Connecting Mini to entertainment center..

Good morning.
I’m interested in connecting my mini to my TV. I have S-Video and Component connections on my TV. What of cable is available to run from the mini to my TV and also, what type of audio cable would I need to get from the mini to and optical or coaxial input on my receiver?
Thanks for the help.

It is quite right that there should be no audio qulity difference with Digital optical cables but there is a definate difference in build quality between makes. Some of the cheaper cables will have poorer standard connectors which are usually the part that fails with an optical cable. It is usally a break in the optical path that will cause problems and as Doug points out, the signal is either on or off so if the cable is faulty, you will not experience 'crackly' noise as you might with a copper wire cable, you will experience silence! Treat them carefully though and all should be well, the marked improvement in sound with optical is worth it.

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Help Me Please...Using Mac Mini as Entertainment Center

Ok, so I am needing help with this mini:
Mac Mini
Model Identifier: PowerMac 10.1
Processor: PowerPC G4(1.2)
Processor Speed : 1.42 ghz
HardDrive: 80gb
Memory: 512mb
OK so...let me begin with some background....I know this is an older based mini, it was collecting dust in a closet, when I decided to put it to use. So I completely whiped the hard drive, installed leopard, and pulled all my media off my time capsule to the mini itself. I wrote a script that boots the mini up, as if it were an AppleTV..all is well...BUT....When the mini boots up, it boots up into front row, and in order to select the category/media I want..I need to either use a Bluetooth/wireless keyboard/mouse...or use screen sharing from my Macbook pro and control it that way...I would really like to be able to use a remote control. However the PowerPC based minis do not support the use of the apple remote...I have looked into other 3rd party remotes such as keyspan and others, however, that would be another remote to keep up with..I would really like to have only one single remote that controls everything....SOOO...I was looking into the Logitech harmony remote..which is **** expensive, but I thought it might work....But..again, the mini doesn't have an ir receiver....So im kinda stumped on what I should do...anyone have any ideas?

I think the Keyspan is your best choice as it comes with a receiver. I have previously used one on a PowerMac with Front Row. They are cheaper than the Logitech Harmony range as well.

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!
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Hi all,
Can someone steer me into right direction? I'd like to use my MacMini as my main entertainment center to view my movies, music,TV, etc. and would like to know what will I need to make viewing pleasurable? I'd like to get a 42" display. I'd also like to add 5.1 digital surround sound. I'll also be using my Mac mini for web surfing and emails. Thanks for your help
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I just finished my setup, and I'm quite satisfied. I bought a Mac Mini to use as the media center and bought the Elgato EyeTV 250+ to get digital television over the antenna, which also allows you to use your mac as a DVR. I send the video to a Sony projector via DVI to HDMI cable, and the audio goes to my old surround sound receiver via the headphone jack to RCA. If you don't have a receiver yet, I'd get one that has optical audio input since the headphone jack on the mini also has optical out. I also use a firewire external hard drive to store video.
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I am slowly starting the full conversion over to the Mac from the PC. I am currently have a Mini Mac. At some point I want to get a Mac Book Pro or iBook. I would like to hook the Mini to the TV and Stereo. I am thinking a new big screen TV will have the DVI video connection so I could compute with the Mini and use the Mini's DVD player as part of the entertainment center. Is it possible to install Front Row on an old Mini? Is there a USB sound card so I can have 5.1 surround sound? Thanks.

There are other options besides Apple's own Front Row for you. Take a look at Media Central:
http://www.equinux.com/us/products/mediacentral/index.html
It is possible to get surround sound out of your PowerPC Mac mini (if that's what you mean by "old"). You will need something like m-audio's Transit device:
http://web1.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Transit-main.html
-Doug

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***** Full Size Link: http://imageshack.com/a/img35/6577/lskf.png *****

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@Advanced option no longer appears in SB Entertainment Center tabD I recently wanted to watch movie DVD's on my computer. Knowing very little about video/sounds concepts, I installed the ffdshow video/audio decoder (part of the K-Lite Codec package). After several days I was able to watch movie DVD's on my computer, both video and audio using a movie DVD that had Dolby Surround 5.. However, I was unable to hear any sound from my rear speakers, so I began to experiment with different settings.
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For example - I have 3 albums by Cymande, rather than play tracks -9 of the first album, then move onto the second album, it plays all 3 track 's then moves onto the track 2's - it's a little annoying when you want to listen to all 3 albums back-to-back by the same artist.
I'm running the copy of entertainment center I got with Audigy 4 on this machine...
Dell Dimension 950
Pentium D 2.8Ghz
GB RAM
60GB Hard Disk
NVIDIA Geforce 7300 LE
Soundblaster Audigy 4
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Most likley, just dragging each song into a playlist in whatever order would do the trick. The only problem with that is you must drag each song one by one, which is time-consuming.

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blulazries,
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Slow down the Creative Entertainment Center Fast Foreward when using the X-FI Remo

Hello,
When watching videos on my computer using the?Creative Entertainment?Center app and the remote with my X-FI SoundBlaster card the fast forward goes from zero to ludicrous speed instantly. I usually end up fast forwarding half way through the file without intending to. Is there a setting or registry or any other adjustment I can use to slow this down to a sane level? A 30 second skip for instance would be wonderful!
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Creative doesnt seem to hav plans to release Entertainment center for Audigy 2 ZS. But theres a way to install and use Entertainment center with AUDIGY 2 ZS Platinum/Pro. I first installed the Audigy 4 Modded PAX drivers for Audigy2 ZS with all softwares(i downloaded Audigy 4 ISO) , Then i uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled Audigy 2 ZS drivers , and again installed Entertainment Center, Guess what now Audigy 4 doesnt prompt me that i dont have the required HARD WARE before installation starts, and i can install ny Audigy 4 software(nothing much new though , only Entertainment center and Smart Recorder). and i am now enjoying Entertainment CENTER with my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro and with Audigy 2 drivers!!!!.
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- Doesn't Have a SEARCH option to search for tracks from thee Library
- No BASS/TREBLE/BALANCE Control thru. it
Message Edited by nvpower on 09-30-2005 06:39 PM

Connecting Mini to entertainment center..

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