Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
My NEW Mac Mini 2.26 Ghz Home Theater Center
- Thread starter meanbrew
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don't believe so. Unless you have two separate copies of the software on two separate Macs.
Recording HD isn't very CPU taxing. There's no conversion taking place since all the computer is doing is recording the MPEG-2 stream onto a hard drive. Playback of 1080i should be no problem on any Intel Mac, with the possible exception of the CoreSolo mini from a few years ago.
This is a grey area that many cable companies dance around. The FCC's mandate allows a loophole that can allow a cable company to pass along the digital-SD channel and encrypt the digital-HD channel. As long as they pass one of the along, they're OK. Also, some cable companies just encrypt everything and the FCC has shown no interest in getting cable companies to comply. Look at how the FCC has dragged their feet in getting cable companies to provide STB's with active Firewire ports.
To echo others - great setup!
What brand of firewire drives do you use? Are they just all daisy-chained together and controlled from your Mini?
In hindsight would it have been cheaper to go the Drobo route + spec your own drives or do you prefer your setup?
It's not the Eye TV, it's the HD homerun that can handle 4 shows at once using the Eye TV software. BUT if you want to record 4 shows at once then you need an active return splitter, so you don't lose signal strength. I have one with 8 outputs and it's approved for the modem also , so I have no loss in signal. $ for the HD homerun, 1 for the modem and 3 for my TV's. If you have one HD homerun with the standard 2 outputs then you don't need that $110 active return 8 port splitter.Can EyeTV handle recording four shows simultaneously?
(I know that sounds crazy, but my house has two dual-tuner TiVos and there are a few times a week when all four turners are in use, recording different shows for the various people in the house)
Does recording from the HDHomeRun use a lot of CPU? Say, if you are recording 4 shows at the same time, is the mini responsive enough that you could play-back a pre-recorded show without any stuttering?
Thanks!
Yep, this new 2.26 Ghz Mini handles recording 4 HD TV shows at one time while I'm watching HD shows on Front row using the same Mini. I use the Elgato Turbo HD to compress the shows to h.264 and it takes some of the strain off the CPU.
Brand of FW drives
I have the Lacie 1 TB drives for my FW 400 drives. Since the new Mini has only one FW 800 drives. I connect my 1 TB Seagate FW 800 drive to the Mini, and I keep it on all the time since it's my Time Machine Drive. I also have that FW 800 drive, my Mini, HD TV, cable box, Sony home theater, and NetFlix streaming box all on one surge protector- I keep it on all the time.
On another Surge protector, I have the 6 Lacie drives connected. I turn this surge protector off when not watching movies- I keep only 3 of those Lacie drives on. I turn the other 3 on when I'm doing a SuperDuper App back up of the first 3 drives. When I'm done with the back ups, I turn those drives off. So now only the main 3 movie drives will be on when I flip on the surge protector button. This saves a little energy.
I daisy chain all the FW 400 drives to my Time Machine FW 800 drive. Most any brand drive is stackable and as I said I put little (4) 1" furniture pads under each drive to elevate them a little to keep them cool. If you want, you can use electrical tape around the stacked drives to keep them perfectly aligned.
You can even buy FW 800 to FW 400 adapters or cables from "Monoprice.com" for a really reasonable price with really cheap shipping costs, if you don't want to buy a FW 800 drive. I don't like USB drives because the upload speed is too slow and you need to add a USB Hub after a while and that's another cost.
"Monoprice.com" is where I purchased my "Mini display port to HDMI Adapter" really reasonable. They are about the only one that makes this adapter.
MeanBrew
I have the Lacie 1 TB drives for my FW 400 drives. Since the new Mini has only one FW 800 drives. I connect my 1 TB Seagate FW 800 drive to the Mini, and I keep it on all the time since it's my Time Machine Drive. I also have that FW 800 drive, my Mini, HD TV, cable box, Sony home theater, and NetFlix streaming box all on one surge protector- I keep it on all the time.
