Alternative to Apple TV
I have a plan to hook up my Mac Pro 3,1 (early 2008) to my TV, for music, movies and all good stuff from the web. I was wondering if anyone could comment on any problems they can detect in my possible poorly thought out plan.
Setup- The Mac Pro is in the bedroom and TV in the living room- separated by 15 to 20 ft and a wall.
PLAN- I will run a 20ft DVI-HDMI cable from the MP through the wall and to the TV. I'll also run a 20ft toslink cable (or I'll get a toslink, dvi integrator and just run a 20ft HDMI cable to the TV). To control the computer from the living room I hope the standard bluetooth keyboard and mouse from apple will see the computer (20ft away and through a wall.... am I dreaming?). Alternatively I can run a 20ft USB cable and have a wired mouse in the living room (is this too long). Of course I won't have a keyboard, or I could run a long cable for that too. Alternatively I could run a long USB cable to the living room and connect an IR receiver (like Manta T1) and control the computer with remote (although I wouldn't be able to type, or do other things right?).
Why not get an apple TV? Well, I guess I would have something much better if I had the computer attached. I could still run front row if I wanted something presentable on the TV. Moreover I was quite surprised you can't see imovies on the apple TV. All my terabytes of home movies are in iMovie and I have no intention of editing them and importing them into itunes... plus they wouldn't be as neatly organized.
Any thoughts, suggestions? Will this work?
Thank you for reading this.
Cynegils
Setup- The Mac Pro is in the bedroom and TV in the living room- separated by 15 to 20 ft and a wall.
PLAN- I will run a 20ft DVI-HDMI cable from the MP through the wall and to the TV. I'll also run a 20ft toslink cable (or I'll get a toslink, dvi integrator and just run a 20ft HDMI cable to the TV). To control the computer from the living room I hope the standard bluetooth keyboard and mouse from apple will see the computer (20ft away and through a wall.... am I dreaming?). Alternatively I can run a 20ft USB cable and have a wired mouse in the living room (is this too long). Of course I won't have a keyboard, or I could run a long cable for that too. Alternatively I could run a long USB cable to the living room and connect an IR receiver (like Manta T1) and control the computer with remote (although I wouldn't be able to type, or do other things right?).
Why not get an apple TV? Well, I guess I would have something much better if I had the computer attached. I could still run front row if I wanted something presentable on the TV. Moreover I was quite surprised you can't see imovies on the apple TV. All my terabytes of home movies are in iMovie and I have no intention of editing them and importing them into itunes... plus they wouldn't be as neatly organized.
Any thoughts, suggestions? Will this work?
Thank you for reading this.
Cynegils
Mac Pro 3,1, Mac OS X (10.6.5), 8GB ram, nvidia 8800