AppleTV or Mac Mini with Front Row?

I'm trying to decide whether to get an Apple TV, or a Mac Mini running Front Row. Cost is not the main issue. I live in The Netherlands where Apple has no movie rental service. I have a large DVD collection that I am slowly ripping to an external hard disk for use in iTunes. Any thoughts on which is the better approach?

Yes - I had actually stumbled across Plex since posting my original question and have been playing with it on my iMac. It is very nice indeed and a whole load more functional than Front Row yet with a very nice user interface. The information and graphics it automatically downloads on movies in your library is especially impressive. Apple would do well to consider taking over this project and incorporating it into the next release of Front Row and Apple TV! Incidentally, I see that it is a port of the popular XBMC application, that started life as the open source home theatre application for the X-Box, but has since gone on to be the main home theatre applications for Linux. Indeed, Plex has swung it for me - it is a class above what the Apple TV can provide and justifies the extra expense of the Mac Mini. In terms of user interface, it is no more difficult to use than Front Row, but because of the power of system it is more complex to set up (but not by any means impossible). Integration with the iLife apps is automatic.

Similar Messages

Using Mac Mini with Front Row on my TV

OK, this is probably answered a million times already, but I couldn't find a simple explanation anywhere.
I want to use my Mac Mini on my TV, so basically I can use Front Row with the remote on my regular television. I see there's a $20 video adapter to make the video appear on my TV, but what about the audio?

For audio, you will need to route the mini's audio output jack (stereo mini-jack) to the same input on the TV as the mini's video is connected. If the TV is not of the HDTV type, you'll typically be limited to s-video or composite input. I is normal for either of these to also have audio jacks to which the mini's audio can be connected with an appropriate lead (often stereo mini-jack to left/right RCA). The audio will then play with the video when that input on the TV is selected.
Alternatively, you could route the mini's audio to an external amplifier, and play it that way.

What's the best set up with AppleTV and Mac Mini with 2TB external HD?

Hi
I have an Apple TV and 2TB external HD connected to my Mac Mini.
I want to stream through my Mac Mini and I want all my media stored in my external HD.
What's the best setting so that I sync only one way to my external HD the contents of my Apple TV? I don't want anything except unwatched media on my Apple TV.
I'm fairly new to Mac world and Apple TV, as far as I read iTunes and Apple TV sync both ways,how do I achieve a one way sync to my Mac Mini with external HD?
Many thanks

ali akidil wrote:
Ok that makes it clear, sorry I used wrong terminology,it should have been transfer rather than sync.
You don't want to stop transfers of purchased content. See This User Tip
While on the subject a friend of mine told me that the streaming videos doesn't work well,it kinda freezes and stops but the music stream is fine. Is that true or his set up is wrong?
It's not necessarily his configuration set up that's wrong, it's probably that he has a poor network by virtue of too great a distance or interference from other networks or other household equipment.

Mac Mini w/ Front Row vs. AppleTV

I've been comparing the AppleTV to the Mac Mini for media server capabilities, and while I've nearly settled on the Mini, there are a couple questions I want to clear up before I start spending. Obviously most people opting for a Mac Mini over an AppleTV would be using FrontRow for their media consumption. But there are a couple feature on the AppleTV that don't appear on FrontRow, such as the ability to browse and watch YouTube videos, and the ability to buy and rent movies and shows within FrontRow. I was wondering if anyone knew of plans to add this functionality to FrontRow OR some way of adding it yourself.

I doubt they'll add it. The Front Row on the AppleTV and regular macs are now two different animals. Apple will probably want to keep it this way, to keep people buying it because of its unique version of Front Row, not found on a mac that Apple customers may already own.
But there are various ways of downloading YouTube videos ahead of time and then watching them on Front Row. See this MacRumors forum on the topic:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=251390
I was actually at one point also choosing between the two, however, I wasn't as interested in the YouTube functionality. The decider for me was how it fit into my current computer line-up. I also have a laptop, and it has a small hard drive, so its not suitable to hold my media for the AppleTV to access. I'm going to buy the Mac mini because it can function as an AppleTV (spare a few extra functions like YouTube in Front Row) and as a host for all my media (AppleTVs aren't built to be true stand-alone devices).
If your going to buy the Mac mini, try and hold out for a while; its due for an hardware update soon.

