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Hardware

Mac mini Media Centers and Home Theatres

Mac miniEngadget has posted an excellent article HOW-TO: Turn your Mac mini into a media center where they dissect every aspect of the task from storage, audio, video, video in, recording and playback of HDTV, remote control, installing and connecting with VNC:

Yep, everyone?s talking about using the Mac mini as a home media center, and there?s a reason why: its diminutive form factor makes it a good candidate to fit unobtrusively into an existing audio/video or home theater setup. It looks more like a consumer electronics device than a computer, so it won?t look out of place in your living room. We think of it as the central brain of our system; the glue that holds all the devices together. It can serve the role of scheduler, controller, audio/video recorder, audio/video playback, audio/video download, and it even makes a decent audio/video production unit, as well. You might not win the next Sundance with your iMovie, but you sure can impress everyone at the next family reunion.

The Mac Media Center Project plans to develop a free Media Center application for the Mac, “bringing together the power and intuitiveness of the Macs’ built in applications under a simple interface, for use as part of a Home Theatre system.”
Who’s going to be the first to market with a Bluetooth keyboard with a built-in trackpad or trackball? MacAlly? Kensington? MacMice? This is a killer peripheral that’s needed to complete many Media Centers.


Mac miniEngadget has posted an excellent article HOW-TO: Turn your Mac mini into a media center where they dissect every aspect of the task from storage, audio, video, video in, recording and playback of HDTV, remote control, installing and connecting with VNC:

Yep, everyone?s talking about using the Mac mini as a home media center, and there?s a reason why: its diminutive form factor makes it a good candidate to fit unobtrusively into an existing audio/video or home theater setup. It looks more like a consumer electronics device than a computer, so it won?t look out of place in your living room. We think of it as the central brain of our system; the glue that holds all the devices together. It can serve the role of scheduler, controller, audio/video recorder, audio/video playback, audio/video download, and it even makes a decent audio/video production unit, as well. You might not win the next Sundance with your iMovie, but you sure can impress everyone at the next family reunion.

The Mac Media Center Project plans to develop a free Media Center application for the Mac, “bringing together the power and intuitiveness of the Macs’ built in applications under a simple interface, for use as part of a Home Theatre system.”
Who’s going to be the first to market with a Bluetooth keyboard with a built-in trackpad or trackball? MacAlly? Kensington? MacMice? This is a killer peripheral that’s needed to complete many Media Centers.

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.