I think you’re missing the point there. If the external drive has the media on it fr Plex, then depending on your needs / risk appetite then running a RAID config may be a good idea. For example I run a RAID0 pair of HDDs for the media drive enclosure to give it some performance boost. Yes I know this increases the risk of failure, but then I have two separate backups of it. By “both versions” I assume you’re referring to RAID 1 mirroring or some other configuration. RAID provides operational resilience for a volume of a hardware failure and/or performance gains, it is not a backup strategy.
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IS A 100% Apple Media Center Possible?
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I think you’re missing the point there. If the external drive has the media on it fr Plex, then depending on your needs / risk appetite then running a RAID config may be a good idea. For example I run a RAID0 pair of HDDs for the media drive enclosure to give it some performance boost. Yes I know this increases the risk of failure, but then I have two separate backups of it. By “both versions” I assume you’re referring to RAID 1 mirroring or some other configuration. RAID provides operational resilience for a volume of a hardware failure and/or performance gains, it is not a backup strategy.
I run a Plex Server on my Mac Mini, and access it using the Plex app on my AppleTV. Works great. I even have an HDHomeRun 4K networked TV tuner that Plex can act as a DVR for (or even tune in to the TV tuner, although Plex can't decode the new ATSC3 4K signal properly - it can't decode the audio since it's proprietary and Plex doesn't have a license; but the HDHomeRun AppleTV app works fine; I just can't DVR the ATSC3 signal. Which isn't a loss right now anyway since all ATSC3 broadcasts in my area are exact retransmissions of the ATSC1 720p or 1080i signal, at 720p or 1080i. Hopefully Plex adds support by the time broadcasters actually start using the full 4K capabilities of ATSC3.)
for a decade I stayed in the apple circle. no matter what mac I had, I spent $$$ on external drives and hung an owc thunder bay off whatever mac, pushed movies/tv-shows/music through apple apps and iTunes match for the music. apple tv on all tv's in the house, and that was that. nice in the house but zero access to years of personal media remotely.
that's over. I bought a NAS, Synology ds920+, basically, the same cost as a new thunder bay, loaded it with drives, sold my 2 thunder bay, and now use PLEX to drive 100% of my house AND get the benefit of all my stuff on demand remotely via Plex app on iPhone and iPad. 3 months now, zero glitches. I'll never leave mac as a computer, but they want you buying from iTunes and having them keep the media. new 4k apple tv's work great with Plex and I don't have to spend hours searching for metadata b/c of my ocd with that
, plex does that for me. drag/drop and I am done.
that's over. I bought a NAS, Synology ds920+, basically, the same cost as a new thunder bay, loaded it with drives, sold my 2 thunder bay, and now use PLEX to drive 100% of my house AND get the benefit of all my stuff on demand remotely via Plex app on iPhone and iPad. 3 months now, zero glitches. I'll never leave mac as a computer, but they want you buying from iTunes and having them keep the media. new 4k apple tv's work great with Plex and I don't have to spend hours searching for metadata b/c of my ocd with that
, plex does that for me. drag/drop and I am done.Have you tried the Channels App for recording ATSC 3.0? I believe that will do it. We don’t have ATSC 3.0 in our area yet, but I do have the ATSC 3.0 HD Homerun tuners for when it comes.
I use the Channels App and Plex. Plex for movies and Channels App for recording OTA TV and TVE shows.
If Plex doesn't add ATSC3 (or more specifically the Dolby audio support) by the time there's an improvement over the ATSC1 broadcasts, I'll look in to it; but Plex runs locally, and doesn't have a monthly cost.
I’ve been using something similar for a long time. Currently a 2018 Mac Mini sits under the TV, a 65” Sony Smart one. A surrond sound amp takes an optical digital feed off the back of the TV. The Mac Mini HDMI does video and sound out in the one cable, very handy, the previous one didn’t. A Drobo with 5 x 14tb is a big bucket for all our video assets and other material, hangs off a USB port. All is controled with a Harmony remote, which is great. Remote Buddy on the Mac helps a bit too.
Most of the time I just press a button on the remote, it switches everything on, and Remote Buddy fires up Plex and away we go watching whatever we have stored on the Drobo. Works well! I find Plex great as it curates movies, tv shows, etc; remembering where you are in a particular programme if you switch off before the end of the episode, etc.
Another option is to ‘Watch TV’. Again the Harmony remote is programmed with a different button / command to switch everything on, but finish in the smart tv interface on the tv itself. Here we mostly go to the BBC iPlayer and watch something there, we really never do watch ‘live tv’ as there isn't a ‘pause‘ button! I find it best to think of the Smart Tv as a big iPad rather than a conventional display of a live stream from somewhere.
We do have a Plex player client app on the Sony, so selecting this will access all of our Plex library from the Sony menu.
This doesn’t work all the time, so we tend to use the Plex client directly from the Mac Mini. which is running the Plex server too. This can also be viewed from any Plex client on any device in the house.
