Setting Up Mini In Entertainment Center

[dmachine]

Since the new Mini's have front row and a remote I am going to be adding one to my entertainment center. I have a Sony WEGA and Sony 5.1 speakers. The TV has s-video in and composite.

I will want to use my mini with Front Row and also set it up as a Tivo like device. I will also be putting all of my DVD's on it (which consists of about 50 DVD's). I have digital cable, will I be able to use a DVR program?

What will I need in order to rip all of my DVD's onto the hard drive, watch and record TV, connect to TV and 5.1 speakers?

 

[iPhil]

Since the new Mini's have front row and a remote I am going to be adding one to my entertainment center. I have a Sony WEGA and Sony 5.1 speakers. The TV has s-video in and composite.

I will want to use my mini with Front Row and also set it up as a Tivo like device. I will also be putting all of my DVD's on it (which consists of about 50 DVD's). I have digital cable, will I be able to use a DVR program?

What will I need in order to rip all of my DVD's onto the hard drive, watch and record TV, connect to TV and 5.1 speakers?

I don't on how to connect intel mini to sony tv/surround sound system..

If you use Mac the ripper found @ www.versiontracker.com then Use an external Harddrive to store the dvds. The dvds are about 7-8 GB in size if the movie is a dual-layer dvd

 

[frankblundt]

the Mini is still not really a media mac in quite that sense. I believe it has optical and analog audio out, but whether it's 5.1 i don't know.

The HD is still a notebook 2.5" so it's 120GB max, and you'd probably need an external drive enclosure to take any large number of DVDs (50x4GB=200GB) - there's one's like the MiniStack that have the same form factor.

For recording video you'd need something like ElGato to receive and process the cable signal and sent it to the Mini via firewire.

S-Video out to the TV - Apple sells a separate connector for the Mini for this -"S-video and composite video output to connect directly to a TV or projector (using Apple DVI to Video Adapter, sold separately"