Basic question: Playing MySky on my LCD via a Mac Mini

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Basic question: Playing MySky on my LCD via a Mac Mini

metagoo

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#80959 6-Apr-2011 17:41

I thought about putting this on the Sky forum, but it is more about home-theatre setup than anything else.

This is probably a really basic question. We have two setups - an old CRT TV connected to a digital Sky box via SCART, and a brand-new Mac Mini connected to a 24" LCD.

The old TV is a dinosaur and needs to go to make room. We'd really like to have just the Mac Mini, the LCD and Sky. Possibly an upgrade from Sky to MySky is needed because I can't see SCART being much use in this execise.

Is it possible to connect [My]Sky to the Mac Mini and thence to the LCD, or some other combo that gives us both the internet/computing and Sky on one LCD?

The LCD is a few years old, but it has DVI-in and VGA-in. The Mac Mini has HDMI-out. We have an adapter cable HDMI-to-DVI that we use to connect the Mac to the LCD.

Thanks, all help appreciated. Please don't suggest binning the LCD, we are planning already to upgrade to a modern 42" LCD but that exercise is six months away yet. Similarly, large hardware purchases are not possible right now. Kind of hoping there is a cable solution to keep us trucking for a few months.

testing123

176 posts

Master Geek

#456362 7-Apr-2011 13:05

The TV should have more than one input - connect the sky AND the mac to them: problem solved.

trig42

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#456369 7-Apr-2011 13:10

It sounds like the TV is a monitor. In which case, only one input.
Other than an HDMI switch arrangement, I don't see any other way around this.

CYaBro

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#456371 7-Apr-2011 13:12

testing123: The TV should have more than one input - connect the sky AND the mac to them: problem solved.

It's not a TV it's an oldish LCD which only has a DVI & VGA input.

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CYaBro

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#456372 7-Apr-2011 13:15

trig42: It sounds like the TV is a monitor. In which case, only one input.
Other than an HDMI switch arrangement, I don't see any other way around this.

That's what I thought too but then you have the problem of the audio since DVI doesn't carry audio.
There must be a seperate audio cable from the MAC to the screen at the moment.

Is the LCD screen being used for the audio as well?

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

wellygary

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#456396 7-Apr-2011 14:00

For Video - get/make yourself a SCART to VGA cord

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=34&topicid=17483

Given that VGA and DVI are video only I am assuming you are dealing with Audio somewhere else, or does the LCD have built in speakers?

metagoo

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#456434 7-Apr-2011 15:19

Just to clarify, the old TV is a CRT. The new screen we want to use is not a TV - just a large LCD with VGA and DVI inputs.

Audio is via some nice independant speakers that take any audio input via the usual tiny jack.

For the Sky/CRT TV arrangement, we plug the speakers into the headphone jack on the front of the CRT TV and control volume with the Sky remote.

For the Mac Mini/LCD arrangement, we unplug the same speakers from the TV jack and plug into the back of the Mac Mini. Then volume is controlled via the mac keyboard.

The speakers also have their own independant volume control.

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CYaBro

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#456451 7-Apr-2011 16:06

Ah so if you have reconnect speakers every time, when changing devices, why not just do the same for the HDMI-DVI cable if you change to MySkyHDi?
Although the MySky box doesn't have a headphone socket so you would need an adaptor to change the RCA audio outs to the 3.5mm plug.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.