On another Surge protector, I have the 6 Lacie drives connected. I turn this surge protector off when not watching movies- I keep only 3 of those Lacie drives on. I turn the other 3 on when I'm doing a SuperDuper App back up of the first 3 drives. When I'm done with the back ups, I turn those drives off. So now only the main 3 movie drives will be on when I flip on the surge protector button. This saves a little energy.
I daisy chain all the FW 400 drives to my Time Machine FW 800 drive. Most any brand drive is stackable and as I said I put little (4) 1" furniture pads under each drive to elevate them a little to keep them cool. If you want, you can use electrical tape around the stacked drives to keep them perfectly aligned.
You can even buy FW 800 to FW 400 adapters or cables from "Monoprice.com" for a really reasonable price with really cheap shipping costs, if you don't want to buy a FW 800 drive. I don't like USB drives because the upload speed is too slow and you need to add a USB Hub after a while and that's another cost.
"Monoprice.com" is where I purchased my "Mini display port to HDMI Adapter" really reasonable. They are about the only one that makes this adapter.
MeanBrew
You have 5 computers, some of which seem to serve extremely trivial purposes based on your posts. Who are you to call someone nerdy and wasteful of resources?!
Different strokes for different folks, man. Not everyone thinks along the same lines as you. Or me. And you know what? That's what makes these forums interesting.
But seriously, what's the point of trying to call someone out because they're enthusiastic about things that you're not?
meanbrew, I just got a HDHomeRun yesterday and so far I'm loving it. I'm seeing if it has the potential to replace the TiVos in my house. I would love not to pay their monthly fee, plus I love how EyeTV pops everything into iTunes so I can sync my iPhone in the morning and have stuff to watch during the day.
No offense... but unless you're a friend of meanbrew's that's just bloody rude.
This is the Apple TV and Home Theater forum right? - Why are you wasting your time and resources looking in here if you're not really interested?
Try to be a bit more tolerant (except of intolerance...).
For some people, it's shoes, or cars, or sports, or whatever. And for others it's technology. I suspect that many, including myself, enjoy overcoming the challenge of getting stuff to work, or even just to work optimally. So, it's not really about TV or movies, but rather improving something until it's as good as it can get, and working at it to improve it some more.
You should read iWoz.
The vast majority of people dumbly accept things as they are, instead of wondering how good it can be - and it drives me nuts.
I guess I too just don't value TV that much. But hey, horses for courses.
To be clear, I use tech to watch TV too. I disconnected my satellite and just watch via an AppleTV using iTunes Store content. I don't mean to demean the OP. Just saying that when I read the post, I had a reaction similar to that of the vj. I don't think he meant to insult the OP either.
To be clear, I use tech to watch TV too. I disconnected my satellite and just watch via an AppleTV using iTunes Store content. I don't mean to demean the OP. Just saying that when I read the post, I had a reaction similar to that of the vj. I don't think he meant to insult the OP either.
dinovo sucks. Use the iPhone.
There is a brilliant 99 cent app called "Touchpad Pro" that works like HOT DAMN. I tried the dinovo but it is expensive and the trackpad sucks. The iPhone works just like the multitouch trackpad on the Macbook. VERY VERY nice and only 99 cents.
Cheers,
d1g174l
There is a brilliant 99 cent app called "Touchpad Pro" that works like HOT DAMN. I tried the dinovo but it is expensive and the trackpad sucks. The iPhone works just like the multitouch trackpad on the Macbook. VERY VERY nice and only 99 cents.
Cheers,
d1g174l
Questions for all you HD Homerun and Elgato Eye TV3 Software users...
How do these two products work together?
The HD Homerun comes with its own software. Do you need to disable it?
Elgato Eye TV3's software uses Macrovision's TV Guide at a price of $19.95 per year. Is there anyway to get this info free? TV stations in my area transmit the TV GOS info free OTA. IS this the same thing? Can this be used instead of the yearly subscription?