I’ve used EyeTV satellite tuner for a long time too. I mostly use it to record TV programmes for later viewing on Plex. It can record 2 satellite streams at once. With streaming and the like this is beommig less and less necessary over time.
I can use the Mac Mini as a ‘huge computer’. I have a BT keyboard and trackpad nearby (joined together, so can be used on your lap) but I tend not to use it much this way. I mainly do Mac Mini housekeeping using the iOS App ‘Screens’ on all of my iPads and iPhones so I can remote control the Mac very easily from anywhere, even away from home.
The Harmony remote is key really. Once setup anyone in the house can get the TV / Mac Mini / Suround Sound / Plex up and running in one keypress. Same with one keypress (the other one!) and start watching BBC iPlayer on the big screen with pause / play on the one remote. All very good for me and the family.
Photos for me is different. I tend to just use Apple’s cloud and share photos in albums, etc if necessary directly to other people to their phones/computers.
Sounds: the same, I‘ll use Airplay to share sound in a few rooms if necessary, parties, etc.
There is a screen mirroring app on the Sony TV so we can ‘cast’ photos to that if we want to view them collectively, they do look good on a big screen 😎. Visitors can easily cast their photos too.
We’ve even cast Zoom meetings to the big tv from an iPad. A good way for a few people to watch an evening Zoom presentation together on comfy seats. Almost like extremely local tv I guess!
Hope some of that helps.
PS … Remote Buddy will let you control a number of Apple Apps on the Mac Mini, Photos, Sound, Books, etc with the Harmony remote (Apple Remote too if you have one) I’ve not tried this myself, but may be what you are looking for?
Most of the time I just press a button on the remote, it switches everything on, and Remote Buddy fires up Plex and away we go watching whatever we have stored on the Drobo. Works well! I find Plex great as it curates movies, tv shows, etc; remembering where you are in a particular programme if you switch off before the end of the episode, etc.
Another option is to ‘Watch TV’. Again the Harmony remote is programmed with a different button / command to switch everything on, but finish in the smart tv interface on the tv itself. Here we mostly go to the BBC iPlayer and watch something there, we really never do watch ‘live tv’ as there isn't a ‘pause‘ button! I find it best to think of the Smart Tv as a big iPad rather than a conventional display of a live stream from somewhere.
We do have a Plex player client app on the Sony, so selecting this will access all of our Plex library from the Sony menu.
This doesn’t work all the time, so we tend to use the Plex client directly from the Mac Mini. which is running the Plex server too. This can also be viewed from any Plex client on any device in the house.
I’ve used EyeTV satellite tuner for a long time too. I mostly use it to record TV programmes for later viewing on Plex. It can record 2 satellite streams at once. With streaming and the like this is beommig less and less necessary over time.
I can use the Mac Mini as a ‘huge computer’. I have a BT keyboard and trackpad nearby (joined together, so can be used on your lap) but I tend not to use it much this way. I mainly do Mac Mini housekeeping using the iOS App ‘Screens’ on all of my iPads and iPhones so I can remote control the Mac very easily from anywhere, even away from home.
The Harmony remote is key really. Once setup anyone in the house can get the TV / Mac Mini / Suround Sound / Plex up and running in one keypress. Same with one keypress (the other one!) and start watching BBC iPlayer on the big screen with pause / play on the one remote. All very good for me and the family.
Photos for me is different. I tend to just use Apple’s cloud and share photos in albums, etc if necessary directly to other people to their phones/computers.
Sounds: the same, I‘ll use Airplay to share sound in a few rooms if necessary, parties, etc.
There is a screen mirroring app on the Sony TV so we can ‘cast’ photos to that if we want to view them collectively, they do look good on a big screen 😎. Visitors can easily cast their photos too.
We’ve even cast Zoom meetings to the big tv from an iPad. A good way for a few people to watch an evening Zoom presentation together on comfy seats. Almost like extremely local tv I guess!
Hope some of that helps.
PS … Remote Buddy will let you control a number of Apple Apps on the Mac Mini, Photos, Sound, Books, etc with the Harmony remote (Apple Remote too if you have one) I’ve not tried this myself, but may be what you are looking for?
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I don't think this would have to be the latest and greatest Mini, either. If it was me I'd find the oldest used one that would still work, plug in external storage (and a backup drive) as necessary, put it near my router and run ethernet straight to it.
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I am actually in the same boat. I attempted to do this with an old Mac Mini, BUT, the challenge was I had maxed out the number of Home Sharing authorizations associated with my primary account (the limit is 5). In order to access the media files on the ATV, the Mini would need to be Authorized for home-sharing. So, I was stuck as I'd have to kick someone off of the home share. I'm in process of looking at a NAS solution as well, but the NAS servers look a little more complicated. In the meanwhile, my current Macbook is the storage solution, but I'm quickly running out of space and have resorted to tethering an external HDD.