Macbook as Home Theatre Solution

[Albone]

I did some looking around and only found a similar thread, which was helpful but not exactly what I was looking for.

I'm looking to get rid of cable TV and buy a new macbook. The plan is to use Hulu to watch everything I'd normally DVR (Lie To Me, Dollhouse, Lost, etc) but what can I do about shows not available like WWE/TNA wrestling?

I have a HDTV rear projection screen TV (Toshiba) that has an empty HDMI slot. I thought I'd use a mini-DVI to HDMI connection but what about sound? I see that the macbook has a headphone jack. Is that it? I have a Sony 6.1 Dolby Digital surround sound receiver and speakers. What's the best connection for that?

Between Flex and/or Front Row, I don't really see any problems playing back any DVD movies or shows. Is there anyway to set up a remote control?

Thanks for your help!

 

[TheZA]

I did some looking around and only found a similar thread, which was helpful but not exactly what I was looking for.

I'm looking to get rid of cable TV and buy a new macbook. The plan is to use Hulu to watch everything I'd normally DVR (Lie To Me, Dollhouse, Lost, etc) but what can I do about shows not available like WWE/TNA wrestling?

I have a HDTV rear projection screen TV (Toshiba) that has an empty HDMI slot. I thought I'd use a mini-DVI to HDMI connection but what about sound? I see that the macbook has a headphone jack. Is that it? I have a Sony 6.1 Dolby Digital surround sound receiver and speakers. What's the best connection for that?

Between Flex and/or Front Row, I don't really see any problems playing back any DVD movies or shows. Is there anyway to set up a remote control?

Thanks for your help!

Go to monoprice.com and you can get a mini-DVI to HDMI connector, an HDMI cable, and an audio line with 3.5 mm male plugs on both sides. It will cost about $15 delivered (no kidding). The default setup on the Macbook is to have the TV as the second screen, and things will only show up if you drag them to the right, although VLC and maybe Quicktime allow you to play videos on the second screen. Anyway, under system preferences you will likely want to check the selection (after TV is connected) for the screen to mirror your computer screen.

Works great. Bye bye cable.

 

[KevinC867]

Go to monoprice.com and you can get a mini-DVI to HDMI connector, an HDMI cable, and an audio line with 3.5 mm male plugs on both sides. It will cost about $15 delivered (no kidding).

The audio jack on the MacBook also provides an optical digital output. You should be able to get 5.1 channel Dolby Digital from this output. Connect it to your receiver with a TOS-link optical cable ( link ) and a Toslink to Toslink-mini adapter ( link ).

 

[Albone]

Thanks guys!

What about getting shows that aren't readily available from Hulu? Is a Tuner the way to go?