I picked up a 2006 2.16 GHz Core2 Duo white iMac that needs a hard drive. Once I get it up and running I'm thinking of using it to store Blu-ray and DVD backups and play them on the TV. Its quiet and there's a good spot in the living room where it can act as a movie repository and occasionally be used for web access, etc.
Whether or not I can successfully use it to play video on the TV is going to determine what kind of drive it gets. If this idea is going to work it will probably be a 2+ TB WD Caviar Black. If it doesn't sound like a good option then it will probably get a small SSD and just be used for other tasks. I don't want to remove the optical drive to install both a SSD and a standard hard drive. I want to figure out what I'll be able to do with the iMac before I take it apart to install whichever kind of drive it will be getting - and I want to avoid swapping the drives later.
I'm thinking I have two options -
1) connect the iMac to the TV using a mini-DVI to DVI adapter then a DVI to HDMI adapter. Connect the audio using an 8mm to left/right unbalanced audio plugs (red/white) adapter either directly to the TV or use one of those adapters that will accept DVI and audio and pass it over HDMI
2) stream content (Airport Extreme or ethernet) to my 3rd generation Apple TV (or possibly my TV or Blu-ray player, need to see what they can do)
I normally use MakeMKV on my PC to backup the movies. They'd be moved to the iMac over time using an external FW800 drive. I'd prefer to leave the .mkv files as-is and not have to do any conversions/compression. Only some will be on the iMac at a given time so hard drive space is not a big issue.
It seems like #1 is the easier options. I'd like to just be able to extend my desktop and play the movie.
Is there a reason that won't work? Am I going to lose audio quality by just using the iMac's stereo audio out? If so is there a way around that?
Thanks.
Whether or not I can successfully use it to play video on the TV is going to determine what kind of drive it gets. If this idea is going to work it will probably be a 2+ TB WD Caviar Black. If it doesn't sound like a good option then it will probably get a small SSD and just be used for other tasks. I don't want to remove the optical drive to install both a SSD and a standard hard drive. I want to figure out what I'll be able to do with the iMac before I take it apart to install whichever kind of drive it will be getting - and I want to avoid swapping the drives later.
I'm thinking I have two options -
1) connect the iMac to the TV using a mini-DVI to DVI adapter then a DVI to HDMI adapter. Connect the audio using an 8mm to left/right unbalanced audio plugs (red/white) adapter either directly to the TV or use one of those adapters that will accept DVI and audio and pass it over HDMI
2) stream content (Airport Extreme or ethernet) to my 3rd generation Apple TV (or possibly my TV or Blu-ray player, need to see what they can do)
I normally use MakeMKV on my PC to backup the movies. They'd be moved to the iMac over time using an external FW800 drive. I'd prefer to leave the .mkv files as-is and not have to do any conversions/compression. Only some will be on the iMac at a given time so hard drive space is not a big issue.
It seems like #1 is the easier options. I'd like to just be able to extend my desktop and play the movie.
Is there a reason that won't work? Am I going to lose audio quality by just using the iMac's stereo audio out? If so is there a way around that?
Thanks.