Seventh Heaven

Bought a Mac Mini and DiNovo Mini Keyboard.... Installed Plex and hey presto a seriously fabulous Media Centre!

Absolutely brilliant

Enjoy - hope it gets lots of use today, and in the future

I don't think I've slept since I installed it yesterday afternoon.....

Now I need a new AV Amp!

Post deleted by billford

Edited by billford (Sat 26-Dec-09 18:16:03)

Personally, I think that media centres are the way to go. I'm amazed more people don't make the switch to them. They are far better than a plethora of set top boxes and the rest. I've recently been toying with Plex and Front Row on one of my Hackintoshes, using an old MS IR receiver, Apple remote and Remote Buddy. It all works pretty well, but the dearth of decent TV options for Mac is a killer for me when it comes to anything other than dipping into it for its novelty value. I keep hoping that Apple might get serious with Apple TV/Front Row, but I suspect I'll be waiting a long time before they release anything quite as flexible as my WIndows7 based media centre.

Using the Windows box I can do everything the Mac OS based option does and watch and/or record any combination of Freeview and Freesat programming, including BBC HD (the box has a dual terrestrial and an S2 satellite card). I'm currently awaiting the arrival of DVB-T2 cards that'll give me Freeview HD to add to the mix. As it stands I can watch an AVI or whatever while recording three TV channels at the same time. Technically, I could record even more at once if I bought more cards. Of course, I can also pause live TV and the like as well. The whole ensemble has now replaced everything bar my Blu Ray player and it could replace that if I bought a Blu Ray drive for it. You can even get a selection of Sky channels over the internet on it if you sign up and pay a subscription.

If you want a recommendation for a new AV amp, I recently bought a Sony STR-DR800 from Richer Sounds. It's a great bit of kit for the money (Richer are currently selling it for under £250).

Hey thanks for the AV tip - I was in Richers yesterday looking at AV Amps - The Amps I've been looking at are the Yamaha 765 and Onkyo TXSR607 - The reason being is that I need to integrate the AV Amp into my existing Pre/Power setup which I don't want to get rid of. The amp needs to have at least two pre-outs (not zone 2 I'm led to believe) so that I can connect it to my line in on the preamp....

I haven't really checked out the MAC TV options other than the mini and Plex - I have to say though that since I installed it on Xmas eve I have not watched normal TV except BBC Iplayer via a Plex plug in.....

Hi, I have a Mac Mini Media Centre....

I use EyeTV Hybrid to digital terrestrial, EyeTV Sat for Freesat, means I can watch one channel whilst recording another. Have PyeTV installed so can access EyeTV stuff from frontrow.

I love it, my partner isn't so sure as sometimes, occasionally, it cannot be controlled from the remote, but hey!

I use Plex for online bits, with the iplayer plugin and more often used - the CH4 On Demand plugin...

Anyway - it's been up and running since September, and all works generally as expected..

Cheers

Joe

I have EyeTV too but I can't find the dongle....as soon as I locate it...It will become a feature of my media centre.....

In reply to a post by Desmond:

Personally, I think that media centres are the way to go. I'm amazed more people don't make the switch to them. They are far better than a plethora of set top boxes and the rest. I've recently been toying with Plex and Front Row on one of my Hackintoshes, using an old MS IR receiver, Apple remote and Remote Buddy. It all works pretty well, but the dearth of decent TV options for Mac is a killer for me when it comes to anything other than dipping into it for its novelty value. I keep hoping that Apple might get serious with Apple TV/Front Row, but I suspect I'll be waiting a long time before they release anything quite as flexible as my WIndows7 based media centre.

Using the Windows box I can do everything the Mac OS based option does and watch and/or record any combination of Freeview and Freesat programming, including BBC HD (the box has a dual terrestrial and an S2 satellite card). I'm currently awaiting the arrival of DVB-T2 cards that'll give me Freeview HD to add to the mix. As it stands I can watch an AVI or whatever while recording three TV channels at the same time. Technically, I could record even more at once if I bought more cards. Of course, I can also pause live TV and the like as well. The whole ensemble has now replaced everything bar my Blu Ray player and it could replace that if I bought a Blu Ray drive for it. You can even get a selection of Sky channels over the internet on it if you sign up and pay a subscription.

If you want a recommendation for a new AV amp, I recently bought a Sony STR-DR800 from Richer Sounds. It's a great bit of kit for the money (Richer are currently selling it for under £250).

Now you've got me checking out the Sony now!! I just need to make sure that I can connect it to my pre/power without any hiccup... And i've just noticed that Hyperfi are doing these for £200

In reply to a post by Desmond:

If you want a recommendation for a new AV amp, I recently bought a Sony STR-DR800 from Richer Sounds. It's a great bit of kit for the money (Richer are currently selling it for under £250).

