Throughout the week I ’ve document my experience turning Apple ’s $ 599 Mac mini into a complete media server — from upgrading the hardware , to setting up Front Row , to configure the Mac to access local , networked , and Internet medium ; to controlling the works from a prone position . It ’s now metre to turn to The Big Picture . Is it worth the trouble ? How family line - friendly is the frame-up ? And how does it compare to Apple ’s media - centrical selection , the Apple TV ?
Trouble and expense taken versus benefits realized
To make as complete a medium center as possible I acquired these character :
Hardware :
Mac package :
Some of the components of my Mac mini-based media center
iPhone software :
Excluding the Netflix subscription , taking the cut-rate sale monetary value on the external grueling drive , and assuming that you already have all your AV components and an iPhone or iPod touch , that comes to $ 1,530 .
Some of the components of my Mac mini - ground media centerI was after a all play a trick on - out Mac medium center and that ’s what I built . I could throw together something nearly as functional for not a slew more than the monetary value of the miniskirt , however . For deterrent example , the Mac miniskirt ’s 120 GB internal hard driveway is dumb and it does n’t hold a short ton of media , but if much of my media is stored and access on electronic web private road , who like ? I could do without both the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid and Turbo . H264 HD if I were willing to use my existing TV connection and TiVo and convert sensitive more tardily . Toast Titanium is helpful for many things but Handbrake , though slow on this Mac , is a capable ripper and converter . ( Handbrake can also replace RipIt ) . RadioShift is another luxury if I ’m uncoerced to listen to radio live via iTunes or a Web web web browser . And , if I can put up using half - a - twelve remotes instead of just one , I could do without the Harmony 880 .
Once I had the parts it take me the better part of a day to promote the mini and configure it as I ’ve outline . At the end of that day the mini functioned much as I ’d project . With iPhone in mitt I was able-bodied to play music , video , and podcasts ; watch slideshows ; access Hulu and Netflix ; and purchase and charter iTunes subject matter from the couch without much annoyance . With this setup I was positive that I could do without my videodisc player , the receiver ’s wireless , and much of the content presently offer by my satellite TV supplier .
I have very little interest in televised sports so no loss to me on that front . But if you do succeed sports , it ’s unlikely you ’ll want to chuck out your cable box or satellite receiver . springy sportswoman just is n’t attend to very well via the Internet . The same is on-key of premiere motion picture channels such as HBO and Showtime . you could buy — or rip , via Netflix — show from these networks , but they ’re released sometimes a year or more after the season has concluded .
Sound and vision
Through the week , visitor to our forums have asked , “ Yeah , but how does it look and fathom ? Will it match what my AV components now bring home the bacon ? ”
It depend .
To me , the timbre of DVDs and audio from a Mac miniskirt is no better or bad than what you get from distinctive AV constituent . If you ’ve got a standalone DVD player with singular upscaling capabilities , one that play multiple discs , or are implicated about region encrypt ( you bet heap of videodisk from other countries and do n’t want a videodisk histrion that shut away after five neighborhood switches ) , you ’ll want to stick with that DVD thespian . Otherwise , the miniskirt act videodisk just fine . The mini supports 5.1 surroundings sound with the correct digital audio cable television service , so you ’re covered there too .
TV is another issue . To begin with , there ’s every likeliness that your miniskirt will either over - fill up the bound of your HDTV ’s screen door ( meaning the menu bar will be geld off at the top ) or under - fill it if you twist off the Overscan alternative in the Displays system preference . I ’m fine with the disastrous border that appears around the Mac ’s screen with Overscan off . You may not be .
Streaming video does n’t look as good as video come from a cable boob tube box , artificial satellite receiver , or OTA feeler . If your eye explode when force to watch TV with obvious artefact and occasional stutter , the Mac mini as media center may not appeal to you . On the other hand , that streaming depicted object is free ( or nearly so with a $ 9 a calendar month Netflix subscription ) . And free is good , particularly when compared to a cable or artificial satellite bill that runs nigh $ 100 a month .
television content from the iTunes Store , however , looks darned serious . Personally , I ’m more than glad with standard definition scheduling from the Store . Yes , the HD depicted object wait better , but not so much better to my eyes that I ’m willing to pay more for it or wait longer to receive it .
Call in the family
One important examination of the miniskirt ’s suitableness as a media center is its kinsfolk friendliness . My wife and daughter are renowned for their smarting and perseverance , but anyone ’s solitaire can be pushed to the limit when forced to deal with too much complexity . Would they have the longanimity to curb it ? The answer to that look on what they want to do with it .
With Front Row configured to set up at inauguration and some instruction on how Rowmote act , the family — already prosperous with the Apple TV ’s interface — could navigate local and networked content with them . And considering that ’s the avenue to the fellowship ’s music and movies , it ’s a great start .
When they had to hazard outside Front Row to Netflix and Hulu via Boxee , however , they got lost . As I mentioned in an earlier installation , Boxee , Plex , and XBMC are powerful metier applications , but their respective interface can be perplexing . The menage also balked at check , transcription , and playing back TV with the EyeTV hybrid . TiVo they get , as they ’re in a walled - in interface . The EyeTV software , intuitive as I recover it , has a reckoner - like interface and the vote was to stick with TiVo .
The iPhone lotion for controlling the Mac were another stumble blocking . Air Mouse is certainly the most stark comptroller , but it ’s not as dear for simple Arrow , Return , and turn tail closet as Rowmote and the Boxee applications programme . And if all you want to do is handle with content in your iTunes library , Apple ’s Remote makes more sensory faculty . But using these tools effectively requires knowing which is best for what and I could feel the frustration when I told my married woman she ’d be better off switching diligence to perform special tasks .
grant these experiences I ’ll evoke that a Mac mini media heart and soul is n’t something you should just spring on the family unless your menage is wholly enamored of technology . Keep your current ingredient , get as much media as potential into iTunes so that it can be access via Front Row , and show your phratry how to use it . Getting content from Netflix , Hulu , or one of the other many sources useable from Boxee , Plex , or XBMC is , in most cases , go to be the family geek ’s job for for a while .
Mac mini versus Apple TV
What does a Mac miniskirt configured as a medium server have that an Apple TV does n’t ? The ability to make out beyond Apple ’s grasp . Easy - to - use as the Apple boob tube may be , it ’s designed almost entirely as an assistant to iTunes and the iTunes Store — bringing the content of each to your television .
And that ’s fine , but it ’s also limiting . Unless you hack your Apple TV to allow Boxee and XBMC to run on it , you get only the content Apple wants you to have — no Netflix , no Hulu , no Comedy Central , no PBS , no Pandora , no Radio Time … you get the mind . In a time when people are increasingly interested in stream internet - based spiritualist , the Apple TV is deaf to this desire . And , in a way , that think over Apple ’s feeler to the iTunes Store : “ mass need to own their media . ”
Except in an era when so much content is available on the entanglement ( and much of it not worth owning ) , that sentiment seems more and more outdated . For those who find it so , the Mac mini media server is a flexible and capable choice .
[ Senior editor Christopher Breen blogs regularly about iPods , Apple TVs , and other accoutrement of the digital life style at Macworld ’s Playlist web log . ]
