Mac Media Center

Mac Media Center

In this article I am going to take you through the steps of building a Mac Media Center. Since Apple annoucned the Mac Mini every one has been talking about building a Mac Media Center and using a Mac Mini to do it with.Which Mac Should You Get?There are a number of Mac's on the market, and you need to consider who you will use your Mac Media Center in order to decide on which Mac will suite your needs the best.

The Mac Mini

The Mac Mini seems the obvious solution for a Mac Media Center. It's small design, and low noise and heat makes it a great candidate to fit in with your existing mix of stylish audio equipment.The Mini is a great little device, it has a nice processor, a DVD drive, some hard drive space and enough ports to plug it into all the additional equipment you need.The last thing you need is a big ugly tower case, with noisy fans to sit next to your TV and destroy whatever audio fidelity you are trying to enjoy. And the Mac Mini has some sex appeal too.

The iMac

The iMac is also a good candidate for a Mac Media Center, although it's appeal is slightly different from that of the Mac Mini.In a limited space environment the iMac can server a dual purpose. It can be used as a desktop machine by day, and be switched to a Mac Media Center by night.The iMac comes in various sizes, from 17" to 24" so depending on the space you have avalible, and where you want to put it you have a few options. The iMac comes standard with just about everything you will need to use it as a Mac Media Center.

The Rest of the Mac Pac

The Mac Pro, iBook, and Mac Book Pro aren't really as versitile as the Mac Mini and iMac, but can none the less be used as a Mac Media Center.The 17" Mac Book Pro would make a nice mobile entertainment system, but not a dedicated media center.Using a Mac Pro as a Mac Media Center is insane. It's a little like using a crow bar to open a can of beans.You'll need some hardware to go with the Mac Media CenterFor the purposes of the rest of the article I will use a Mac Mini as an example. I have a Mac Mini and have built a media center with it, so using my first hand experience will hopefully be a little more accurate than speculating on what is possible if you have x...y...z...There are a couple of things you will need to get your Mac Mini up and running as a Mac Media Center.Some of these devices are apple devices and some are generic devices. Some work well and some are just a disaster.

Remotes for your Mac Media CenterThe first device you will need to begin hunting for is a remote. Afterall, what good is a Mac Media Center without a remote that the family can fight about.There is the infamous Apple remote which comes with most Mac minis and iMacs.It's a small remote, but works well. It comes in typicall mac style. It's tiny, does everything you need it to do and has no fancy features. All in all it only has 6 buttons that allow you to control the entire Mac Media Center.

There are also a number of generic remotes available. Logitech have a bunch of remotes, some of which work well with Mac, and some that are PC only.I have a Microsoft keyboard and remote, and have been unable to get them going on the Mac.I would advise using the Mac remote. It small, and with ahlf a dozen buttons is actually quite easy to use.My DVD player's remote for instance has 47 buttons, most of which I have never used and I don't have the slightest inclination to find out how they work.You'll also need a keyboard for your Mac Media Center EditionOf course there are those times you need to input some data into the screen, like in iTunes for instance, you might need to punch in your password when purchasing content.No one wants to keep jumping off the couch to press a button, I mean we barely find the energy to get up for another beer.

Apple have a nice bluetooth keyboard that you can use from your couch. It looks like a normal Apple keyboard, yet it has no cables and just fits a couple of batteries at the back.This is a must for your media center. From time to time you NEED a keyboard and having to crawl out from under a warm blanket in the middle of winter can spoil the mood.Of course Logitech and a few other have keyboards that would work just as well. But pairing an apple bluetooth keyboard with the built in blue tooth in a Mac Mini is easier than making toast.Add some storage to your Mac Media CenterIf you have ever spoken to anyone about a media center for digital media, the word storage would have poped up a number of times.The Mac Mini at best will only have and 80GB hard drive, and when you are downloading movies, TV shows, music, adding your own CD's and dumping you digital pictures you can devour disk space rather rapidly.So before you know it, you'll be hunting for a storage device of sorts.Now you have a couple of options as far as storage is concerned.

You can either connect something directly to your Mac Media Center, like a USB or Firewire drive, or you can connect a Network Attached Storage Device.The difference really comes in, when you consider what it is you want to do with your storage. If you want storage purely for media content and want it to be available only to the Mac Media Center, then a USB or Firewire drive is a great option.But if you have more than one computer on your network, like most housholds today seem to have, you might want to consider a netowrk attached storage device, also know as a NAS.Software you will needOnce you have decided on which Mac you want to use, a Mac Mini in my case, and you have you remote, and keyboard ready, and you have some idea of where you are going with some extra storage in the not to distant future, you need to sit down and consider what software you want to use with your Mac Media Center.

