Cable Free: The Mac mini and Me
May 17, 2009The Mac mini vs. the AppleTV
Many have asked why did you decide to go with a Mac mini instead of an AppleTV. The answer is simple really, dvd and the internet.
I’m not as hostile to commercials as some especially the ones during online shows because there is usually just one per commerical break. I can deal with it and in exchange the content is free (not a bad trade). The second is that I have amassed a decent collection of films and TV shows on DVD (I’m a sucker for the $5 bin in Walmart –bought two more tonight) AppleTV is really only good at one thing- facilitating the purchase and display of content from the iTunes store. For me I only purchase TV and movies from iTunes if I need it to be portable (say if I’m going to be on a plane). So in the end the Mac mini is the better choice for me because it can function just like an AppleTV plus surf the web and display content from ABC.com and Hulu and lastly, it has a DVD player.
The System
Mac mini 1.83Ghz Combo Drive 80gig HD
RCA Multi-Directional Flat Amplified Antenna
32″ JVC LCD TV
1/8″ Jack to RCA Audio Cable
iPodtouch with AirMouse App
My set up is pretty straight forward but it was not without some trial and error. I googled my heart out looking for someone to explain how to set one up but all anybody ever wanted to talk about was the part of the system where you get a tuner card so you can record live TV, I needed the step before that. Hopefully this post will help all those who come after me.>>
I started out going DVI to S-Video into the TV, but no matter how I set up the display preferences the image didn’t fill the screen. I had substantial black bars on the left and right sides of the screen. The resolution was pretty low too. Only 1024 x 768 so it made the screen a bit grainy and hard to read. While discussing this with a collegue in the office we decided this was probably a limitation of the S-Video and I decided to try a DVI to HDMI cable and see if the results were any better. I expected it to be a bit better but the difference was dramatic! I was displaying in a wide format at 1920 x 1080 however it still wasn’t edge to edge. In fact the black was now on all 4 sides. Puzzled I clicked over to the Options pane in Display preferences and ticked the box for Overscan. When I did this on the S-Video connection it resulted in the loss of the Menu Bar and the Dock (not useful). However with DVI to HDMI this worked like a charm. It cut off all but a sliver of the Menu bar but I can still mouse up to it and click and the menus drop down so its still functional. The Dock is resting comfortably on the bottom bezel of the screen as it should be.
Eventually I’d like to switch from the analog audio cable to Optical Audio but since I don’t have a surround sound system and am simply relying on the built in speakers on the TV I don’t think I’d notice a difference.
Its All About Control
The Mac mini unlike the AppleTV is designed to be controlled with a mouse and keyboard. I originally had decided to go with a wireless keyboard and mouse that would live under my coffee table. I wasn’t keen on that solution nor the amount of batteries that would be used to keep them functional. Then I stumbled upon AirMouse. It is an iPhone/iPodtouch app ($5.99) that is literally a trackpad and a keyboard. It connects to the Mac mini over the wifi network in the house and it works flawlessly. There’s no lag time and becuase its Wifi instead of IR it even works through walls. With this app I can command my Mac mini while sitting comfortably on my couch.
The Missing Link
The one component to this system is software and hardware that will imbue DVR capabilities on my Mac mini. I haven’t really had a chance to research the various offerings on the market and considering that the season finales have now all played I don’t consider it much of an issue. Perhaps by the fall I’ll feel the need to add that piece to the system. Right now I’m plenty happy with watching it live via my antenna or catching it the next day on the web.
Cutting the Cable
If you’ve been toying with the idea of cutting the the cable on your TV service there has never been a better time to do so. In the next post I’m going to talk about my journey from the cable to the mini.
Update
Was just on the phone with a new friend who told me about a software called Plex that is media center software for OS X. I’m going to check it out this week and see how it goes.
Thanks, Tif, for the info. Very helpful and very informative! Let us know your findings on the audio issue.
LAupnorth
Great Article. Having gone through all of this as well with my Mac Mini, here’s a few comments and suggestions.
First, to fix your “cut off all but a sliver of the Menu”. The problem here is that your TV is set to overscan 1%-10%. There should be a picture setting on your TV that turns off overscan.
AirMouse is amazing you failed to mention however that built into AirMouse is the ability to switch to different controller modes. Mouse/Keyboard, DVD Remote, iTunes Remote, and FrontRow Remote.
As far as a DVR for your Mac Mini go with the Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus. I have looked around and this is the best. I have been using mine for about a month now and it’s amazing. It may seem a bit expensive at around $200 but believe me it’s well worth it. Compare the EyeTV to the lowest cost TiVO$150 plus $129 a year subscription and it looks pretty cheap. Features of the EyeTV 250 Plus:
-Records digital over the air broadcast (OTA) in the broadcast video format (no transcoding).
-Records analog OTA video or analog video from a S-Video source to digital with built in hardware encoding (doesn’t tie up the cpu witch is necessary on a slow Mac Mini).
-Full TV guide menu. Ability to setup timers remotely from the web.
-Ability to stream any recorded content over the local wifi network to any internet capable device that will play H.264 video (iPhone, iPod Touch). The quality is astounding.
-All digital OTA recordings that have 5.1 sound encoded in the video will playback 5.1 through the Mini’s Optical Toslink.
Which brings me to my biggest gripe and the reason I went back to my AppleTV. Surround Sound! Although the Mac Mini hardware has the capability, neither FrontRow or iTunes will play back 5.1 surround sound. It will mix the audio down to 2 channel stereo. There are some manual hacks out there (believe me I’ve tried everything and they all are horrible) but they are useless. For many people their home theatre setups are basically stereo only anyway so this is not very important to them. Apple does not make this clear and actually can be quite misleading on this subject so if you want a device to be your home theater media center and surround sound is important to you the Mac Mini is probably not for you. At least not at this point in time. That being said there are a few programs that will playback 5.1 channel audio the first being Apple’s included DVD player. I have already mentioned the EyeTV recordings will play back in 5.1 audio. And although I haven’t tried it yet, in looking at plexapp.com they claim to support 5.1 AC3 passthrough. Another mystery for many people is “Where is the optical port on my Mac Mini?” The optical audio port is the same port as the headphone port you simply need an adaptor to change it to a standard Toslink optical port (Toslink To Optical Mini Adapter $2.50 on Amazon). If at all possible use the optical port for audio out as the quality of audio is far superior.
Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus, Boxee and the Boxee Remote App for itouch. I have a similar system set up in my home and have been using it for 5 months. Love it.