Mac HTPC - The Mac Mini HTPC » General

VIDEO_TS playback for Front Row

B.Greenway — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 15:23:16 +0000

I ran across an interesting post over at AVS Forum, “Squished Squirre” has written up a script he calls “DVD Assist” that’s said to “allow Front Row to seamlessly play VIDEO_TS folders from inside of Front Row”

This is a little Applescript applet I put together to allow Front Row to seemlessly play VIDEO_TS folders from inside of Front Row. Please read the docs that come with it.

There is still a lot more that can be done, but I think this fleshes out the idea pretty well.

I don’t have a good place to host this, so I’ll put it on rapidshare.de to start with.

Version 1.3.1: Download Here

Hopefully no one will have problems figuring out how to download from rapidshare. Scroll down the page, and click the “free” button. Then you have to wait a few seconds and then you can click the download link.

Let me know what you think of this, and what improvements could be made.

My system is in a bit of a shambles at the moment due to some new additions, so I can’t test this one out just yet. If any of you folks happen to try this please share your impressions with us.

B.Greenway

Ugly quotes

B.Greenway — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 21:18:32 +0000

I realize this story has been on-going for years now but every time I see Apple attributed as saying “bloggers aren’t journalist” I cringe a bit. It popped up again today in a ZDnet Asia story about Apple’s on-going litigation, against news sites leaking confidential information.

Reading quotes from Apple’s attorneys like “bloggers aren’t legitimate members of the press” makes me wonder, isn’t this a company deeply rooted in making technology more accessible to the masses? And if so isn’t it a bit ironic that blogging arose from the very same concept.

It seems to me corporate espionage is the problem, not blogging.

B.Greenway

Hey there Mr. Intel inside

B.Greenway — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 20:11:46 +0000

Over a year ago we first started drooling over the Mac mini and its possibilities as a dedicated HTPC. Well guess what, today Apple announced “The new Mac mini”. Some notable additions to the new mini are: 1.5GHz or 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo processor, Apple Remote with Front Row, Up to 2GB of memory, Intel GMA950 graphics processor, up to a 120GB hard drive and at long last a digital optical out!

This update to our little friend pushes us even closer to the holy grail (according to Apple) of “1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster for 720p HD playback” but unfortunately the new mini does fall a little short, coming in at 1.66GHz for the faster model. I suppose its possible that Quicktime 7 could be further tweaked to make up for this seemingly small difference of .17ghz, but Apple clearly states 1.83ghz or faster for QT7 HD playback. Who knows though maybe 1.66 is enough, if only I had a review unit!

B.Greenway

New minis?

B.Greenway — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 00:36:22 +0000

Think Secret is reporting that new mini model numbers have been spotted with prices coming in at $499, $599, and $699. The post doesn’t mention any other details, but I would tend to agree with the author that at $699.00 we shouldn’t expect anything “new” this will probably be a deluxe mini of sorts with higher base memory configuration and SuperDrive standard. But as always never underestimate Apple’s ability to sneak in a surprise or two, possibly even a small boost in processor speed.

B.Greenway

Apple eyes Hollywood, this could be what we’ve waited for

B.Greenway — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 19:15:13 +0000

If this Cult of Mac article by Leander Kahney pans out to be true, partially true or just in the neighborhood, Apple and our living rooms may be in for a whirlwind romance. Mr. Kahney puts forth the best argument I’ve read to date, on why Apple would be considering a switch to Intel processors. I’ve gone from highly skeptical to guarded optimism on this whole story in the last 48 hours, and the plausibility of this article in general in largely responsible.

Go ahead and read the article in full as the author in my mind at least, has his ducks in a row. Without going into unnecessary detail this all may boil down to Hollywood, movies and digital rights management. He also provides plausible ways the OSX on 486 architecture dilemma could be solved. Great read considering we’re less than 24 hours away from the (possible) announcement.

B.Greenway

I think I have a new favorite site

B.Greenway — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 23:23:08 +0000

Ok, this guy is just kidding around, he must be. Check out a few ‘notable’ quotes from this ‘article’, geesh this isn’t even an article it’s a thesis for a degree in comedy.

“When I consider that a good deal of my time is spent running applications like Disk Defragmenter, Scandisk, Norton AV, Windows Update and Ad-Aware–none of which are available for the Mac platform–it doesn’t make sense for me to “switch” to a Mac at this time. “

“There is no Mac version of WeatherBug to check the temperature anywhere in the world”

“Poor standards compliance: Apple’s Safari web browser often fails to render MSN properly.”

“The Mini boots up into a stripped-down operating system which Apple calls OS X, similar to the stripped-down WindowsCE OS found on many handhelds. “

Ok it was right then I KNEW this guy was goofing, no one could be this uninformed…. Wait, I just read the ‘linux for grandma’ post, yep it’s a spoof site, and the disclaimer at the bottom of the page proves it. haha I was had.

Waiting on my mini, researching beats re-runs

B.Greenway — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 00:51:55 +0000

I’ve twiddled my thumbs raw waiting on my Mini and it’s driving me nuts. I’ve got network drives in place, every accessory (I can think of) that I might need, and still no Mini to use them with. I’ve decided a worthy pass time until ‘on or before 2/15/05’ might be to take a look around the web and see what kind of Mac Media software projects were underway.

After all initially at least, it’s all about the software, and if what I’ve found so far is any indication, the Mac mini will not disappoint those in search of simple media management, be it digital music or DVD. One of the more prominent projects right now has to be the Mac Media Center, whose mission is to “turn the Mac mini into a Mac Media Center”. One contributor to the project who goes by ‘MightyDave’ recently showcased some proposed graphic deisgns for the project, and one element in particular caught my eye. The jacket art and DVD covers in particular were very appealing to the eye, his source for a three dimensional CD cover is actually available now from Optical Alchemy as an iTunes plug-in.