You have a about a dozen options, I've looked at a bunch of them, and I've narrowed it down to 3 that I think you should consider.The best way to decide on which media center application you want to use is to install all 3, use them for a week or two and then make your decision.My Mac Mini came with front row, and that's what I decided to use.But here is a break down of the 3 I suggest:Front RowFront row is an apple application, and comes on most Mac Mini's.It's a simple interface, looks a lot like an iPod's interface and has that glass effect. It's a very cool interface, and makes your TV look like it's in a league of its own.Center StageCenter Stage is an open source application for a Mac Media Center. It's a good design and there's ongoing support and development for it.Center Stage is a lot more customisable than front row, and allows a number of skins to be installed. Center Stage also has aditional plugins to make your Mac Media Center do more.Just a friendly warning when using non-Apple software on an Apple machine, especially when it's open source. Make sure you run the stable version. Running a beta version could cause unwanted interuptions during your romantic movie which will result in a night on the couch.iTheatreiTheter is also an open source Mac Media Center.

It aims to work on just about every Mac ever. Well maybe not ever, but at least in the last couple of years.iTheater also has the best user interface (UI) out of the 3. It integrates a whole bunch of other features and can also display the weather.Add onsOnce you have your mac mini, you remote, keyboard, storage and UI sorted you need to consider some add-ons to make the whole media center thing a little more enjoyable.DVI-HDMI ConnectorTo enhance your picture viewing quality, and if your TV supports it, get a DVI to HDMI converter. The Mac Mini has a digital output, and if you can keep your output digital, straight into the TV then you will benefit from the video quality.While HDMI supports audio, DVI does not. So using a DVI to HDMI converter will drop your audio, but it will maintain your video. You can just use the audio minijack output from your Mac Mini to get audio to the TV.TVYour TV is not really and add-on, I can't imagine you having a media center without the TV. Like a car without an engine (I had one of those for a while and it's not so great).When choosing your TV, make sure your TV has some crucial components to accommodate a Mac Media Center. The most important is your input.

You need to, at the very least have a VGA input. HDMI is prefereable but VGA is a minimum.having audio in is another requirement. While you can get away with not having an audio input on your TV it'll only make your life a little more complicated.Audio out would be the last piece of a really nice puzzle. Being able to connect your TV directly to your sound system will enable you to control the audio volume on your Mac Mini from once central place.I'll be posting an article on HDTV soon. Have a look at http://www.shawnsweekly.com for more info.iTunesiTunes forms the foundation of your digital content.

I've been using Front Row, and it integrates nicely into iTunes. So when I flip through the menus, it's like flipping through iTunes on an iPod interface.Using iTunes means that you can download movies TV shows and music from the iTunes store.Once the media has been downloaded, you can access it and watch it with the click of a button.This is a very easy integration and is automatically done for you.Using iTunes to add your CD library to your computer is another great feature. And from your media center you can simply click the remote and play your entire music collection.AlternativesFor those of you who are anti-mac, and want to benefit from the Mac form factor, but want to run MythTV or Vista Ultimate, you can do that.Simply download bootcamp from Apple, load your favorite OS, setup your Media Center and off you go.The Mac Mini really offers you the best of both worlds. You can run Mac OSX, Windows, or Linux, and setup you Media Center the way you want.

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Why HDMI is the Number One Choice For All Your Home Theatre Connections

Why HDMI is the Number One Choice For All Your Home Theatre Connections

The introduction of high definition TV has truly enhanced the home cinema experience enjoyed by consumers, but it has also caused a lot of confusion and uncertainty. It doesn't help that manufacturers have been focusing their efforts on several different connection types over the past decade, which means that there are now thousands of different devices on the market, all of which use different types of plugs. FireWire, DVI, and HDMI are all connection types that have enjoyed the limelight and have been found on the backs of TVs at one time or another, and now most consumers are totally confused about the differences between these connections and which type is best.

What's The Big Deal About Connections?

Many people don't understand why there is such a big deal about something as simple as a connection, surely it's just a way of plugging the cable into the TV; surely all connections basically do the same thing? The war between different connection types really boils down to money. It costs companies a fortune to develop a new connection platform, therefore they are eager to get as many manufacturers using their connection as possible so that they can charge a royalty. If one connection emerges as the global standard, then it can be incredibly lucrative for the company that owns the royalty rights; hence the fierce competition to try and establish each of the connections mentioned above as the global standard connection for all HD devices.

