As I mentioned yesterday, I went out and picked up a Mac mini at a local store instead of waiting on my BTO order from Apple. My configuration is based on the faster 1.4GHz model with 512MB RAM, SuperDrive and Bluetooth. I may upgrade to Airport Extreme in the future and adjust the RAM as well someday, but based on my initial set-up, everything is just fine and works quite well for the intended MacHTPC purpose. I am using the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse and they are happily paired having connected immediately as the machine started up.

In addition to the base system, I picked up a Keyspan Digital Media Remote as well as the M-AUDIO Sonica Theater. I am currently using the Apple DVI to Video adapter which connects to either component or S-Video on your TV. I have a DVI to Composite adapter on order but it won’t arrive for a few more days and there was no way I was taking the thing home without a way to connect!

Hooking it up

Opening the mini is a very cool experience. I was moving quickly (I was too excited) and did not take any unboxing images, but as an owner of 4 iPods since they were released, it’s clear the same box design team was involved. The mini, as has been widely discussed online is really amazingly small. Holding it in your hand, you realize how solid and well designed it is. The power block is much larger than I expected actually, though not an issue as it will be concealed in most setups, but you definitely don’t want this thing on your desk or in sight.

I immediately got down to business pulling all my cables together and planning the exact way I wanted it all to connect physically in my theater. The mini sits beneath my TV (Toshiba 34″ Flat-CRT HDTV) and on a shelf just above my networking equipment. I’ve got an easy reach left to my Denon AVR-3300 Surround Receiver and have the Sonica sitting just below. I’ve disconnected my Denon DVD player and for the moment am only using the mini for disc and hd playback of media.

I’ve moved 2 LaCie Hard Drives (120GB and 200GB) and connected them through a Belkin FireWire 6-Port Hub which is using the single Firewire 400 port. My Sonica takes up one of the USB ports and the Keyspan is sitting in the other. I also have a XIMETA 250 GB NetDisk connected on my LAN, among other devices…

Some nice extras

Once it was all connected, I powered up via the small power button on the rear panel just above the power connector. I was able to pair my mouse and keyboard, register with Apple and begin using the system as though it was any computer connected in my living room. I downloaded and installed the Keyspan and Sonica drivers and got things working right away.

I did run into one glitch with the Sonica when it had the SRS Surround option checked, which I think is on by default when you choose 5.1. When active, I had distortion and limited volume from the speakers that were active and no sub-woofer. As soon as I disabled SRS, crystal clear pass-through became enabled. The Sonica uses a digital coax connection — be sure you have the cable if you are thinking of making a purchase. It can also be used to directly control a set of speakers if you like without a pre-amp. In my case I really just needed a digital transport from the Mac mini.

The Keyspan is both a very simple and incredibly powerful remote. I did not know much about it before I made my virtually spur of the moment acquisition, and I am very pleasantly surprised. You can immediately control applications like iTunes, DVD Player and even move the mouse in the Finder (up, down, left and right) to control a wide array of system and application options. I have yet to really have a chance to customize anything, but you can do considerably more with the 17 buttons. My plan is to eventually program the remote’s functions into my Harmony 688 Remote. One of the greatest flexibilities of the Keyspan is that I’ll be able to enable applescripts to automate some functions in the same manner a Home Theater remote like the Harmony can control multiple devices per action. (One remote keeps the wife happy.)

Playing DVDs

Once everything was working I had to concede my desire to tweak and allow our first request for the DVD player. If you have children perhaps you’ll understand, but I did not wish for the first DVD to be Sing and Dance with Barney. I have a 14 month old daughter and it was needed to make it the rest of the afternoon without a meltdown. Crisis averted – score one for the mini! The DVD did look quite nice as annoying as the content might be to adults and the soundtrack was well appreciated by my daughter, though she has also been distracted by an MP4 playing on my Treo.

Rocking out!

Since my previous music collection was stored on our home iMac, I just copied the iTunes Music Library file from the old location to the new one ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes 4 Music Library. My drives were connected the same way but to a new machine and everything just worked. I added my .Mac ID to the new system and I can play the purchased tracks from ITMS as well as buy more if desired without issue on my systems or my iPod. I can seriously hear the difference in the same tracks I’ve listened to many times hooked up through my Eyehome and my SliMP3, both which will most likely be retired for music purposes now that I can handle it all from the Mac directly with a digital out. The SliMP3 still does have the advantage of being able to be controlled without the TV, but I’ve already found ways to do this on the Mac as well.

Some Caveats

Hate to do it, but I actually have one pretty negative thing to say about the Mac mini. The video conversion from DVI to S-Video sucks for text – period. There is no way to read anything at a high resolutionunless you go down to about 800×600 which makes it tolerable. I found it seriously impossible to browse the web or read information from iTunes or the Finder at higher levels. I am hopeful that the upgrade to Component Video will give me a boost. The playback of visuals in iTunes and Video files whether in VLC, Quicktime or Apple’s DVD player are all excellent. This is text only. I actually have yet to test photos, but I am sure they are fine as the rest of the visual content has been. Otherwise, there are no issues you can expect other than basic cable management which is no easy feat – with our without children (or a wife!). I found a good discussion of the various video connection types which might help you decide which way to go based on what you have available.

Beyond the Basics

So obviously what I’ve described can be done on most if not all recent systems, though perhaps without some of the elegance and especially if you use that computer for other purposes. My plan is to focus the mini on HTPC applications as purely as I can with the occasional trip to the web for good measure and for software updates as required.

In order to make things nicer I’ve added a few applications we have discussed previously on the site as well as least one new one – for now.

• SwitchRes is a great way to customize display controls for your TV or Screen. Depending on what you are driving this may or may not be necessary to optimize your image.
• VLC is a fantastic media player capable of handling almost anything you can throw it’s way and will help you greatly if you have a variety of video files you’ve downloaded. QuickTime can play quite a few types, but in many cases I’ve found the playback to be superior in VLC.
• Matinee as discussed in Bryan’s previous post can see your Video_TS files if you’ve been backing up your DVD collection. I really like the simplicity in this application. It’s a floating window, that has a drop down menu listing each DVD you have on hand. You just pick the one you want and Matinee launches the Apple DVD player – even in full-screen if you’ve set it that way in the DVD player preferences.
• Quicksilver – While not a Home Theater application, I’ve found the keyboard access to be indisensible on my other Macs and wanted it here as well for the times when I’ll need to use the keyboard.

That about sums up my initial usage and configuration. I have much more I want to do including:

• Connect an EyeTV 200 (just received for testing)
• Vast categorization of content I’ve been hoarding on my network to better enable access via the mini
• Programming of my Keyspan remote to more finely control operations
• Continued archival of video from DVD
• Discover and test early stage designs and controls for a unified Mac media center (there are quite a few projects happening around

– Jonathan Greene

Have you ordered your Mac mini yet?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 1st, 2005 at 2:10 pm and is filed under HTPC, Mac Mini. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.