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With all the high-quality music and movie options available online today, sometimes it seems like it would be much easier to enjoy that content directly through your home theater system. There are several options already out there, from DVD and Blu-ray players that can stream from Netflix, to standalone devices like the AppleTV. Unfortunately, many of these boxes are limited in the kinds of files you can play and/or where you get them from. Home Theater PCs (HTPCs) are another option. These are usually smaller-cased computers, running some sort of media software. These offer a wider range of file types that can be played, along with the ability to stream many types of content. The Mac mini is a perfect candidate for such a setup. Its small form factor allows it to fit nicely among the rest of your equipment, its video supports HD resolutions and it has support for digital audio output, which is necessary for surround sound. With a little help from OWC and NewerTech, you can integrate a Mac mini into your home theater system, allowing you to access many different types of media that you couldn't before. |
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Attaching the mini. The first thing you'll need to do is attach the mini itself to your system. Different systems have different ports, and it is near impossible to cover all of them exactly, but it really comes down to two major connections: a video connection and an audio connection.
Connecting video If you don't have a DVI port or an available HDMI port, many displays have a VGA port that can also be used. This, however, is an analog signal which won't be as clear as a digital one. Depending on the model mini you have, you may require an adapter. If you have a 2009 mini, your best bet is to use a NewerTech Mini Display Port adapter for the connection you're going to hook up to on your TV. With earlier model minis, you should be able to connect the DVI port to the TV either directly (for DVI connections), through an adapter cable (for HDMI connections) or via a VGA cable and the mini's DVI-VGA adapter (for VGA connections). Connecting Audio A little known feature of the Mac mini’s audio connection (and basically any Intel Mac), is that the audio out 3.5mm port can provide either analog signal and an optical signal - depending on which cable is connected to it. By using a NewerTech Toslink to Mini Toslink Optical Cable, you can connect the Mac mini to your surround sound receiver using an available optical-in connection on the receiver. If you don't have a surround sound system, you will want to use the standard analog audio out. Use a 1/8" Stereo minijack to RCA adapter to connect the audio out from the mini to the audio in on the TV that corresponds to the input you used for the video. You may need to refer to your TV's manual to determine the correct input. |
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Attaching Peripherals At this point, your mini is technically usable with your home theater system. However, there are a couple of other pieces that you may want to hook up while you're behind your TV. TV Tuner
There are two ways to attach your storage device: directly or over the network. Connecting directly is more useful when recording directly to the external drive. All you need to do is connect via the fastest connection available on both the drive and the mini. In the case of the Qx2, this would be FireWire 800. Connecting via a network is useful when you want to access those multimedia files on computers other than the one that's attached to your TV. The easiest way to do this is via an AirPort Extreme Base Station. Simply format the hard drive with your computer, then connect the drive to the base station via a USB cable. It should then show on your network as a shared volume.
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Every Mac comes with Front Row built in, but many people find its options too limiting—especially when working with network storage. Fortunately, there is another solution, which not only plays considerably more formats than Front Row and can integrate online services as well, but is also free. It's called Plex, and you can download it for free from their website. Once you've installed and launched Plex, you can navigate using your Apple Remote or a keyboard. Later, you can set it to use a universal remote, but much of that varies with the remote itself. Check the manual for your remote and in the Plex documentation for more details.
By the way... the process for importing and arranging your recorded TV shows is pretty much identical. :-) |
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Getting Media This area is a little "gray," as there is the potential for misuse. However, in the interest of being able to have a backup copy of a movie you have legitimately purchased, we will give you some information regarding some useful hardware and software. Please do not copy movies if you have not purchased the DVD or Blu-ray Disc.
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You're now ready to go! You now have a system that's capable of playing a high-quality version of a movie or TV show from its hard drive. The advantage over a "normal" hard disk-based recorder is that when you're not using it for movies, you can hook up a wireless keyboard and mouse and use it for whatever you normally use a computer for: games, email, web browsing, etc.; it's like the best of a computer and of a DVR all rolled into one.
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