Mac mini for HTPC. What setup?

[Mcdevidr]

2012 with Yosemite. Running as an htpc great. It's the base model. I put a 4gb ram stick in so it has 6Gb ram. I needed the extra bit of ram because of crashplan. I leave the thing on 24-7 hasn't had any issues since turning off the energy savings settings. I run plex server it serves three devices easily. I run plex home theatre for use on the tv.

 

[DaveN]

I Picked up a refurbished mini last week and have Rowmote pro. I'm running into a problem where anytime the mini wakes from sleep it starts looking for a Bluetooth keyboard if I don't have a keyboard plugged in. I'm running Yosemite if that makes a difference. Anyone know a fix? TIA

 

[talmy]

I Picked up a refurbished mini last week and have Rowmote pro. I'm running into a problem where anytime the mini wakes from sleep it starts looking for a Bluetooth keyboard if I don't have a keyboard plugged in. I'm running Yosemite if that makes a difference. Anyone know a fix? TIA

System Preferences => Bluetooth => Turn Bluetooth Off.

If you want to keep Bluetooth on, click on Advanced and uncheck the options.

 

[DaveN]

System Preferences => Bluetooth => Turn Bluetooth Off.

If you want to keep Bluetooth on, click on Advanced and uncheck the options.

Doh! Thanks.

Edit: Just turning off Bluetooth did not do the trick. I also had to turn off the search for keyboard and search for mouse options in the Advanced options. For good measure, I also turned off the bluetooth wake option.

 

[HelplessMoose]

I'm a little late to the party, but I just ordered this cable from Monoprice that I'm told will combine 5.1 audio and video from my early 2009 Mac Mini into a single HDMI source.

I'm running Plex media server off my newer quad-core 2012 Mini (in home office) that's mostly left on while we're at home. The plan is for the 2009 Mini to just act as the Plex Home Theater client hooked direct to the receiver/TV downstairs. For some reason when I tried playing a 720p movie (6 GB, approx) saved locally on the 2009 Mini it produced a very very slight stutter on some scenes. But when streaming from the 2012 Mini running Plex server to the downstairs 2009 Mini running Plex client it's silky smooth with no stuttering. The 2009 Mini is 2.0 ghz with 4 GB RAM and stock 5400 RPM drive, so I'm surprised it had problems with the 720p video file. Maybe I had something mis-configured. Both Mini's are running 10.10 Yosemite

Has anyone had any issues with configuring underscan/overscan in OSX to get their Mini's to fit a TV screen? My temp setup to test the 2009 Mini was mini Displayport to DVI, then DVI to HDMI. This produced an picture on my TV that did not fill the entire screen, and my only option in the Display settings menu was a single "Overscan" checkbox. If I check that box then the screen slightly over-fills and I lose maybe 100 pixels on each edge.

Does everyone else (connected to a TV) see/use the "Underscan" slider in the OSX Display settings? I'm hoping the only reason it didn't appear for me was due to the connection I was using, and hopefully the Monoprice cable will give me the ability to stretch/shrink the screen in OSX to properly fill my TV's display. I downloaded SwitchResX but couldn't figure out how to adjust underscan on that either!

 

[talmy]

I'm a little late to the party, but I just ordered this cable from Monoprice that I'm told will combine 5.1 audio and video from my early 2009 Mac Mini into a single HDMI source.

4 years late for this party! I tried it at the time and found that the cable didn't work with any of the AV gear I had back then, so good luck. I ended up with a VGA connection to the TV, which actually worked better than anything I tried at the time with HDMI (even other adapters that didn't merge in the audio). Old TV was 720p. No stuttering problems.

I also have a 2012 mini. It works just fine with HDMI both to the previously mentioned gear and to a new TV we got last summer. No overscan/underscan problems. Samsung TVs. Both the 2009 and 2012 minis were base-line models.

 

[HelplessMoose]

I tried it at the time and found that the cable didn't work with any of the AV gear I had back then, so good luck.

The reviews on Monoprice are either really good or really bad, and the really bad ones seem to be "dead on arrival" or "did not work".. so here's hoping I get a functional unit!

If I had a dedicated HDMI-out I'm thinking I might not experience the underscan/overscan issues, but with this jury-rigged setup I'm worried it will prevent me from appropriately sizing my screen on the TV. I've read some posts from folks who were on Snow Leopard and had the underscan slider functionality, but then upgraded to Mountain Lion and Apple seemingly removed the underscan option! Or at least they changed they way it's detected and presented as an option. I'm fine reverting my 2009 Mini back to whatever OSX gives me the underscan slider since this machine will solely be used for Plex.

If my AppleTV had a Plex app I wouldn't need the Mini at all!

 

[IffySituation]

Can't AirPlay to a Mac AFAIK. And it would add considerably to the cost.

I use AirServer to AirPlay to my Mac it works great

 

[Apple06]

I use AirServer to AirPlay to my Mac it works great

Another option is X-Mirage or for free try the XBMC airplay feature.

 

[talmy]

If my AppleTV had a Plex app I wouldn't need the Mini at all!

That's another solution -- get another device like a Roku. I've got a 1st generation Roku and it works fine with Plex. The mini I use has other functions I can't get with set top box. My Apple TV (in my sig) is unused because it doesn't do Plex nor Amazon.

 

[DesertMC]

That's another solution -- get another device like a Roku. I've got a 1st generation Roku and it works fine with Plex. The mini I use has other functions I can't get with set top box. My Apple TV (in my sig) is unused because it doesn't do Plex nor Amazon.

Try visit the plex forum and look for plexconnect, then you will have plex on ATV2 and/or ATV3, the easiest way is to install it is via the openplex app.

 

[talmy]

Try visit the plex forum and look for plexconnect, then you will have plex on ATV2 and/or ATV3, the easiest way is to install it is via the openplex app.

I did use Plexconnect some time ago. It was a pain to set up with my Mac mini server system which was already hosting a web server (plexconnect assumes a "standard" Mac setup). Then I abandoned it when the backdoor plexconnect used (using the movie trailers channel) went to https. I simply didn't want to deal with it again when I had a Roku sitting around unused that would do Plex seamlessly. Amazon Prime video was another reason to ditch the ATV.