Does Eye TV software work with a universal remote like one of Logitech's? I don't have an iPhone...
Thanks!
How do these two products work together?
The HD Homerun comes with its own software. Do you need to disable it?
Elgato Eye TV3's software uses Macrovision's TV Guide at a price of $19.95 per year. Is there anyway to get this info free? TV stations in my area transmit the TV GOS info free OTA. IS this the same thing? Can this be used instead of the yearly subscription?
Does Eye TV software work with a universal remote like one of Logitech's? I don't have an iPhone...
Thanks!
I'm not a user, just a perpetual fence sitter...
The HDHomeRun is the tuner and EyeTV is the software that handles recording and viewing.
The software that comes with the HDHR is for Windows. You won't need to disable it because it won't install in the first place.
I'm not entirely sure on this ... only basing it on what I've read at the ElGato forum. EyeTV comes with the 14-day TV Guide free for the 1st year. Subsequent years are $20/month. The free first year starts when you sign in to TV Guide, so if you want to delay it, you can. I believe that EyeTV supports TitanTV, so if you have an account to that, you may be able to use that. Also, there are ways to use XML listings. Check out ElGato's forum for more details. BOTTOM LINE - if you want free listings, it's supported, but there are more steps involved.
I have no idea. I do know that ElGato sells a remote. Or you could use the Apple Remote. If I had to guess, I'd say that a universal remote would work, as long as it worked with OS X.
ft
Ha! Me too.
I'm trying to put together total cost of a mini htpc vs. a tivo hd. Cable's hopefully going buh-bye soon. But what about live sports!? AAAGGGHHH!!!!!
Cable~$110 per month
TiVo HD plus lifetime subscription is about $700.
base 09 Mini refurb-$499.
HD Homerun ~ $150
Elgato Eye TV3 Software~$80
Total~$730 (not including wireless keyboard and mouse or universal remote)
I know the mini is a computer also, but I have a MBP already. Decisions, decisions...
Hello,
I do not own an Apple computer, therefore this question might seem obvious to some of you. I am running a PC with XP Home.
Do you have any issues with crashing / freeezing up of the system with home entertainment software? Not everyone in my family is a tolorent as me or likes to play like I do and therefore a PC home entertainment system gets a bad rap fast and even when problems are fixed still has the bad rap. That is the nice thing about Apple TV - works out of the box, very kid friendly.
Thank you,
Anthony
I do not own an Apple computer, therefore this question might seem obvious to some of you. I am running a PC with XP Home.
Do you have any issues with crashing / freeezing up of the system with home entertainment software? Not everyone in my family is a tolorent as me or likes to play like I do and therefore a PC home entertainment system gets a bad rap fast and even when problems are fixed still has the bad rap. That is the nice thing about Apple TV - works out of the box, very kid friendly.
Thank you,
Anthony
Crashes? Dear God No! It's a Mac.
My setup: 2009 Mini 2.26 GHz w/ 2GB Ram, Elgato EyeTv 3.1.1 software using 2 EyeTv Hybrid tuner sticks, all hooked up to my Sony 40" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV. It does everything; iTunes server, torrent downloads, syncing 2 Apple TVs, Dual Tuner DVR, music, podcasts, It streams previously recorded (or even currently recording) HDTV shows to my My laptop or any other computer on my network. It can automatically convert the recordings to AppleTV or ipod/iPhone format and sync them to the appropriate device. In short, I have access to any media I want, anywhere in my home and on any screen.
This Setup has been rock Solid since the day I set it up. I've only re-booted twice in 2 1/2 months; once to re-arrange the setup, and the other was the Leopard 10.5.7 update.
As for kid friendly? IDK, I don't have any. I suppose you could set up an Apple TV for them. This would allow you to control content, their shows would record on the Mini, then sync to their ATV.
Can you explain a bit more what an "active return splitter" is and does?
