Mac Mini: Media PC?
January 25th, 2005Within a day or so of the Mac mini being announced, people speculated that it would make a great media PC. It looks like someone is trying to get it going.
UPDATE: Engadget also has an article about using a Mac mini, but it’s a bit convoluted. (source: PVR Blog) o
First thing I thought of when I looked at it.
I’ve been spec-ing out a new media PC (previous one was built <$150 with random parts) for some time now. I love my current media PC, I just don’t have the horse power to capture HD TV. One thing is for sure, you can’t build a decent one for less than the Mini.
I can’t remember if I read it here or at gizmodo, but a classic restoration car company is attempting to install them into the dash of cars.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5539831.html
TV is the hardest part of a media PC…just look at the months of delay Meedio (.com) has faced getting out its DVR component. I have the sense that the Mac Mini media proponents looked at the form factor alone deemed it perfect for media, but it’s going to take a bit more than that to get it to work. I’d think a decently spec-ed media machine would need more GBs of drive space than current Mini models offer, although perhaps firewire drives could help there. (My own media PC has some 300 GBs, and it’s all but maxed out with media.) But maybe the next Mini generation will give us more options…
Hi, I’m a lurker, but I read your wife’s blog all the time…she’s hilarious. Anyway…since you seem to have a lot of knowledge about computers and the Mac world I was wondering if you could offer some help. I have a 20 GB iPod and I dropped it ONE time. About a week later it started acting really funny…it does not come on when the play button is pressed I have to ‘fiddle’ with the hold switch in order for it to come on. After it’s on it sometimes does not follow the commands when the white button is pressed and not only that, but if I try to put it on hold while it’s playing it shuts off, completely and then the cycle must begin again. Is all of this a result of the one drop, are they really that sensitive? I tried to contact apple, but their website is really no help. What’s your opinion on this? And have you heard about the irreplacable/18 month battery scandal? What’s up with that? One more thing…know where I can find a tutorial of some sort on uploading pictures from a Samsung phone to my computer?
Thanks a million.
I’ll check the comments again, or you can email.
courtney_glenn1@yahoo.com
While I am a fan of the new Mac Mini, and I’ve been hoping Apple would release something like this for ages, the Mac Mini is an awful platform for HTPC. A HTPC that can’t record tv shows is just a computer plugged into a TV… My Shuttle can do that and it’s a bit more versatile then the Mini.
That being said I’ve been waiting for Apple to release a Mac that I would actually buy because, let’s face it, to me a $1500 mac would be just a toy. A $500 toy is a lot easier to swallow.
Oh yeah, Courtney, chances are dropping your iPOD hosed it.
As for the battery replacement fiasco, it’s not as big a deal as people make it out to be. Only 1st, and maybe 2nd, gen units have the issue and for $30 you can replace the battery yourself.
http://www.ipodbattery.com/
Is this new mini-Mac the sort of aparatus that would work as a home recording studio? Or is it mainly for storage of MP3’s etc?
At the moment, I disagree with the media PC option for the mini. The iPod was released with iTunes already in place, and my guess would be that the mini, were it Apple’s intent to make it a media device, would have also been released with iTV (or whatever you want to call it). This wont stop other people from writing such software, fortunately.
Another problem, at least with the current incarnation of the mini is the drive. As mentioned above the drive is small, but it is also slow (they use laptop drives in the mini instead of standard 3.5″ beasties).
None of this useless babbling I just made will stop me from wanting one in the end.
“(they use laptop drives in the mini instead of standard 3.5″ beasties).”
OOOOOOhhhh. I retract my previous statement, I did not know that.
lkjasld
Sorry about the jibberish above. I tried to post a comment the other day and got sent to a webpage explaining I had been shut down due to open relay abuse. I forgot to bookmark the page so I could forward it to my lovely nerd husband so he could fix it. Long story long I thought I would be rerouted again and alas I posted jibbersh. Sorry.
That’s the first thing my husband thought of, too - we have a home theater PC at home, and he’s now all geeked about the idea of a Mac version (though ours is Linux - he’s a Suse guy)
God, Zack (sorry for the double comments) - we’re going out of my realm here, but my hubby built our HTPC for something around $1500. Would have LOVED to have known it could have been done for less (every part he bought, I was like, “It costs WHAT?”).
Perhaps I misled you, it was $150 of new costs. Most of the machine was built from a collective effort between two of my desktops. Form factor case (which isn’t the best, it looks like a shitty vcr) and addtional hard drive space was all I had to buy.
What about sticking a giant FireWire drive on a mini?
The drive could handle the video, and you’d still have the sweet OS. That would still be cheaper than a Media PC from any of the majors.
speechless (well almost)!
one word, one excalmation mark - awesome!
i’d love a jab at that - but my skills as a programmer suck at the best of times. D’you think they’ll need someone to make the brews?
but…but…if you stuck a big ol firewire drive on the mini, YOU WOULD DOUBLE THE SIZE!!!! And you wouldn’t want to hug it any more!
Well a few days before it came out there were leaked photos of the iHome, I could tell they were fake but fell for the idea and was sure that the new cheap Mac would be a media center device anyway. About a year ago there was also a computer called a Pal that a bunch of sites were sure was going to come out, like there were already boxes of them at the Apple stores sure, and it never ended up coming out. There is always the rumored Apple tablet that isn’t really just a tablet PC it is way more that Apple is holding back, just waiting for the right moment to release.
Anyone here used SAMBA between an OS X machine and a Windows 98 machine? If so, do you have a link with CLEAR instructions on how to do it? I want to use my Win98 machine as my file server as I have a ton of disk on it.
I don’t know exactly what connectors you need for the computer to grab tv. I’m guessing eyeTV does it. http://www.macintoshdigitalhub.com/reviews/eyetv/
LaCie has these 250 gig Porsche drives http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10384
They should be fast enough - 5400 is enough but 7200 is preferred to capture digital video.
Mike: I’ve got an article here
http://stubbornlikeamule.net/index.php?p=45
on how to do the samba windows mac printing thing.
To connect to a pc from the mac using samba just go to the go menu and choose connect to server you can either hit browse and select that way or type in the smb address ie.
smb://mr-kool.mshome.net (where the name of the computer I want to connect to is ‘mr-kool’ and our home network is mshome.net, which is pretty standard.)
http://www.macwindows.com/panther.html has heaps of stuff on smb that I found helpful.
mmm mac mini
Off topic, for which I apologize, but we wub you too, Jon. And Leta. And Chuck. Etc.
ahhh….both you and your wife wrote stories with morals today.
What scrupulous people you guys are.
Awesome pics - so funny.
Just got a chance to fondle the mini today…yum. Small hot box. The porsche drives are a darker pretty. Together both still be small, chill deskpace beautifiers…
Of course only iffn you already own display and etcs. Otherwise buy iMac.
It is cold in new york btw. Very Very cold…