Mac mini: eyetv & front row

Hi,
This is my first mac in over a decade, which I bought to use a s a media center, with my elgato eyetv 200.
Can Front Row see the eyetv recordings? My goal is to configure eyetv to save to the right format in the right location, so that front row automatically finds our tv shows.
If someone could please help me answer these questions:
1) Are Front Row and eyetv compatible? (please say yes this is why I bought the mini)
2) What file formats do FrontRow and eyetv have in common?
3) Do files have to be in a specific location for Front Row to find them?
4) How do you manage Front Row? Is it a service, or an application? It's not in the Applications directory.
I welcome any corrections to my jargon, as most of my experience is with Win32.
Many thanks.
mac mini dual core Mac OS X (10.4.5)
mac mini dual core Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Thanks for the suggestion, popsicle. I'll try your recommendation before giving up FrontRow, since it's time for an external HD anyway.
For future reference, this is a suggestion from from elgato tech support, may be interesting to others: they suggest using MediaCentral as an alternative to FrontRow...
EyeTV records MPEG Transport Streams - the worldwide standard for digital TV, including HDTV.
QuickTime has poor MPEG support, and doesn't support Transport Streams at all.
So, FrontRow is very limited when it comes to MPEG video.
Record in EyeTV, then export using "MPEG-4". If your EyeTV recordings are set for MPEG-4 in the Devices > Encoding preferences, then try "MPEG-4 AV" as the export.
There is no EyeTV integration with FrontRow. Apple doesn't want that at this time, since they don't offer any plugins or ways to play more MPEG content.
MediaCentral is a free alternative that supports EyeTV.
mac mini dual core Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Mac mini and Front Row - entertainment center

I plan to use a mac mini as a replacement for my CD jukebox and DVD player in my entertainment center. I have everything, including the HD cable box through the Yamaha receiver - what am I going to need to make this work? Router, etc??? Does Front Row just play media or do I use it to rip CD's - or is that Itunes?
Thanks, Just getting in to the mac and really like the operating system much more than Windows DME.

I did the same thing about a month ago, but we loved the Mac Mini so much more than our PC that I moved it to my desk and it's now my main PC. I plan on checking out the iTV like the previous post stated when it comes out too.
But, back to your question . . . Depending on what kind of TV you have, you may need an adaptor. For an HD widescreen TV, you can connect direct DVI if your TV has the connector, or you can get a DVI to HDMI cable (about $110) to go to an HDMI connection. I'm not aware that there are converters for composite video. For digital audio, you should get the mini to optical toslink converter. They sell it on the Apple store. I couldn't find one at Circuit City, Best Buy, CompUSA, or my local Apple store, but got one at a Re-Mac store. I recommend just buying it online. If you have music already imported to iTunes on a PC or another Mac, you can stream it to the Mac Mini on a wireless network. If you don't have one, you'll need a wireless router. Wireless G is the standard and works great. N is the new standard coming out, but unless you'll be streaming video over the network, it's overkill. The mini will easily hook right up to it once your network router is turned on and you've named your network. You can play iTunes songs and playlists from the other computer through Front Row as long as you have the music sharing option turned on in iTunes (PC or Mac) on the computer that holds the music. If you're just going to have the music on the Mac mini, none of the wireless shareing is necessary.
On your last question, Front Row doesn't rip CDs, but you just rip the CDs into iTunes and then Front Row will automatically see any music or playlists from iTunes. Front Row is basically just putting window dressing on iTunes for music. In fact, you can see after closing Front Row, that the little black arrow is under the iTunes icon on your dock meaning that it is open (even if you didn't open it before).
One last note, the mini won't work as a PVR unless you buy an external device to work as a TV tuner. You can search the discussions on Mac Mini to find a lot of posts for recommendations on how to do that.
I've been combing these discussion boards for the last month learning everything I need to know about the Mac. They're great for any other questions you have. Good luck!
Mac Mini 1.83 Intel Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Headless mini disagrees with Front Row

FYI. I'm running a Mini Intel headless via Timbuktu. With no monitor attached the remote does fine controlling iTunes, but when one tries to invoke Front Row, either via the keyboard or the remote, it results in a blank white screen. This was news to Apple, so I thought I'd post the info.
Mini Intel Core duo Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Interesting, I've never tried Timbuktu with Front Row but Apple Remote Desktop works fine.

