Using a Mac Mini as a home media center

Last week I finally received the Mac Mini I ordered in January for use as a home media center. Here's an overview of my setup and its performance.

My Mac Mini is the 1.42 GHz model with 512M RAM, Airport Express, Bluetooth, and a SuperDrive. The Mac Mini is connected to my TV & stereo and lacks a keyboard or mouse. I used Apple's DVI-to-Video cable to connect it to my TV and an ATI Remote Wonder to operate it. I also have OSXvnc installed so I can control it from another computer. For the initial setup I connected it to a keyboard and monitor, however.

I'm using an Elgato EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0 for video input and capture. With this setup I can record and view live TV either full screen or in a window.

To control iTunes remotely, I use BrowserTunes.

Although I can use the Mac Mini as a regular DVD player, It can also store DVDs on the hard drive for convenient access. To copy DVDs to the hard drive, I use MacTheRipper. Matinee makes it easy to play DVDs I've saved, and I can also stream movies to view on my other computer using VLC Media Player.

How well does it work? As a media center, it's ideal. Video quality from DVDs or the EyeTV Wonder is excellent. However, text is extremely difficult to read on the TV screen. The Remote Wonder is OK for basic controls in EyeTV, DVD player, or iTunes, but nearly impossible to use in the Finder and other applications. The mouse emulation is very clumsy.

I had to tweak the display settings and calibrate the color profile for the best quality, I finally settled on a resolution of 1024x768, which gives me the best TV & DVD quality while sacrificing text readability in non-video applications. The EyeTV Wonder can display video in Best quality (720x576), however, it can only record in Video CD quality on a 1.42 Ghz G4.

In the future, software such as Center Stage will provide even more functionality.