Mac Mini as PVR/HT hub: Advice please

Here is a forum that may help you: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=115

I would encourage you to post your question to the AV Science Forum (the #1 Home Theatre Forum on the net). If anyone has used the hardware you're looking at they have....

Good Luck.

Hi Arcadian,
I've built a system very similar to the one that you are describing. At the moment this overall PVR/TiVO/SKY+ functionality is " almost but not quite ready!" to paraphrase Adams.

One suspects that in about a week, that things might get better!

I'd say that there isn't one particular design of the perfect HT system, you have very successfully defined your needs, which is just (but also importantly) 50% of the project. Now you just need to flesh out the Hardware design!

Yes my Mac Mini Rev.A works great (for my needs) as a PVR HT system. I specified a 1.25GHz 40GB HDD *One Gigabyte RAM stick * + Airport (+ old BT dongle that I had lying around), so I also picked up the Apple BT mouse and keyboard. Applestore had a good deal on Crossfire FW/USB2 HDD's so I added a 160GB external to the order and a USB2 powered hub just to be safe. In a word "Really Great PC!!"

I chose the Dell W2600 26" LCD Television, twin internal Analog RF TV tuners, VGA and DVI inputs plus 7 other varied inputs.
in a word "Stunning TV!!"

Many people prefer many different brands, each to his own, get whatever deal you can! eg Dell varies their prices by up to 40% depending on which week it is! Some TV's have HDMI HDCP which will interface to future (soon!) SKY HDTV systems. Anyway, I chose W2600 first as a digital input COMPUTER MONITOR that also does TV, rather than the other way around. The included Dell DVI-DVI cable even worked instantly perfectly with the Mac Mini.

I'm running the Mac Mini DVI out at 1280 x 720 millions of colours, the Dell has a Native Resolution of 1280 x 768 (WXGA) but handles the HDTV 720p signal perfectly. Incidentally showing DVD's with the highest quality of any DVD player that I've seen. The HDTV 720p Quicktime trailers show very well on the Mini, with just some stuttering and low frame rates on very complex HDTV scenes. Most stuff just plays!

I use EyeTV200 as the PVR digitiser and allow it a 512megabyte scratch RAM buffer with obviously FW connection, the external HDD is left in one USB2 socket with the D-Link DBT120 dongle in the second. I feed video to the EyeTV from my digital SKY TV box via the analog VCR SCART. (I did buy an USB M-Audio interface , but I haven't bothered to wire it in yet) . I just have a 3.5mm headphone adapter/splitter providing a stereo feed directly to the TV and another audio feed to the Sony Dolby receiver Amplifier. The SKY TV RCA cinch L+R also go to the Sony Amp.

There you go, a simple PVR, I don't have a dedicated remote control, but it's amazing what you can do with a one button wireless bluetooth optical mouse providing it is made by Apple! I do have a Sony Ericsson T68i which runs Salling Clicker excellently, but I haven't needed it as yet.

So the above is a description of some of the major hardware components, I haven't played much with Dolby decoding as honestly my Richer Sounds Mission 73's make everything sound great in just 2 channels!!.

I still use OS X 10.3.9 with the QT 7 Pro update, I've added Jewelcase to iTunes , Matinee as a simple interface to DVDPlayer, MactheRipper & VLC for handling 'complicated' program sources. I'll probably migrate to 10.4.3 when it comes out soon. I'd love the upcoming 64 megabyte GPU RAM Rev.C Mac Mini, but I'm entirely happy with my 32 megabyte system. I enjoy using EyeTV software version 1.8.3 but I'd rather have version 2.0!!!
The Elgato people are great in turning out new software patches every month, but I'd like a bit more control on the available recording resolutions of their software. I currently select "automatic" for the Aspect Ratio - there is the choice of 4:3 , 14:9 , 16:9 and widescreen,
but I haven't found the exact match yet for my Dell W2600 which is a 15:9.
This isn't a real problem as I mostly do time-shift PVR, I always use "High Quality (DVD 90Mins)" for the encoding, the settings are 2.7GB/h with Video 720 x 576 pixels @ 25 frames per second = 6.0Mbps VBR (max 8.0Mbps) with

continued from the message above!

= 6.0Mbps VBR (max 8.0Mbps) with IBP Frames, Audio 48KHz sampling @ 384Kbps.

I do successfully stream my iTunes Library from other Airport (11Mbps cards) Macs and a PC in the house. Extreme would be fine, but I'm still 802.11b.

Hardest bits of setting up the system was really choosing the wall stand for the whole kaboodle. I chose an Italian Designer Meliconi "Space System LCD R30" as the 20Kg wall holder for the Dell, then 3 more "Space System Box" as arms to hold the SKY digital satellite box and (EyeTV+USB2HDD hidden behind a big Wharfedale centre Speaker in case I feel like Dolby phantom 3ch) the middle "Space System Box" holds the Mac Mini on its own, with no obvious wires - the umbilical sneaks into the Meliconi system.
I have a small thick polished perspex (polymethylmethacrylate) plate supporting the Mac Mini seemingly in mid-air. The bottom "Space System Box" holds the Sony Dolby receiver and hiding behind it is a 220V distribution system and the Mac Mini PSU. Meliconi "Space System Line Cover" separates all elements and pads out the system down to floor level, I manage to hide nearly all of the wires in this hollow Meliconi system, and I seem to impress visitors. But I think it's actually the Apple Mac Mini that does that!!!

thanks for the PC link, so it has a pentium4 yet is quiet enough to use in a living room? Hmmmm!!! I knew the Mac Mini would be virtually silent as I also have an iMac DV SE which pioneered silent computing. I never hear the Mac Mini, and it's perfect for my needs. I have no information about future products, and I wouldn't wish to idly speculate, but simply stating my "dream-list" for a Mac Mini would include at least a 64MB GPU and a CPU speed bump and a HDD speed bump and the Superdrive speed bump! nudge nudge say no more.

