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tiny nyc apartment

M

maeglutz

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 2, 2009
47
0
bear with me...

i do freelance web design.

i WANT an imac. but i have no table tops anywhere in my apartment.

if i got powerbook, I would be sad with the screen size (even a 17") and i hate the glossiness.

i have a 42" 1080p phillips tv. can i buy a mac mini and plug it in to my tv? what sort of connection would i need? then i could use a floating keyboard...

do any of you do this? is it weird to use the compute on a huge tv screen?

i guess one thing that would be annoying is that i wouldnt be able to watch tv and use the icomputer at teh same time

any other solutions welcome... whatever model mac.
 
I have a cousin that lives in NY and couldn't believe how small her apartment is, so I can certainly understand where you are coming from. I do not have any experience hooking a computer up to a TV, but I would think that the resolution wouldn't be that good, but then again, I have never tried it.

Bryan
 
Sure, that would work fine. But you might not like how text looks on screen.

And LOL. You have an apartment so small you cant fit an iMac, which is only about 10" deep, but you got a 42" TV in there :D
 
Badger^2 said:
Sure, that would work fine. But you might not like how text looks on screen.

And LOL. You have an apartment so small you cant fit an iMac, which is only about 10" deep, but you got a 42" TV in there :D
Click to expand...

ha the tv is mounted to the wall...

the truth is, there is ONE desk in my apartment. but my boyfriend's stupid computer is on it. maybe i should accidently put it into permanent gray screen...

well, since the tv is 1080p I *heard* that the resolution is compatable with computers... but while i would know how to hook up a pc to the tv, i have no idea how to hook up a mac (eventhough i have never in my life owned a pc)
 
Interesting, my cousin is in the same predicament but for a Seattle apartment. She is looking into something like this:
desk-mounted-on-wall.jpg
. But she has a laptop and you would be to close to use a keyboard and and iMac comfortably I think.

I don't see a problem with a mini and your 42" tv. There my bee some resolution degradation, but not enough where you can't work.
 
maeglutz said:
the truth is, there is ONE desk in my apartment. but my boyfriend's stupid computer is on it. maybe i should accidently put it into permanent gray screen...
Click to expand...

Oh. Then the answer is simple. Bye bye boyfriend's computer and hello 27" beauty! Trust me, you'll be in love with the new iMac...

Bryan
 
Surely said:
I'm assuming you mean a MacBook Pro, not a Powerbook. Apple has a matte screen option for the 15" and 17" MBPs.
Click to expand...

ha, yes i did! slip cuz i am typing on a powerbook g4 that has about 80 vertical "dead pixel" lines across the screen.

ugh. i know this is going to end up with me getting a 17" macbook pro but i really wish it wouldnt
 
Well of course the solution is quite obvious. Whether you have very little space or not. It's what I intend to do anyway - mount the iMac on an articulated arm that can be pushed flat against the wall, and extends far over your desk. There is a long thread about all the arm options here. So - there's you solution!
 
the 27" iMac is "wall mount"-able
that'd be even easier than going with the mac mini which you will still somehow find a place to settle the box

go 27" iMac wall mount beauty;)
 
I purchased a mac mini last August for the same purpose. I have it attached to my 40" LED TV which is hanging on the wall. I bought a wireless keyboard & mouse and connected the mini using a mini display post to HDMI cable and HDMI to HDMI into the TV. It works great for what i want i.e a HTPC. At the moment i have all my music, downloaded TV shows & movies all with easy access on my TV. I am currently saving up the dosh for a imac 27" for work/play as I am taking up all the TV time with the mac & PS3. What i find with the TV is that its too big for text etc. My eyes get agitated after a while. If you where planning to do work stuff I'd scale down to a 26" - 28". That was my plan until apple realised the new imac. Everything changed after that. The 27" imac will be my main man and hopefully the connection issues with PS3 etc will be solved and they will work together. The mini will connect wirelessly to airport extreme and possibly a apple TV for the bedroom giving me a network for all my music TV & movies.
Oh one thing you will need to know about the the mini is the sound issue. The sound wont transfer through the HDMI cable so a separate cable is required (optical cable) I bought Logitech speakers for the time being and that will be used with the imac when it arrives. I have seen a box thingy which will transfer the sound through the HDMI that you should check out, sorry no link.