Why didn't the Mac Pro come with Front Row?

I have absolutely loved my quad-core mac pro. It's been one of the best-performing computers I've ever owned, but this issue has somewhat annoyed me for quite some time: Why didn't this computer come with Front Row?
I wouldn't imagine an IR port would be difficult at all to install into the case, so why wasn't it? I suppose I could rationalize its omission as this being a computer aimed at professionals--but then again MacBook Pro has Front Row as well... so what gives?
Is there any aftermarket ways of having Front Row work with your Mac Pro?

Indeed, I'm going to try the Wii remote approach as soon as mine arrives.
It will also usable as a MIDI controller in Logic
Anyone know if it's easy to redirect the DVD player output to a second DVI card? I have two monitors on the X1900 and I have a 7300 spare which I could use to drive my projector.

Mac-mini with hdtv

I have a new mac-mini and I have it hooked to my pioneer viera th-42px600u tv. The native resolution on the tv is 1024x768. I would love to use the mac to replace my dvd player and also use it to play videos. I have ripped some dvd's to vob and then used autoGK to convert to avi (using the xvid encoding). Couple things... First, I would love to just put the videos on my mac and use front row to watch them. But, I get no sound. When I open quicktime and play the file, I still get no sound, but I get a message saying I am missing a quicktime component and I can click on the link that takes me to a sight with the component I am missing. But, there are like 8 different components listed on that site, with no idea which one I need to get the sound. How can I figure out what I need.
Second, the video quality is, well, not good. I have played around with the different resolutions and haven't been able to get anything that looks good. I can play the file on my pc using my flat screen monitor and I know that that isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison, I would expect that the quality of the video would be better than it is. I am using a DVI to HDMI cable to use the HDMI input on the tv. And, has anyone had any luck with video that has HD content? Also, even if I stick the DVD into the DVD drive on the MAC, the DVD player software won't even give me a full screen. That picture is ok, but it looks like I can only get a picture that uses about 70% of the screen area on the TV (where if I just use my DVD player I get a full screen picture).
Any help with any of this would be greatly appreciated. I have found lots of old forums where people talked about having to download utilities to give the mini different resolutions, but that problem appears to have been solved out of the box (I even see a color profile named 'Panasonic TV' if I try to mess with the display stuff).
Thanks in advance...
Chris

I did some research (yes, I decided to read the manual). My mistake was that I was trying to choose a resolution from the mini that closely matched the native resolution of the TV. The manual for the TV stated that if I was using the HDMI input, it only works for input resolutions of 480, 720 or 1080. So, I switched the resolution of the mini to 720 (instead of the 780 or whatever I had settled on) and it made a big improvement in the quality of the picture.
Go figure. Who'd a thunk that the manual would have useful information...
Hamish, I hope that helps.
On an unrelated topic, I'm now in the process of trying to convert movies that I own and have presently ripped to VOB's into some other format suitable for playing in QT on the mini (I would love to just have .avi files or whatever sitting in the Movies directory and fire up Front Row and watch movies that way, instead of having to mess with the DVD drive). Any ideas? I have tried playing with autoGK, but it uses an encoding that doesn't match a codec in QT so I don't get any sound. I have played around with trying to install the DIVX codec, but that doesn't do me any good. Have you ever tried this?
Chris

Connection Mac mini with lcd 32' (daewoo sensi)