VOIP on the Mini would be best accomplished with a BT earpiece maybe, (maybe the Rev.C Mini would have BT2,0) - or VOIP with an iSight, but I haven't seen one other than on Spooks!

I valued the Dell Monitor TV as being excellent quality with DVI (the US Dell website claims DVI-PC HDCP) and perfectly matched to the Apple Mac Mini. Check the Dell-Apple display discussions in the Mini forum and you can see that many Dell displays use the same LCD modules as the Apple 20" and 23" excellent monitors. Of course , to get an idea of how products will trend then you just have to check the USA website where you'll find a Dell 30" which presumably will make its way to EU next year at the 1K euro price point? Today Amazon UK have a Video Seven LTV27C 27"TFT for just £480 incl taxes and delivery! No DVI tho'

I thought the W2600 was a reasonable compromise for price, with guaranteed plug and play'ness to Apple DVI.

For the response time, it did OK with the cricket, and although slightly lagging CRT's sharpness (which still offer the best picture quality) , I was and am very impressed.

Sports don't usually trouble it , but some films , especially (maybe?) transcoded from NTSC 525 , seem to show
wierd echoes that I didn't/don't get on a CRT. BBC1-4 is OK, most ITV and UK sourced programs e.g Midsomer Murders etc play great , but the odd SKY channel , say , 269 or 458 "classic 1970's" program looks as though it has thousands of colours instead of millions and there's some vagueness to the picture; it doesn't worry me or the family!!

good luck , have fun, think about it for a week then buy a Mac Mini!!

I agree. This is a great post. Both of you.

I'm about to inherit my dad's Mini (he bought it in Auggust for internet in the kitchen but only had S Video connection in his TV and couldn't live with the poor resoltion for text etc.) and have been wondering about using it as a digital hub in our new home. Record TV, surf t'internet in lounge etc.

I'm considering investing in a new HD Ready LCD telly so I can record digital TV onto my Mini. The model I'm most drawn to is the Samsung LE32R41BD which is £1150 at John Lewis:
http://www.johnlewis.com/Audioand+TV/Televisions/+Televisions/LCD/230214498/Product.aspx
but only £809 from an online store. Which was pleasing to discover.

It's got all the inputs and a digital receiver built in and has had great reviews so it should be perfect.

Suppose I still need an EyeTV product?

As far as an external hard drive goes - I recently bought a LaCie 250GB FW800 from the Apple Store and I like it.

Please post back when you've installed your system to let me know how you get on. I remain nervous about spending as much as I'm going to, but I'm also hoping that by making good choices now I'll be pretty well future proofed.

Good work again.

JON.

] Suppose I still need an EyeTV product?

Yes, but this is not dependent on the TV, and if you want Freeview then the 410 is the model to go for.

Which eyeTV device should I buy if I live in the UK?
http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/5050.html

Remember that HD is not being broadcast in the UK for a few years, Sky will be doing some next year, in which case the eyeTV 200 will be the only product you can use but will not record in HD format.

A bit late in a reply but here is some advice.
] - Standard PVR functionality e.g stop/pause live tv & schedule recordings
The eyeTV 410 can do that.
] Watch one channel while recording another (would i need an LCD TV with a built-in freeview tuner in addition to an external tuner such as an Elgato 410/DTT to do this?)

You will need two tuners, one in the TV and the 410 (which is recommended over the DTT as the 410 has a hardware encoder whilst the DTT is dependent on the Mac for encoding.
] - Access my iTunes/iPhoto & iMovie libraries on the LCD TV

If you can connect your Mac to the TV then this will work fine.
] - a nice easy, family-friendly GUI

The eyeHome may be something to look at, otherwise you are dependent on the OS X interface.
] I would also like to be able to access the digital media data on my Pb G4 via my Airport Extreme home network for editing of recorded TV shows etc if this is possible.

Remember video recordings are large, talking GB here, and these are not really sutiable for moving about on a wireless network.

Also the editing tools of eyeTV are pretty good and you don't often need to export the recording to another format so you can edit in a third part application.

From my experience, eyeTV and OS X is a much better choice than MCE2005.

Hi Jon,

well the Samsung looks gorgeous - but - as usual with Consumer Websites - there's not enough information to judge compatibility. JohnLewis only mention AV inputs/S-Video/SCART which wouldn't give you good enough resolution from the Mac Mini. I notice it is "HDTV ready" so that implies some DVI or HDCP input , checking further, <Play.com> , whoever they are, say "Digital Interface (HDMI-HDCP, DVI Compatible) .....and PC(VGA) input" So that's OK then!
The Samsung native resolution is 1366 x 768 , comparing with the only available Apple published specifications (Rev.B) = "Graphics support
ATI Radeon 9200 GPU 32MB video memory
DVI video output for digital resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 pixels; supports coherent digital displays up to 154MHz; supports non-coherent digital displays up to 135MHz ; VGA video output (using included adaptor) to support analogue resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 pixels"

so it would seem to match, though some slight playing with Mini output resolutions to get the best display with minimal re-sampling might be needed. Note: there has been some postings that using resolution switching apps to program non-standard refresh rates on LCD panels can actually damage the LCD's, so read everything you can about it!

I'd like to see someone ask JohnLewis if their display is 154MHz coherent or 135MHz non coherent????!

Remember that HD is not being broadcast in the UK for a few years, Sky will be doing some next year

I know people who are already P2P downloading HD format TV shows, typically a few hundreds of MB in .avi format! It's a form of 'early-adopting' as VOIP is the current thing that is frightening Telecom companies - but TVIP is coming soon.
(TV over internet protocol, or just TV over the Internet)