Best of luck with it.
 
maeglutz said:
i WANT an imac. but i have no table tops anywhere in my apartment.

if i got powerbook, I would be sad with the screen size (even a 17") and i hate the glossiness.
Click to expand...
Wanting an iMac and hating glossiness does not compute. If you want an iMac you have to learn to live with the very glossy glass screen. It's either that or an external matte display with something like a Mac mini or a MacBook [Pro|Air]. It may seem to take up more space but you can put the mini underneath the screen and you can use a laptop stand that holds the laptop vertically instead of horizontally (but you'll still need a display, keyboard and mouse). Using just a laptop causes a problem of where to use it. The footprint of a 17" MacBook Pro seems to be larger than an iMac which would make it a lot harder to use on a small table like the one in the picture. There are laptopstands that you can use on your lap or that are on small wheels so you can move it around. Those might be a solution if you are going for a laptop without the external display.
 
Get the 27" imac and replace your boyfriends pc's monitor with it. Then you both get to keep your computers. Your boyfriend can use the iMac as the display for his PC.
 
Ok, unless you need the extra power of the iMac, I highly advise a mini with your TV, for a broad variety of reasons.

1. Home Theater - anything you download, or watch online, you can now watch in your living room on your nice 1080P HDTV in surround sound (if, er, you have surround sound). iTunes is an obvious.

2. The display size being "too big" is a silly assumption. If text is uncomfortable and you're moving your head back and forth, you're sitting too close - get a wireless keyboard and mouse (or wireless keyboard and trackpad combo like I have for my PS3, which is pretty stinkin' awesome), and sit back a ways until the screen is a comfortable size. If you're having trouble reading what's on it, then you're too far back! :p If you need something to put your keyboard on, rather than just your lap, you may look into some sort of tray solution, like a TV tray, or just a board that you can lay across the top of your chair's armrests.

3. Less clutter. In a small apt, less is more. Device convergence is key. If you have a mac mini attached to your TV, you can ditch your DVD player, your DVR, your AppleTV if you have one, etc. If you have a blu-ray player, you could POTENTIALLY ditch that if you got an external (or internal if you'e brave) for the mini. I know blu-ray isn't officially supported on OSX, but there are solutions - LaCie provides some with their burner/player, and you can install as many OSes as you darn well please.

4. Easy upgrade. If you find you need more power, you can buy a refurb Mac Pro, or the like, or, when a newer Mini comes out, you can buy the newer mini and easily replace the one you have, without feeling your wallet lightened too terribly much. In any case, most people would be surprised at what all a mini can accomplish. They're pretty good for such a small package.

Anyhow, that's all I can come up with off the top of my head. Like many people, it's clear to me that you would truly benefit from a prosumer level headless iMac, but as we all know, they just don't exist. ...without Hackintoshing, which, I can say from experience, is fun, but kindof a PITA.

Edit:
reebzor said:
Get the 27" imac and replace your boyfriends pc's monitor with it. Then you both get to keep your computers. Your boyfriend can use the iMac as the display for his PC.
Click to expand...
This is not a good idea. What if you both need to use your computers at the same time? You'd be better off ditching his computer altogether, or using IT with the TV.
 
knewsom said:
Ok, unless you need the extra power of the iMac, I highly advise a mini with your TV, for a broad variety of reasons.
Click to expand...

thank you, very convincing... do you know what sort of adapters i would need?
 
maeglutz said:
thank you, very convincing... do you know what sort of adapters i would need?
Click to expand...

My pleasure. I actually went through a similar exercise when considering moving aboard a sailboat. I had a slightly different setup in mind, but the logic was all there and already worked out in me head.

As for adapters, you'll need a mini-DVI OR mini-display port to HDMI adapter (Apple carries these, I believe), and you'll need a TOSlink optical audio cable with an 1/8th inch adapter to plug into the "headphone" jack on the back of the mini, which also contains the optical digital audio component as well. I bought one of these cables at a local CVS when I lived in LA, and it worked quite well.

That second one depends on what sortof audio setup you have. If you have a 7.1 surround amplifier like mine that supports HDMI audio and video input together but not separately, you'll need a weird little widget that I found on Amazon. If you're just using the sound on your TV, you're A, missing out, and B, going to have to check and see what audio inputs it has.

Best of luck!
 
You could do this, make the shelf a few inches wider to comfortably
support a mouse and have a pull out solution under for a keyboard.
Or the keyboard and mouse pull out.

*edit, I know the iMac is bigger, I was just showing that it would look
nice placed on a shelf like that. Just make it wider.
 

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