Another front-end rather ‘media management system’ with some extremely polished graphics is Delicious Library from Delicious Monster, weird names but cool software. Delicious Library has the ability to read bar codes from your DVD’s, CD’s and Books and then import the cover art and product information. If this GUI could be incorporated as a means to launch the DVD or CD without leaving the interface, it would make a great looking front end. I gave the faq a quick glance, but didn’t get any real concrete info on how such ‘launch’ integration is accomplished, I think Jonathan has been experimenting with Delicious Library a little, maybe he could fill us in.

B.Greenway

Mac Mini upgrades, price drop

B.Greenway — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 23:51:19 +0000

Remember when I said ‘stop procrastinating’ if you were planning on ordering a Mini? Well Kudos to you if you ignored me, sort of. Apple recently cut the prices on Mini upgrades, making the Mac mini an even more attractive package than before. The Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme combo option now goes for $99 ($129 before), the 1GB DDR333 SDRAM upgrade is now $325 ($475 before, this one bit the most), the 80GB ultra ATA hard drive upgrade now goes for $50 ($80 before) and last but not least the ‘Superdrive’ option now includes a 8x drive instead of the prior 4x model, the price however remains the same.

Now these upgrades from apple are starting to make a lot more sense, previous ‘suggestions’ of frugality when up-grading, are withdrawn.

B.Greenway

The long grueling wait

B.Greenway — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 22:08:43 +0000

Oh the waiting, is it “On or before February 15th” yet? I just wanted to point out a few things to those of you considering a Mac mini. (1) If your relativity sure you’re going to purchase one, stop procrastinating. The Mini’s that were sold right after the keynote are already gone, my order placed just four days later, may ship as late as February 15th, given the popularity of the Mini these long delays aren’t likely to subside until the spring. With Target and other retailers on board and ‘stock’ Mini’s likely being produced by quota rather than pre-ordering, the quickest way to get yours might be to go for the vanilla off the shelf version’s.

(2) If you’re debating on whether you want to add additional memory and get yours through the Apple store, keep in mind that if you’re halfway competent with up-grading PC’s, you can likely save some time and money by getting a ‘stock’ model and upgrading the memory yourself.

(3) Bluetooth, D-Link makes a USB 2.0/Bluetooth adaptor for under $50.00, again possibly saving you from waiting on an upgraded Mini. (4) The internal Airport Extreme card, this ones a little harder to recommend skipping, if your intent on your Mini having wireless abilities. As for myself my Mini will go into our ‘entertainment’ area and I have a hardwired LAN connection ready and waiting for it. But if you think your Mini might need wireless capabilities the Airport card from Apple does make a lot of sense, after all how many attachments do you want hanging out the back of this thing anyway?

Now don’t take any of my thoughts here negatively towards the Apple store, if you can hold out, and haven’t found another viable avenue to purchase yours, by all means go with the Apple store, these comments are mainly targeted to the impatient set, of which I am a card carrying member.

B.Greenway

Mac memory from Crucial.com

What can Apple learn from Voom’s failure?

B.Greenway — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 00:11:27 +0000

As some of you may know I have been enjoying Voom’s Satellite service for almost seven months now. It was/is hands down the best satellite service I’ve seen, and working in the custom audio/video field I’ve seen them all. But with Voom selling off their assets to Echostar and ultimately closing shop, what does this mean for ‘ahead of their time’ tech services? Voom obviously had bandwidth in the sky well before enough HDTV owners wanted that bandwidth in their living rooms. How can this be with some 6 million hi-def sets sold last holiday season alone? Simple, retailers have a long history of pushing product without fully explaining how to get the most out of that product. Specifically you actually need to subscribe to either HDTV cable or satellite if you want to get the most out of your new HDTV, crazy concept.

What does all of this have to do with Apple? The long rumored and just as often denied ‘Apple Media Center’. Apple has been smart to (so far at least) stay out of the living room, but that may change soon. Sure Apple could have introduced a Media Center/DVR months or years ago, but with TiVo (at the time) still the king of the hill and HTPC’s still struggling to shed their image as a DIY hobbyist ‘toys’, the timing just wasn’t right. But will that time ever come for Apple? That’s a question I’m still trying to work out for myself. One could argue with the Satellite world going through its MPEG-4 transition and only a handful of hi-def cable boxes actually having active FireWire outputs, now wouldn’t be the time. And Apple has already indicated a reluctance to enter the living room, taking a ‘people want passive entertainment’ stance.

On the other side of the coin however, with the success of iTunes, TiVo and broadband cable TV, you could argue that there has never been a better time. A company like Apple could obviously design and engineer an excellent home media center device, but would enough buyers get on board to make it worth their while? I guess to coin an Apple term “It would need a killer app”. Consumers would have to see value in such a product, especially if they felt they could get it elsewhere, from cheaper more readily available PC based sources. This is pretty much where Voom faltered. Yes they offered more HD satellite than any other provider, but in the end there were other sources that offered much of that same programming, and to a more established customer base to boot.

I can’t say what that ‘Killer App’ would be for consumers’ at large, maybe net-workable PVR functions. But just keeping windows and its malware nuisances out of my living room, would be all I needed to embrace an Apple home entertainment solution. My living room is the one place on earth I know that 99.9% of the time I can relax and unwind. I don’t want to be in there cleaning out cookies and scanning for the source of never ending pop-up ads. How about you? What single function or application could Apple offer to your home entertainment that would be impossible to resist?

B.Greenway

Always – Free ground shipping with orders over $50 at the Apple Store.