I’ve been looking at setting up a media center for a while now, and finally decided to go forward and get started on it. I wanted something that could play my music library, and make the full use of my 720P HDTV. I knew I wanted something from Apple. Since I wasn’t going to be getting a mouse or keyboard, and wanted easy remote access abilities, I quickly narrowed it down to either an Apple TV or Mac mini.
The Apple TV had size, price and HDMI output going for it, but without the ability to play true 720P media, it was lacking for what I was looking for (though for some reason Milind really wanted me to get one). So I picked up the base model Mac mini, a 500GB Western Digital portable harddrive, and a DVI to HDMI cable. The base model mini comes with the Mini-DVI adapter, and high end model comes with a Mini-DisplayPort cable, so depending on the model you pick up, you might get a different cable.
First thing after setting up the mini and hooking it up to my HDTV, was to figure out the resolution. This is only a problem if you have a 720P TV. If your TV is 1080P or SD, you won’t have a problem, or if you have a VGA connection on your TV. If your TV is 720P, it’s real resolution is not 1280x720 like the manufacturers all advertise, it is actually 1388x768. So your mini will output a 1280x768 screen, leaving either a nice thick black border around the desktop, or if you turn on overscan, you lose your menubar and half the dock. There is a way to fix it, but it’s not easy, and since you are using it as a media center, you don’t really need to. DisplayConfigX and SwitchResX will both let you hack your display settings so you can output at 1388x768 resolution, but they are both hacks, and not really recommended. If you do try them, don’t come running back to me after you broke something.
Once everything was all hooked up and running, the first things I installed after getting all of the Apple updates was Plex, Boxee and recently reviewed Teleport. Since I didn’t buy a second keyboard, I was using my iMac’s keyboard to initially set up the mini, but now the keyboard is back on the iMac, and if I need to I can use Teleport.
Since this is for media, we need to add at least one folder to your library. In your home folder you have Photos, Music, and Movies. Those three are the basics, but if you want TV shows, you ‘ll want to add a TV Show folder so you can keep them better organized. Plex and Boxee will both know what to do with files stuck in that folder.
If you look closely at that screenshot, you’ll notice that there is a lot more space than the stock 120GB HD. This is where the 500GB Western Digital HD comes in. I knew 120GB wouldn’t last long for a media center, so following ifixit’s guide, I took apart the Mini and portable HD, and swapped them out. Eventually, I’ll remove the very loud and unused optical drive and replace it with another 500GB HD.
Now that the hardware is all set, its time to check out the software, Boxee and Plex. Stay tuned!
