Conversion Question: Building a Movie Server w/ Mac Mini

1. Will front row allow me to navigate the movies on the external HDD with the remote?

Yes but you'll need to import (Command-O) them into iTunes; that's where Front Row gets it's list of movies.

2. I want to make an automator action that does something to the effect of {if dvd} {open handbrake} {rip dvd to location x} {eject} how would i go about doing this?

Uncertain about this; I have not tried it.

Is the core solo good at encoding? right now for a 2hour movie in H.264 it takes my powerbook 1.67 (1.5gig mem) about 6hours to process the files.

My Mac Mini Core Duo takes a little more than 2 hours to rip a 2 hour movie using h.264 and handbrake. Both cores are be used fully (~180% CPU utilitization in activity monitor) so I'm guessing that you'd be looking at ~4 hours with a core solo.

Well it can vary a lot depending on your ripping settings. For me, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2:22:55) recorded at an average video bitrate of 2000kbs, 256kbs audio bitrate, at 25fps, came in at 1.5GB.

It certainly sounds like a setup that would elicit a "wow" from me.

There's just one thing that went through my mind as I read your post (and I don't mean this in a facetious manner).

What's wrong with a DVD player?

Actually, nothing's wrong with a DVD player. It's a good tool and works well. I'm a big advocate of using the simplest solution to solve the problem and just having a DVD player can do it for most people.

For me the reasons for the Mac Mini entertainment center:

* Geek Joy
It's fun geek accomplishment

* Reduce component count
Replaced VCR, DVD player and CD changer with iMac mini.

* TV Show playback
I have a PC with a DVR card in it. I used to record my families' shows on it, edit out the commericals and burn them to DVD. The problem was over time we were generating lots of DVDs. Having them on the mini is easier to deal with. However, there's a downside (see problems below)

* DVD playback
I've ripped my kids DVDs which substantially reduces my DVD clutter and it's now much easier to find a given movie. I still play my DVDs on the DVD drive because I like to get to get the 5.1 AC3/DTS sound.

* Music playback
I've compressed a massive number of CDs into iTunes. I find that I listen to my music a lot more now I don't have to dig through my CD cases to find it. Also it's nice not have have the clutter of the cases. They're off in a box in the closet.

* Slideshows
We like watching pictures of our family while doing house chores and such.

This is really nice with the sharing features. We recently went on vacation and i took my laptop. Each night I downloaded the photos off the camera to it. When we got home, I turned on the laptop, went to the mac mini and turned on the TV, on the mini remote, clicked Photos/Sharing/Laptop name/SeaWorld 2006 and we had a photo slideshow with music while we unpacked.


The problems:

* Very expensive for the solution

* iTunes/Front Row software can be finicky

* Time intensive to setup.

For example, for TV shows (the worst workflow)

Old workflow: record on DVR, edit out commercials in VirtualDub, burn to DVD

New workflow: record on DVR, edit out commericals and covert to mpeg-4 in MPEG Streamclip, add TV show metadata in Lostify, import intp iTunes.

* No 5.1 sound support for ripped DVDs

So the whole thing comes down to personal preference. For me it was definitely worth it but it is expensive and a lot of work to set up. My wife likes it but she would never have done this herself.



iMac Core Duo 20" 2Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6) also have a iMac Mini Core Duo 1.66GHz (Media Center) and a 17" eMac G4 1.25GHz

I second the lack of clutter and convenience issues and add backup and security.

I have had my vehicle robbed 3 times with an average of 40 CD's lost each time. If the technology existed when I was getting robbed I wouldn't have had to buy 4 copies of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Baaa-aaa-aand.

Discs are a nuisance, but I would add an HD Tivo at this point simply because no computer based solution I have tried/seen has been nearly as elegant or functional.