Hi
i m trying to connect a lcd daewoo 32 to a MacMini
this works with dvi/sub 15 but there is no access to zoom ,panorama or 14/9
only 4/3 and 16/9 are available
the lcd give access to these options when connected to a dvdplayer with yuv
i bought a dvi/yuv adaptator for the macmini but there is no image on the display
should i connect the mac mini with dvi/hdmi link to access
Has anyone successfully connected a lcd with these options ?
Thanks in advance

Thanks Anne for the answer
i allready downloaded this before posting , i'm not sure it helps
let me try to be more specific
the problem is to use front row on the mini with a 16/9 display (32') for films
with the dvi/yuv adaptator , it seems that the mac ( or the card) can not send this signal . Too bad , the tv with yuv connection accepts zoom , 14/9 ...
with the dvi/vga adaptator , the signal is ok on tv , at least for movies (1280x1024) , but the tv (plugged with vga ) does not give access to zoom , 14/9 so movies are "small"
not overscanned , but small
so i'm looking for somebody who plugged this successfully ( mini front row and movies in full screen ( or max available) without deformation of the image
Another option could be dvi to composite adaptator ...but going out from the mini in dvi to display on a 1366x768 LCD does not seem to be the best

Anybody using M-Audio Transit USB with Front Row?

If any of you are using Front Row with the external Transit USB D/A Coverter, and are experiencing freezing issues, you may want to read below what I have been able to figure out as to why this is happening.
After MANY hours of frustration, I have been able to confirm that the Transit USB is causing the following problem:
I have a Mac Mini with a clean install of Leopard 10.5.2 and all Apple updates. Nothing else is installed. With the Transit NOT connected to the Mini, I installed the latest 1.7-3 drivers from your site and restarted computer. I then connected the Transit and selected AC-3 as the Audio Output. In order to make Front Row see AC-3, you must open "DVD Player" and select its output to "Digital Out - M-Audio Transit USB" instead of "System Sound Output". You then need to restart Mini. With that done, playing movies thru "DVD Player" works fine. However, when you go to watch a movie thru "Front Row", the Transit (for some reason) causes "Front Row" to freeze. It doesn't freeze during movie playback, it freezes when hitting "Menu" and you are sitting at the Menu Screen that asks for the following 3 options: "Resume Playing", "Start from Beginning", or "DVD Menu". There is no way to get out of this frozen state. You MUST restart computer. When computer restarts, if you go into "DVD Player" Preferences and change the audio output selection back to "System Sound Output" and restart computer, this issue disappears and Front Row works fine again (however, without AC-3).
To reiterate my point: Transit USB works fine with DVD Player but NOT with Front Row. I have confirmed this on 2 Mac Mini's.

This is indeed an M-Audio issue. I have the same setup you do, except my mini is a 1.25GHz G4 with no on-board Digital audio output.
To make it work with front row, you have to go to (Settings) and turn off the background music, it will stop freezing and let you select your media.
My AC3 output from my Transit USB has never worked in this configuration. My receiver just doesn't see AC3 coming out of it.....soooo no sound at all. However I set it to (Outputs 1&2), (24bit) and boom...my receiver plays back in its Pro Logic setting via an optical connection from the Transit. All my movies and music playback just lovely. BUT. If I go on the net and try to play a flash video, like a YouTube, etc... Safari will freeze. I verified it is the Transit and not Safari because the moment I unplug the Transit, Safari wakes up, the video resumes and sound plays through the internal speaker just fine.
Something's goofy with the M-Audio Driver for Leopard.

Stuck with Front Row

My mother was trying to email two simple jpg files from "Documents" folder. I don't know what she clicked. She ended up with Front Row stuck on her screen. Could not exit. Mouse did not work, neither was the keyboard. She also remembered hearing excessive HDD scratching.
When she described the problem, I did not understand because I've never seen Front Row. I had to drive clear across the town to help her out.
I had to yank off the power in the back. Then boot. Everything is a o.k. now.
How could one end up with Front Row? Especially from an email environment?