Another question: are you converting to h.264 to save disk space? Is there a loss in quality? How long does it take to convert an hour of programming? Thanks!
Crashes? Dear God No! It's a Mac.
My setup: 2009 Mini 2.26 GHz w/ 2GB Ram, Elgato EyeTv 3.1.1 software using 2 EyeTv Hybrid tuner sticks, all hooked up to my Sony 40" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV. It does everything; iTunes server, torrent downloads, syncing 2 Apple TVs, Dual Tuner DVR, music, podcasts, It streams previously recorded (or even currently recording) HDTV shows to my My laptop or any other computer on my network. It can automatically convert the recordings to AppleTV or ipod/iPhone format and sync them to the appropriate device. In short, I have access to any media I want, anywhere in my home and on any screen.
This Setup has been rock Solid since the day I set it up. I've only re-booted twice in 2 1/2 months; once to re-arrange the setup, and the other was the Leopard 10.5.7 update.
As for kid friendly? IDK, I don't have any. I suppose you could set up an Apple TV for them. This would allow you to control content, their shows would record on the Mini, then sync to their ATV.
No crashes? Really? Have you ever tried Plex? That program must crash on me once a day. I'm constantly hitting "force quit." It brings me back to my Windows days. Even when I did a fresh OSX and Plex install, it still crashed like crazy...
You really do have some strange issues with Plex. I've had it crash, but more like once every couple weeks and usually when I'm doing something odd.
(not to get off topic but have you figured out your stutters?)
Yeah, I've tried Plex. Nice interface, but it needs work. I never had it crash on me though. I mainly used it to watch Hulu vids. That seems to be the only thing it does that I can't do with eyetv, front row, or an apple TV. Like I wrote, my system has been rock solid. No problems. It's my second Mac in almost three years. No problems. The MacBook is also still going strong. It's still my main computer. None of my PCs were ever this solid. After 17 years of that junk, I finally caught on to the Mac... So much of my life wasted dealing with crashes... I wish I had done it sooner.
Also, do you have at least 2GB of ram in your mini? If you only have 1GB you only get 128Mb allocated for video. With 2GB your computer will allocate the full 256Mb for video. This could be your problem.
As for your problems with plex. I posted about it on your other thread. I think it's the anti-virus software on the HP media server that is giving you problems.
Fortunately, I never installed the anti-virus software to begin with. I had enough problems with the anti-virus software years ago, and would rather reinstall the OS than deal with it on a regular basis.
And to just deviate a bit from the thread, I used Plex with a local HDD attached, and was still getting the same problem. I've kinda given up, actually. I installed 4 gigs of ram and saw nothing resolved, and tried it with every other possible configuration. From what I've heard on the official Plex forums, there has always been an issue with stuttering picture, and I'm not alone. I was told that it was much more noticeable when you start to use screens over 60 inches.
I'm just hoping an update fixes it, though I'm not holding my breath. I've been using VLC Player, and while it's a bit more cumbersome, it gets the job done. I appreciate all the help you guys gave me, though.
My Mac Mini Set-up
I have connected my Mac Mini to 44" Panasonic Viera through the HDMI Cable and kept in the living room. Operate it through the wireless Apple keyboard and mouse. The guests and the neighbors just can't figure how I am able stream wireless photos from my Time Capsule - I guess they are Windows users and I always enjoy when they gasp how small the Mini is,...
I have connected my Mac Mini to 44" Panasonic Viera through the HDMI Cable and kept in the living room. Operate it through the wireless Apple keyboard and mouse. The guests and the neighbors just can't figure how I am able stream wireless photos from my Time Capsule - I guess they are Windows users and I always enjoy when they gasp how small the Mini is,...
Take a look at http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Getting_Started#Applications
I have not tried it yet but you can invoke other application on your mac via PLEX. So you can add EyeTV to the Applications Menu and fire it up from there, then work EyeTV as you would normally.
Good Luck!