Mauricio: Can you update me on your Mini Mac

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Mauricio: Can you update me on your Mini Mac - if you have a moment.

mruane

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#19224 10-Feb-2008 14:27

Mauricio

Could you give me an update on how your Mini Mac is working out? I am looking really closely at buying a Mac Mini to replace my HTPC because of the size of it.

My plan is to convert the existing HTPC to a media server (located in the office) adding a PVR150 to the two HVR4000's it already has, then using Media Portal's TVEngine3 to manage those cards and do all of the recording. I have figured out how to play the .TS files in Vista Media Centre, so I just need to work out how to manually update Media Centre's recording.xml file with the recordings created by Media Portal's TVEngine and I should have the best of both worlds - MCE's user interface and Media Portal's great recording engine. As an alternative, I can just run Media Portal in client mode on the Mini Mac in the meantime and I know that works fine (in XP or Vista).

Did you get the Mini Mac connected to a large screen TV (i.e. plasma, LCD or what have you), and is it working out OK? Do the Windows applications run OK using Boot Camp?

To me, this option looks like the sweet spot in many ways.

One other quick question. I am not sure if Media Portal's TVEngine will operate on Windows Home Server, if it does, is it worth installing Home Server and using that as the Media Server platform? Are the benefits worth the effort? Home Server doesn't appear to be available in the MSDN subcription area yet, so I am wondering if its worth spending $290 on it. What are your thoughts?

Cheers Mike

freitasm

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#109658 10-Feb-2008 14:43

I have just installed Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on my Mac mini. All working fine with the standard Apple Bootcamp drivers disitrbuted with it. No problems at all.

I have it connected via VGA to a Sony Bravia 32" LCD in the lounge. The next step is to put an ethernet cable to get the 1 Gbps connection going from my switch, since Wi-Fi is ok but lags now and then if there's too much disc activity on the server where I have all the media files stored.

Windows Home Server is just Windows SBS 2003 with a few layers on top, so if it runs on Windows Server it will run on Windows Home Server.

I will update more later, when I am back home.

rscole86

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#109660 10-Feb-2008 14:59

All I can say is that it looks very nice

nathan

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#109664 10-Feb-2008 15:41

mruane: Mauricio

Could you give me an update on how your Mini Mac is working out? I am looking really closely at buying a Mac Mini to replace my HTPC because of the size of it.

My plan is to convert the existing HTPC to a media server (located in the office) adding a PVR150 to the two HVR4000's it already has, then using Media Portal's TVEngine3 to manage those cards and do all of the recording. I have figured out how to play the .TS files in Vista Media Centre, so I just need to work out how to manually update Media Centre's recording.xml file with the recordings created by Media Portal's TVEngine and I should have the best of both worlds - MCE's user interface and Media Portal's great recording engine. As an alternative, I can just run Media Portal in client mode on the Mini Mac in the meantime and I know that works fine (in XP or Vista).

Did you get the Mini Mac connected to a large screen TV (i.e. plasma, LCD or what have you), and is it working out OK? Do the Windows applications run OK using Boot Camp?

To me, this option looks like the sweet spot in many ways.

One other quick question. I am not sure if Media Portal's TVEngine will operate on Windows Home Server, if it does, is it worth installing Home Server and using that as the Media Server platform? Are the benefits worth the effort? Home Server doesn't appear to be available in the MSDN subcription area yet, so I am wondering if its worth spending $290 on it. What are your thoughts?

Cheers Mike

FWIW Windows Home Server is not available on MSDN Subscription

http://blogs.msdn.com/msdnsubscriptions/archive/2008/01/14/windows-home-server-a-follow-up.aspx

mruane

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#109685 10-Feb-2008 17:07

Thanks Mauricio: Looks like a promising option to pursue and with a birthday coming up - it couldn't be better timed. I will look forward to further updates when you have the time.

Nathan: Thanks for the link. Pity. Never mind - I guess the responses to that blog say it all really.

Cheers Mike

freitasm

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#109698 10-Feb-2008 17:42

As pointed out it is not available on MSDN yet. It may never be, but as noted if Microsoft wants developers to create WHS Add-ins they will have to load it up one day. In the meantime I actually bought a copy of Windows Home Server when it was released in New Zealand (which was the first country in the world to have it, for a change!)

I have four 500 GB drives in the pool, plus 500 GB outside the pool. I use those 2 GB to store our media, Geekzone backups, automatic client backups and other stuff. I use the extra 500 GB to store the virtual HD for some virtual machines I run on this box (yes, it works well).

Advantages of WHS? Automatic backup - all clients running the connector can automatically backup overnight. This includes maintenance, backup recycle, etc. Also some cool Add-ins. Avast antivirus for WHS is great since it shows all your clients in the WHS Console, including status, last scan, etc.

Also you have folder duplication which guarantees your files will be stored in two distinct drives so its safer.

In terms of cost it's way cheaper than a NAS with 2 TB these days, and with a lot more functionality.

The Mac mini is running well, and as I wrote before it's now running Windows Vista SP1 RTM. No problems at all. Sound and picture are great. I bought the Microsof MCE remote and the keyboard - you will need at least the remote and a remote desktop connection for maintenance.