Alex DeSlim wrote:
My mother...
How could one end up with Front Row? Especially from an email environment?
That is expected behavior from mothers
btw - instead of "yanking out" the main, you could just hold down the power button on the Mac until it shuts off.
-mj

New iMac install problem with Front Row

Hi I just got my imac yesterday, the desktop intel core duo with mac os x tiger. It comes with front row but when I clicked on it to open, it said I needed to install, so I followed the instructions to the letter, and when it starts to install front row, it says: "there were errors installing the software. Please try installing again." Which I did repeatedly, plus restarting. No go. Can anyone give me a tip on what I should try next? Thanks. you can email me [email protected]

Normally to activate Front Row you press the Menu button on the Apple Remote that came with your Mac or you can use the keyboard shortcut of Command(Apple) + Escape.

Connect an amplifier (Rotel RA 12) to the mac mini with USB plug?

Is it possible to connect the mac mini with an amplifier via usb?

Hillbille
I have a Mac Mini and a Rotel RA12. As you have found out, you can use the optical out from the 3.5 mm output jack to act as an optical input on the RA12.   This option works fairly well to give you a pretty clean sound. However, there are other options available to you.
One option is to use the headphone out as an analog signal using a tradtional 3.5 mm to RCA (split) cable, and running it to the analog inputs on the back of the RA12. This will provide sound, but not quite up to the quality you will be getting using the optical out. The reason being that the music signal is being processed by the internal DAC on the Mac instead of the better DAC in the Rotel. The other obvious reason is the quality of cable is typically not up to snuff using that route (although, you can get some high end 3.5 mm to RCA cables).
Another option would be to use USB output from the Mac Mini and hooking it up to the USB input on the front of the RA12. This is how I play music from my iPad mini through my Rotel and it works well. Again, however, you are using the DAC of the Mac equipment instead of the Rotel and are limited as to what type of fileyou can play. For example, you can't play FLAC or 24 bit 88kHz files.
A third option, as someone already mentioned, is to get a USB/SPDIF converter, then run a COAX cable to the back of the Rotel RA12. Depending on the quality of the converter, this is your BEST option for audio quality.   Using something like an M2Tech Hiface 2 converter will provide a high quality, jitter free signal between the Mac and the RA12.
Within that third option are two "sub-options" for music playback. You can use iTunes to play back the music through the USB/SPDIF converter directly, or you can use a third party application that will bypass the volume control of the MAC to give you a much purer signal. An example would be Amarra or Audirvana.
If you choose to use iTunes only, the sound will still be "okay", but you will not be able to play FLAC files or SACD ISO files.   You also won't have much control over the signal processing.   Either of thrid part applications I mentioned will give you the option to play other audiophile grade files, and give you a far better sonic experience compared to iTunes, and they can also be integrated with your iTunes library. They will also allow you to utilize Direct Integer mode, upsampling, etc ... so that you can have a 44.1kHz file upsample to 192kHz at the Rotel, or have it upsampled to 192kHz in the Mac (using the 3rd party software) before it is sent out to the Rotel. It just give you much more control over the signal.
The last option option above will give you an audiophile grade signal that will allow your Mac Mini to be used with very high end audio equipment with no comprise to the sound. It will rival the very best of CD or SACD players on the market. It also sounds incredible and you can use it in conjuction with the Apple remote app to control your music through an iPad.

Using Smart folders with front row

I have several video files on my Hard Disk, and would like to see them without having to move them to the MOVIE folder.
Creating aliases doesn't work because I always have new files and can't synchronize all of them manually!
Best way would be to create a Smart folder INSIDE movies that will be automatically populated with all the videos on my computer.
Any ideas on how to do it?
thanks,
P.

I don't think a "smart folder" is going to work. A "smart folder" is not really a folder itself, it's a text file that remembers the criteria you selected for a search. It's a little Mac OS X magic that makes the Finder think it's a folder. Front Row thinks it's a text file. You won't be able to browse the contents of a "smart folder" with Front Row. Now, why Apple couldn't add smart folder technology into the Front Row interface, I have no idea. I would think they could implement this. I would send them some feedback and request this option:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
-Doug

AppleTV or Mac Mini with Front Row?

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