(First of all, sorry this is long, I just don't know how to explain exactly what I want to do more briefly!)
I am trying to get as close to "cutting the Comcast-cable cable" as possible. I am sick of paying for Comcast TV, mainly for channels we don't watch.
That being said, I am a few aTV2s (jailbroken) with Plex installed and several channels streaming via Plex. Problem is, streaming can be choppy (follow me here!) as my 2008 macbook is hooked up to a airport extreme basestation in a separate room (1 level down) as an extended network (plugged in via ethernet cable, cat6) to my main wifi connection (and can pull 30 mb/s consistently) which is in my media center upstairs via another airport extreme where the modem, our tv, receiver, etc, are). Bottom line: brains of operation and media current stored downstairs on my mac/external hard drives, etc. and main TV, receiver, etc. where we watch the media is upstairs all connected over the same network.
As far as streaming itunes movies, its great. However, streaming plex channels, hulu, amazon, etc. can get choppy. I realize this may be due to my old macbook (dual 2.0 ghz processor and its age).
Here is my question. I am very impressed by the new mac minis. I am considering getting one and hard-wiring it to my main router upstairs and hopefully alleviating some of the choppiness with plex and streaming from the internet (I have a 30 mb/s connection). However, I would still like to be able to surf the web, listen to itunes, watch movies downstairs at my desk through an external monitor - hopefully directly from the mac mini.
Will it be possible with mountain lion and air mirroring to hook up a separate appleTV to my external monitor I have on my desk downstairs and mirror my macmini (now upstairs, hard-wired to the router) so I can use it to surf the web, etc. on my monitor downstairs, hooked up via HDMI to my external monitor and use either my magic mouse and wireless apple keyboard or a 2.4gz mouse/keyboard to surf the web and control the mac mini from downstairs via this set up? I realize it is kind of reverse air-mirroring from the mac mini to the external monitor via aTV downstairs, but it seems like it could solve a lot of problems with connectivity.
Otherwise, any other ideas to set up something similar?
I am trying to get as close to "cutting the Comcast-cable cable" as possible. I am sick of paying for Comcast TV, mainly for channels we don't watch.
That being said, I am a few aTV2s (jailbroken) with Plex installed and several channels streaming via Plex. Problem is, streaming can be choppy (follow me here!) as my 2008 macbook is hooked up to a airport extreme basestation in a separate room (1 level down) as an extended network (plugged in via ethernet cable, cat6) to my main wifi connection (and can pull 30 mb/s consistently) which is in my media center upstairs via another airport extreme where the modem, our tv, receiver, etc, are). Bottom line: brains of operation and media current stored downstairs on my mac/external hard drives, etc. and main TV, receiver, etc. where we watch the media is upstairs all connected over the same network.
As far as streaming itunes movies, its great. However, streaming plex channels, hulu, amazon, etc. can get choppy. I realize this may be due to my old macbook (dual 2.0 ghz processor and its age).
Here is my question. I am very impressed by the new mac minis. I am considering getting one and hard-wiring it to my main router upstairs and hopefully alleviating some of the choppiness with plex and streaming from the internet (I have a 30 mb/s connection). However, I would still like to be able to surf the web, listen to itunes, watch movies downstairs at my desk through an external monitor - hopefully directly from the mac mini.
Will it be possible with mountain lion and air mirroring to hook up a separate appleTV to my external monitor I have on my desk downstairs and mirror my macmini (now upstairs, hard-wired to the router) so I can use it to surf the web, etc. on my monitor downstairs, hooked up via HDMI to my external monitor and use either my magic mouse and wireless apple keyboard or a 2.4gz mouse/keyboard to surf the web and control the mac mini from downstairs via this set up? I realize it is kind of reverse air-mirroring from the mac mini to the external monitor via aTV downstairs, but it seems like it could solve a lot of problems with connectivity.
Otherwise, any other ideas to set up something similar?