The Emergence of HDMI

As the technology behind HD TV developed it quickly became apparent that a new connection was needed that not only delivered digital quality signals, but was also easy for consumers to use. The first attempt at a digital connection was FireWire - this used just one cable to deliver audio and video signals, and also allowed devices to communicate with each other. However FireWire never really gained much support from manufacturers and hence soon fell out of fashion without ever reaching its potential.

DVI was next and was originally developed for the PC industry. DVI cables only carried video signals, but they could support both digital and analogue connections. When home entertainment manufacturers saw that DVI had gained favour with PC users they started to incorporate DVI connections into their products. However, the large form factor and lack of audio support meant that it wasn't ideally suited for use in home cinema systems.

HDMI is almost identical to DVI; however it does offer improvements in some important areas. For instance, HDMI cables use a plug with a much smaller form factor, which is important when space behind your home entertainment system is limited. HDMI is also able to carry both audio and video signals in a single cable, meaning that only one cable is needed to make a connection. HDMI cables can also carry a remote control command, which helps to simplify the process of connecting and using several devices together. Perhaps most importantly, HDMI cables are also relatively cheap to produce, and have therefore become a favourite with HD TV and home entertainment manufacturers.

HDMI Is The Sensible Choice

As you can see HDMI cables offer several advantages over the other types of connection, which explains why the vast majority of home entertainment equipment manufactured in the past couple of years almost certainly uses HDMI as the standard type of interface.

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Asus P5N-EM HDMI Motherboard

Asus P5N-EM HDMI Motherboard Video Clips.

If youre under a budget crunch, youll love our affordably priced Asus P5N-EM HDMI GeForce Socket 775 motherboard. This outstanding MicroATX platform delivers superior performance to systems running on Intel Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme, Pentium D, Celeron Series, and 45nm processors with 800/1066/1333 FSB. Based on the graphics-intensive NVIDIA GeForce 7100/NF630i chipset, the Asus P5N-EM HDMI supports DDR2 533/667/800/1066 MHz memory up to 4GB, PCI-Express x1/x16, SATA 2 (3Gb/s), Gigabit LAN, HD Audio, RAID 0,1,5,0+1, and USB 2.0. Plus, the P5N-EM HDMI boasts an onboard NVIDIA GeForce 7100 GPU with maximum memory share up to 512MB (under an OS by Turbo Cache) with GPU frequency @ 600MHz. Perfect for gaming, multimedia entertainment, and extreme computing. One of the best deals in the house! Order today while supplies last.

Tags: Asus, P5N-EM, HDMI, Motherboard, albert, computertv, compusa, tigertv

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HDMI vs DVI - Which is Better?

HDMI vs DVI - Which is Better?

Are you looking out to buy a DVD player/TV/home theatre? Then you are probably worrying about HDMI Vs DVI questions: which is better? Are they compatible? HDMI Vs DVI, which should I opt?

Which is better? HDMI or DVI?

Let's first understand what they are. Both of them are standards for carrying digital signals between a source like your set top box or Blu-ray disc player and your TV. High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), which connects like USB, is a licensable audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed, encrypted digital streams. HDMI was derived from DVI. It has more bandwidth capability (5Gbps to 10Gbps). Unlike DVI, which needs a separate cable to carry audio, HDMI uses a single cable for video and audio making the cabling less bulky. Not just that, HDMI cables can go up to 15m length, giving you the flexibility to design your living room.

HDMI supports automatic screen format conversion. It can automatically convert a picture into its most appropriate format, such as a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. HDMI produces pictures that are sharper and smoother (up to 1080pi resolution). Though DVI can produce similar picture quality, HDMI betters it in audio.

Are HDMI and DVI compatible?

HDMI is fully'backward'compatible with DVI. For example, if you have a DVD player with a DVI connection and a HDMI LCD TV, it works. All you need is a HDMI/DVI adapter. But some HDMI features will be lost if you use an adapter like automatic screen format conversion and universal remote control.

HDMI Vs DVI

If you are buying both HDTV and a video player like Blu-ray Disc player, I suggest you go for HDMI for both. You can free up your living room of messy cables that you find in other home theatres. You can use a single remote to operate all the devices connected and it provides the best video and audio. But if you already have one of a DVI source or DVI TV and then just go for a DVI for the other one as well because going for HDMI does not increase the overall quality of experience.

Overall, I recommend HDMI because it gives you better quality of video and audio, has lesser cables and gives you the universal remote control. Add the DRM (Digital Rights Management) angle to it, HDMI may well be the standard in days to come.

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Sapphire AMD HD 6870 1GB Video Card Unboxing and Review + Benchmarks

Sapphire AMD HD 6870 1GB Video Card Unboxing and Review + Benchmarks On YouTube.

Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB Unboxing and Review + Benchmarks - We give you the unboxing and review of the new AMD Sapphire 6870 which features 1GB GDDR5 Memory, Eyefinity Support, DirectX11 Full HD and the latest Blu-Ray 3D support.

Tags: Sapphire, AMD, Radeon, HD, 6870, Review, Unboxing, XFX, 6850, NVIDIA, GTX, 470, 460, 5770, 5750, 1GB, GDDR5, Eyefinity, Full, HDMI, Blu-Ray, 3D, Support, directx, 11, Windows, and, Benchmarks

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Learn How to Setup Your PC to TV System Using Video and Audio Cable Connectors!

Learn How to Setup Your PC to TV System Using Video and Audio Cable Connectors!

To set up any type of PC to TV system whether to watch home TV on a computer or use a computer Internet TV (with PC Satellite TV software installed) to watch free Internet media on a home TV-set, it requires two key components: 1) Video Card, and 2) Video connector cable. Setting up this type of system using number 2 will be the focal point of this article.

Whichever one is the goal, watch home television on a PC or watch computer Internet TV (with PC Satellite TV software) on a home television set, keep in mind the picture quality on a digital high definition television will be higher than on a computer screen. This has a lot to do with the computer and screen capabilities/limitations that determine the video quality.

Setting up a PC to TV can be very cheap and simple enough that even a cave man can do it. For instance, while there are all kinds of computers today, many of them share common audio and video ports to make the transition easier. There are four different types of video/audio connectors that can do the job, and requires just a little work. Here is a list of some of the most popular video connectors to consider:

Identifying Four Connector/Adapter Cables...

1. VGA, stands for Video Graphics Array, and are available to almost every Windows-based computer. Although this connection doesn't offer the highest quality that a HDMI or DVI connection offers, it's commonly used and works well with a SD (standard definition) or HD (high definition) TV that uses a VGA port. The price for a used VGA connector can be a few dollars and under .00 to buy it new.

2. HDMI stands for high-definition multimedia interface and DVI means digital visual interface. Both of them offer the best connection for HD TV. A few high-end video cards on computer already have HDMI ports on high definition (HD) television sets. Many times, MAC computers will have DVI ports that allows a connection to your television's HDMI port--using an HDMI-to-DVI cable or adapter. For a used HDMI connector, it could run under .00 and a new one can cost over .00.

3. S-Video, stands for separate video and are often found in SD and HD TV-sets. The most common use for this type of connection involves connecting a DVD player to a SD TV-set. And it works well when using either a desktop or laptop computer that has an S-video port. The cost can be as little as a couple of dollars for a used connector cable to over .00 for a new one.00 (new).

4. Composite/RCA often comes with many TV-sets. More than likely, you have seen these cables at one time or another. They are those yellow, white, and red connector head cables for your video and audio. You can also use them to connect your video camera and DVD player. Some computers have video cards with RCA connections and they can be used to convert a computer's video signal through the RCA cable going into a TV-set.

How to make the audio connection depends on what type of port a computer has, which determines whether or not separate cables are needed to get the video and audio to work properly. More than likely, you will have to optimize the computer's audio output such as volume settings and surround sound. This requires going into the computer's Control Panel to make minor adjustments.

How to make the audio connection depends on whether or not a computer has a HDMI port, which in turn determines if a single cable or separate cables for the audio and video are required. Also, connecting a headphone jack and external speakers to a computer can be made as well. Optimizing the audio output may be required but very simple to do. It's just a matter of adjusting the volume settings by going into the computer's control panel.

After determining which television and computer connector is needed, the next step is picking the correct video/audio cable to make the PC to TV connection. You can find any one of these connectors/adapters in local computer stores or online easily. The cost is very low and can take minutes to setup a PC to television system.

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Dell U2410 UltraSharp Monitor Overview

Dell U2410 UltraSharp Monitor Overview Video Clips.

If you're in the market for new monitor, I would highly recommend taking a look at the Dell U2410 24" UltraSharp Widescreen Monitor. IMO it's a great all around monitor, with 1920 X 1200 resolution and a response time of 6ms. This monitor was built with the enthusiast in mind and has all the connections you could possible want, including HDMI and Display Port. The only regret I have is I wish it would have came with a remote control to navigate through all it's different modes. If I had to rate this monitor I would give it 8 out of 10. If you do purchase this monitor be sure to get Rev A01, as Rev A00 had some minor issues that have been addresses in the new rev. If you do own this model already and have Rev. A001 there is a firmware available, PM meand I will send you the link. Cheers LazyMan :-)

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