MacMini as media center with eyeTV

Question

I'm trying to collect some facts and thoughts about the idea of using the MacMini as a media center at home. There seems to be some hard feelings regarding FrontRow 2.0 in Leopard, but I can't see that they would have any greater impact in the set up I'm planning - can you?
I'd like to...
...access my iTunes library
...look at iPhoto pics
...watch DVDs
...watch DIVx, AVI, VIDEO_CD
...record TV
...use our old 21 inch 4:3 CRT television + external amp + analog cable (just usual antenna signal)
I don't have to...
...use the Mini to anything else (like surfing, email)
...5.1 sound or something like that
I'm looking at a MacMini with the Elgato eyeTV 250 plus and a DVI-video adapter.
A few questions:
* What about the quality of the recorded video using eyeTV? As VHS or better?
* Is eyeTV integrated into FrontRow nowadays? I'd like to schedule my recordings that way - as simple as possible.
* Do I switch channels using eyeTV, or do I still have the ordinary antenna signal to the TV so I can use that remote i I'd like? Perhaps I need to split the antenna signal into two cables - one going to elgato and one to the TV (side by side with the scart from the Mini).

Answer 1

Hey Goka,
I recently purchased a Mac Mini for this very reason. I've only had it for a few days but here's what I've discovered in answer to your questions:
1.) It will access your iTunes library, including shared libraries over your home network. However, shared libraries currently will not display album art (something many users are frustrated with - I guess previous versions of Front Row did support album art for shared libraries). Hopefully this is an issue Apple will resolve soon in an update. I've written them asking them to address it and many others have as well... you may want to add your 10 cents too. The only trick to the shared libraries is that you have to tell Front Row to look for it each time you boot/wake up your machine (it's a menu item in the Front Row interface called "Sources"). I have yet to experience a stutter on these shared files on our home wireless network.
2.) I haven't tried the iPhoto thing yet but hope to soon. I'll let someone else speak to that... I know it's possible.
3.) I've watched two DVDs right through Front Row. When you have a disc inserted it will become a menu option in Front Row. If you hit menu on your Apple Remote quickly it'll go to the DVD menu with full navigation through your Apple Remote, and if you hit Menu and hold it for a second it'll bring you back to the Front Row menu.
4.) If I understand it correctly theoretically anything you can play in QuickTime you can play in Front Row. I've successfully played some Xvid files so far. However, over our home wireless network larger files were difficult to stream (very stuttery). As a result I just connected an external USB hard drive to the Mac Mini... I can still access and manage the contents over the home network but the files are local to the Mac Mini so they load quickly and play flawlessly. The one trick is to make alias files of your movies (wherever you decide to store them) and place them in your Mac Mini's "Movies" folder (this way they'll show up in your Movies directory in Front Row. I noticed that sometimes accessing things over network required me "connecting" to the computer before opening Front Row on boot/wake up (another reason I opted to store movies locally and manage remotely).
4.) Recording TV... I haven't gotten to this piece yet. I'm hoping someone else can speak to this because this is something I want to do as well. I've been looking at the TVMicro (which comes with TheTube software for $60-90) and the EyeTV (which comes with EyeTV software for $150-200). Both seemed to receive reviews of 4+ stars everywhere I've looked. I wish there was a way to see the software for both in action. My biggest question is can you load the program and navigate (including just regular full screen viewing) via the Apple Remote or provided remote control - I don't want to have to get up and use the keyboard/mouse every time I want to watch TV. From what I've read the software records in either MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 with various quality levels based on what you're looking for. I wish it had H.264 or Divx encoding but I guess you can always do that after the fact. Unfortunately I can't yet speak to how the quality actually looks as I don't have one either. As a fail-safe for old fashioned channel surfing I've thought about using an RF splitter right before it hits the Mac Mini so you can still surf the channels the old way and/or with your Mac Mini (but if you can't do it easily and seamlessly on the Mac Mini I won't buy one).
5.) We're using our 27" CRT TV and the $20 DVI to Video adaptor Apple makes. Looks great to me. Certainly not HD... but neither is our TV. Sounds like we're on the same page... if I'm concerned about 5.1 and HD I'll buy a BR or HD DVD player and disc for optimal quality. I'm trying to keep most of my digital video files at around 1.2GB for movies (this is a 1500 bitrate for Xvid with 2-pass... looks as good as any standard def satellite TV channel I've seen).
Hope you find some of this feedback helpful. I also hope someone else can speak more to the EyeTV and/or MicroTV solutions that are available, how they perform and how you interact with the software.