luck with connect 360, if it’s anything like pspware, it will be abandoned once so many have been sold. PSPWare was supposed to have a whole heap of advances, that never turned up, expect the same thing with connect360 once something new pops up, and I expect that to be an apple tv exporter or something like that. I like the idea of connect360, I bought pspware, but I wish the guy would finish what he promises to deliver.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:23 am
I guess we will have to see where the Hacked Apple TV situation leads us, if a hacked APple TV can play DivX, run Joost and surf the web all for $299, then it makes sense to use the Apple TV over the more expensive Mac mini.
Mike - Founder
http://www.switchingtomac.com/
March 29th, 2007 at 2:34 am
Why don’t just pay a little bit more and build a proper MythTV setup? At least then you get a real HTPC with all the trimmings (not to mention MAME).
March 29th, 2007 at 7:33 am
http://www.machtpc.com/archives/2005/02/09/component-video-arrives/
This is a how-to to take dvi out from your mini and output to component in for your tv.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:08 am
@AlRayyes
I did research the MythTv option and from what I tried it was too complicated for me. It’s just a sign that I am getting old and don’t have the time to mess with open source applications. If someone sent me a proper working, fully functional MythTv box I would be quite happy, but most of my computer experience has been with Macs so maybe you can see now why I was more prone to go Apple. Thanks for the suggestion though, MythTv is still something that interests me greatly.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:54 am
Here’s my take. I think that just a small percentage of people are willing to do what you did. Most, will simply plug the Apple TV and start enjoying it.
http://lucafiligheddu.blogspot.com/2007/01/apple-tv-vs-mac-mini.html
March 29th, 2007 at 9:38 am
I’m running a mac mini with two external drive. One with all my music and the other with ripped dvds. I alias the movie drive into the movies folder so front row see them but what I hate is navigating to them in front row. You hit movies and sometimes it take 2 minutes for them to appear in the menu. Any way to speed that up?
March 29th, 2007 at 10:23 am
It’s a little tough to find HD video to use with your Apple TV. There are a few podcats and movie trailers listed over here:
http://www.harikari.com/technology/how-to-get-hd-content-for-your-apple-tv.html
March 29th, 2007 at 10:29 am
I have a 4:3 HDTV, the Zenith c32v37 (http://www.zenith.com/sub_prod/product_Display.asp?cat=&id=171)
Will this work with a 4:3 HDTV?
March 29th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Also, if my TV has DVI in, can I just use that?
March 29th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Yes, just get an HDMI to DVI cable. That’s how I’m doing it.
March 30th, 2007 at 4:43 am
Interesting site and thread.
I’m running EyeTV in addition to the above. The EyeTV software isn’t great, but it does the trick as a DVB-T PVR.
One difference though is I’m using a VGA cable to my 32″ JVC HDTV, the reason being is the native screen res is 1366×768. Using a DVI to HDMI cable and outputting at 1280×720p I found the picture either had black boarders or the TV upscales to the native resolution with horrible results. Using screenresx I couldn’t change the TV wouldn’t accept 1368×768 (nearest suitable res), but it did via VGA.
I never tried 1080i though, is this likely to look better, or would I have similar problems?
Martin
March 30th, 2007 at 9:12 am
@MartinS
My understanding is that the EyeTV only captures standard def channels, unless you are on something powerful like a Mac Pro or MacBook Pro. I didn’t include it in my post because:
A. I can just wait a day and download shows in 720p (albeit slightly compressed, but it looks way better than standard def)
B. I’m hardly home, so whats the point of having something I would only use once in a blue moon?
And I think people started to forget, this is a Mac Mini, it is only capable of becoming a standard def DVR for a HD setup.
Please tell me I am wrong and that Mac Mini can capture HD content, otherwise mentioning the EyeTV is sort of a waste of time.
March 31st, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Awesome, awesome setup. I think I’m gonna add this to my own setup soon. Props.
April 1st, 2007 at 5:00 am
I have this exact same setup, Its awesome since that I’m in the middle east I now have better “cable” than I did when I was in the US. Great story.
April 12th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
i’ve both an apple tv and iMac connected to my HDTV
I’ve noticed that HD content plays back more faithfully on the Mini than tha Apple TV, not to mention the convenience of a built in DVD player.
The only thing letting the side down for the Mini is that it doesn’t grok using the HDMI port as effectively as the Apple TV (meaning sodding about with displayresx and still being unhappy).
Have switched to RBG and bypassed the whole damn nightmare (even if it results in a slightly more noisey picture).
For now, stick with the Mini…
April 30th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Use Remote Buddy and you will enjoy the htmac more. The program works with the Apple Remote control and some other remotes like the Wii-controller.
I never thought that I would use my remote so much on my macbook pro, sometimes it will be quicker to use the remote to find movies and play them then with Front Row. It is a program that shows the power and easiness of Macs.
I use it both on the my MBP and on my Macmini G4 media center.
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:54 pm
looking up the equipment you mentioned in this article, roughly I get:
rca adapter 1.95
dvi hdmi cable 19.95
my book 188
appl keyboard 59
logitech wireless trackball 58
mac mini 600
approximate total: 926.9
mactv: 300
dvi hdmi cable 19.95
approximate total:319.95
difference: 609.95
Excluding an hdtv/monitor which a majority of consumers haven’t purchased as of yet; while including those who already have a personal computer, “Why that extra $600 might make your day” seems a more appropriate title.
June 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
I found this article on using the mini to control and record a firewire HD cable box, but it says that there is no player capable of playing back HD streams in the MPEG-2 format the cable box spits out. Since the article was written in 2005, I was wondering if anyone had solved this problem.
http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2349&p=4