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Windows Media Center on an Apple Mac mini

By Mauricio Freitas, in , posted: 21-JAN-2008 11:36

After moving our digital media collection to the Windows Home Server, my plan involved using some sort of a networked digital media player to be able to stream this content inside the house - mainly to our lounge.

This is nothing new here because we already have a Squeezebox, but that works with music only.

I found references to some interesting products - the Popcorn Media Tank for example - that included music, photos and video, but I wanted something easy to use, with wireless LAN support - and most importantly something that didn't look like an IT departement had landed in our lounge.

So I thought of using Windows Media Center, based on Windows Vista Ultimate.

Just one problem though and that is most of the PC cases are either too big, or noisy because of the fan requirements, too costly when part of a completely new PC, or simply plain ugly.

So I thought I should look at the temple of modern computing design, Apple. And I ended up settling on a Mac mini. Mind you this is not the first Mac in this house of Windows. But this is a special one, because it is the first computer in the lounge (except for laptops sometimes).

The best thing about the Mac mini is certainly the size and design. It doesn't look like a computer and it's not much bigger than a paperback. I choose the smallest one with 1.83 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM and 80 GB HDD - no need for large storage because everything is on the Windows Home Server.

So I ordered this on-line from the Apple Store and had it delivered next day (sorry DSE, but your sales guy in Featherston St missed a sale by being dumb and not allowing the one you had there to be transferred to my local store in Johnsonville).

Anyway, I was really impressed with the small box delivered to my door. I opened it and in less than ten minutes of the initial Mac OS configuration I was running Bootcamp and installing Windows Vista on this machine.

Windows Vista installed really fast and all the drivers were delivered with the Mac OS DVD that comes with this box. I installed Avast antivirus, Daemon-Tools and configured the box to use Windows Vsta as the default OS.

Basically if it runs on Windows Vista it will work on this hardware - including ReadyBoost.

The next thing was the installation of a few Media Center plugins and the first three were MyMovies, Yougle and Media Center RSS Reader.

Yougle allows you to play social media content from sites such as YouTube, MSN Soapbox and others - including Apple Quicktime trailers! The Media Center RSS Reader is obvious.

But the most important plugin was MyMovies. It allows you to create a database of the movies you own and then cross-reference movies, actors, directors, etc on the big screen. You can find a biography and then check all the movies you own where that actor worked. It will also automatically load the movie for you before playing. And it solves a big problem too...

You see, I installed LogMeIn so I could manage ths box from my laptop because it does not have a keyboard and mouse - only the Microsoft MCE Remote Control. But there's no EJECT button in this remote control and there's no EJECT button on the Mac mini either! MyMovies solves this problem because it lists the movies in your database and the movie currently in the DVD drive - including an EJECT option.

Overall I am really happy with this setup and even over wireless LAN it can play DVDs streaming from the Windows Home Server with no problems at all.

UPDATE: Just to be complete, I've posted a couple of features I'd like to see to enrich the Media Center experience...

Other related posts:
Register for .Net Code Camp Wellington now
Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 available now
Windows 7 RC Wallpapers


 





Comment by chiefie, on 21-JAN-2008 13:02

Awesome... sounded like we should have picked MacMini a year or two ago instead of HP's big beast of the time - m7099a Windows XP Media Center Edition.

Looks like I may follow suit in coming months to get MacMini into the home and be our DVD/media player.

p/s: do you use the Vista MCE remote control/receiver or XP?


Comment by ATSdave, on 21-JAN-2008 17:33

Interesting... Are you using any ATSC HDTV tuners?


Comment by Herman verschooten, on 21-JAN-2008 20:02

Mauricio,

Sweet. The way I eject a DVD from my MCE is, when playing the DVD press the 'i' button and on the context menu there is an eject option. Stupid thing is, this is only available when the DVD is playing. Now if only somebody would make software that would allow you to use another vista machine as extender, life would be sweet...

Greetings,

Herman verschooten
Antwerp, Belgium


Author's note by freitasm, on 21-JAN-2008 20:03

Great tip Herman, thanks!


Comment by mrhugo, on 30-JAN-2008 00:04

Hi Mauricio,

Great post! I was thinking of doing the same (using a mac mini with windows home server). I have a couple of questions:

1. how well does the lower end model with 1GB ram run vista media center? Can it play 720p or 1080p content without problems?

any hardware compatability issues with the mini and vista?

2. how well does the HP MediaSmart Server perform out of the box and streaming to the mini?
Any major issues? Does it really need a ram upgrade?



About your eject problem. You could consider storing the dvd's on the WHS server and browsing/streaming them through the dvd library in vista media center. It will take up alot of space, but no need to eject discs every time.

Any other upgrades worth doing on either the mini or the WHS box?


Comment by mruane, on 23-FEB-2008 12:07

Hi Mauricio

My Mini Mac arrived (from TotallyMac delivered overnight) and I followed a similar approach to you, but using Windows XP and Media Portal rather than Vista and Media Centre. I had some trouble installing Vista with the install not being able to find install files on the DVD.  XP installed fine though and runs very smoothly.

I have Media Portal's TVEngine3 living on the central Media Server with two DVB-S card providing the ability to record virtually anything off the satellite at the same time and a full 7 day EPG from the satellite.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Mini Mac with Windows via Bootcamp is the sweet spot. I got the 1.8ghz model and its virtually silent and generates almost no heat to speak of and is so small its hard to see behind the TV.  I have a copy of Media Portal on it (running in client mode) connected to the central media server using the LAN or Wireless and streaming of TV recordings from the server is smooth.

I will look at Media Centre when MS actually fix it up so that it works properly, in the meantime, Media Portal provides everything that Media Centre should provide - just not a pretty a UI.


Overall, a sweet, stylish and not too expensive solution for the lounge.


Thanks for the heads up on this option.


Cheers Mike


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Mauricio Freitas
Wellington
New Zealand


I live in New Zealand and my interests include mobile devices, good books, movies and food of course! 

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