How do these things work where you have an HDMI source (e.g. a Mac Mini) where no sound is passed over HDMI? Are you able to select an HDMI device but sound from a different audio input?

Yep, that's the way it works. AV amps like the Sony have assignable inputs where you set the amp up to associate a particular audio input with a particular video source.

An update.... Plex has crashed one too many times today for some strange reason. I've just downloaded Boxee and giving it a try out.....

Tomorrow I will most probably get the amp...

Thanks for the info. I think I might go ahead with one of those. My current amp is falling to bits inside.

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Have PyeTV installed so can access EyeTV stuff from frontrow.....

Where would I find PyeTV? A Google search throws up a lot about the long defunct PyeTVs from the 1960s, but no software for the Mac.

Here you go.

In reply to a post by AnotherExPipex:

Here you go.

Thanks for this. No idea why it didn't show up on a Google search...

I bought the Yamaha RX-V765 today. I also bought a very long HDMI cable from Homebase or B&Q a while back that I had never used....Connected it to my Mac Mini HTPC and the picture is seriously superb..for a cable that cost me £12.99 - I have an Ixos cable that cost me nearly £50 and the picture is no where near as superb....

For cables of any kind I have been using <url=http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/catalog/>here</url>. for some time. Dirt cheap and TBH I cannot tell the difference between the HDMI cables they sell for £2.99 from the one I once foolishly bought at over twenty times that price. Live and learn I suppose.... That and I should have thought on the fact that an HDMI cable is digital and thus there shouldn't be much difference in signal between one made of finest aluminium and another made of gold plated platinum, encrusted with diamonds and sapphires.

In reply to a post by Desmond:

For cables of any kind I have been using <url=http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/catalog/>here</url>. for some time. Dirt cheap and TBH I cannot tell the difference between the HDMI cables they sell for £2.99 from the one I once foolishly bought at over twenty times that price. Live and learn I suppose.... That and I should have thought on the fact that an HDMI cable is digital and thus there shouldn't be much difference in signal between one made of finest aluminium and another made of gold plated platinum, encrusted with diamonds and sapphires.

Thanks for the link. I think I'm going to use Cable Universe for cables from now on. I don't think I will spending too much cash on overpriced cables from now on.

I am loving this HTPC stuff....and thanks for all of your suggestions and help.....

HDMI is digital. To say that you can tell the difference between one and another is like saying the prints are clearer from your printer if you use a more expensive printer cable.

Yes, expensive cables were worth it when you had a huge TV and were using a scart lead. But now it's all digital there's not really much point.

That's not strictly true. Any digital transmission medium is subject to data corruption; there are algorithms to correct such errors, but they may not always get things perfect. A degraded digital signal, because of a poor cable, could well lead to a degraded picture (i.e. one that does not correctly reflect the input).

If you want an extreme demonstration of this just look at a Freeview set where the aerial isn't up to the job.

Depends if the error correction fills in the gaps or if it asks for the data to be retransmitted.

You would need a seriously dodgy HDMI lead to see any problems. Digital will cope with voltage loss, in the case of TTL anything from 2V to VCC (often 5V) will be considered a binary one. 0 to 0.8V is considered a zero.

Edited by deleted (Sun 03-Jan-10 00:53:45)

Any HDMI cable exhibiting the sort of problems associated with a dodgy Freeview aerial (pixelation, loss of signal lock, loss of picture or audio) would be obviously faulty regardless of price. The point here is that there should be absolutely no difference in the bits being transmitted over a cheap vs. an expensive HDMI cable. Certainly none that would cause a pixel on your TV to exhibit a magically different (improved or degraded) shade of red that it didn't exhibit from the same source when using the other cable.

OK. I'm jealous. You've given me ideas! Wife won't be impressed when I start spending money on our new entertainment set-up!

In reply to a post by wellard1981:

Wife won't be impressed when I start spending money on our new entertainment set-up!

Mine didn't want us to get another TV, now that we have, she does see that the picture is better (full 1080P as opposed to 720P) than the old one.

Dude go for it....!

I have not looked at Sky since I added this mac mini HTPC to my setup on Christmas Eve. Since then I've bought a Yamaha RX-V765 AV Receiver and today came the Edge10 Edgestore DAS401 4 Bay enclosure that I've connected to my HP Mediasmart Server.....My movie and music collection has taken on a new life.

If you go for this setup with the Mac Mini, get the Logitech DiNovo Mini Keyboard, it is fantastic... I no longer want to leave the house! 1080p and 720p along with with Plex, BBC Iplayer, 4OD and a host of Internet Channels has got me going crazy!

Go for it...you won't regret it! Promise