Using a new HDMI Mac Mini with my TV: Early days
Posted on 22 June 2010
This will be the first in a continuing series of posts about using a brand new Mac Mini with an HDMI port (purchased in June 2010) connected to a high-definition television. To read all of our adventures jumping through hoops, losing remotes and forgetting the password to bypass parental controls, see this page with all my DIY home theater posts.
Searching along with my fellow TV and movie junkies for the home theater holy grail, I’ve wandered in the wilderness for many years. We have a pretty typical 21st century entertainment consuming household with adults and kids watching cable TV, DVD movies and stuff from the Internets including Youtube videos, purchased movies, shows and music videos and, increasingly, rented movies. Hardware-wise, we’ve been hooked on Tivo for a few years now, we obviously have many iPods, the occasional iPad and, though our music collection is entirely digital at this point, a gazillion DVDs. For purchased downloadable content, iTunes is our go-to choice though increasingly we rent from Amazon Unbox which can send flicks straight to our Tivo.
When Apple TV hit the scene in 2007, I took a long, hard look. In many ways, it seemed like just what I wanted: an easy to set-up, easy-to-use digital storage box for all our digital photos, videos and music that could be played back via HDTV or stereo. But the limitations were much too limiting — only compatible with a few video formats, — and the tiny storage capacity was even more ridiculous. So I passed.
I also began avidly followed the niche crowd that was trying to use Mac Minis as souped up Apple TVs. The challenges involved get clean digital signals with sound to the TV screen as well as finding a good software interface to manage a multimedia library. It never quite seemed simple enough to be worth all the trouble.
Until now…
When Apple recently unveiled a new, souped-up Mac Mini with an HDMI connection — the exact port needed to send both sound and video to an HDTV set — I jumped. It was time to get off the sidelines and join the experimenters.
The first choice was which Mac Mini to buy. I opted for the server version which has two speedy 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drives (totaling 1 TB) and no DVD drive. Since the plan was to rip all our DVDs to the hard drive, the only physical disks I’d be wanting to play would be Blu-Ray and Apple’s drives aren’t compatible with that higher definition format. The server Mac Mini’s double the storage and faster drives made it the more logical choice.
Once the little guy — and I do mean little — arrived, I hit the next challenge. The server operating system had no iLife programs — no iTunes or iPhoto. Luckily, iTunes is a free download and I own a “family pack” of iLife 2009, so it was easy to load up the new server with those two critical programs. The server mini did come with Apple’s limited if serviceable front-end for playing media on big television sets known as Front Row.
After installing the software, I copied all the media files from my laptop where they currently live to one of the server’s drives and imported them into a brand new iTunes library. That went pretty smoothly, though some audiobooks purchased long ago wanted to be authorized by Audible.com and my account had apparently used up its allotment of authorized computers. A quick email customer service sorted that out.
Then I brought the mini into the family room and connected via an HDMI cable to our Samsung HDTV. The display automatically configured itself to the proper 1080P output although the edges of the screen, including the critical top menu bar, were out of view. But there’s now a simple setting to fix that problem in System Preferences > Displays called Overscan. There’s a slider control you adjust until the invisible outside edges become visible. I believe that was one of the issues that drove folks crazy a few years ago trying to get minis and HDTVs connected. I also had at the ready a Logitech diNovo Edge bluetooth keyboard (Mac edition). This guy has a touchpad built-in so you can sit on the couch and wirelessly operate your TV-connected Mac without a mouse. Very handy. It also has dedicated buttons to bring up Front Row, control the iTunes player etc. (You have to install Logitech’s control center program to get the special buttons working properly).
I called up Front Row and it played everything just fine. Sound initially emanated from the mini’s own tiny speaker until I went to System Preferences > Sound > Output and selected the TV.
I had an old Apple infrared remote, the one that looks like a pack of gum, lying around but it seems unable to make a connection to the 2010 Mac Mini. I verified that the Mini does indeed have an infrared receiver, so that’s just a matter of grabbing the newer Apple remote that’s more tubular in shape at some point. UPDATE: No — as commenter Mikeo below points out, the server mini just has communication with the remote turned off by default. To turn it back on, head to System Preferences > Security and unclick the check next to “Disable remote control infrared receiver.”
Alright — well, that’s as far as I’ve gotten in the first couple of days. Future plans include ripping a whole bunch of DVDs, experimenting with other user interfaces like Plex, seeking out some streaming web video and using an iPhone or ipad as a remote control. Check back later…
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@ashdayo Tell your dad to read this, it mentions overscan from a MacMini: http://gravitationalpull.net/wp/?p=1352
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by . said: [...]
Excellent review, but I really want to know how the picture quality was. And do you have an LCD or plasma TV?
Re: Apple Remote
The battery may be dead. You may have to pair it to the new Mac Mini.
We have a pretty recent LCD TV (Samsung UN46C6500). Picture quality is awesome but completely dependent on source quality. A movie movie bought from iTunes in standard def looks about as good as a DVD.
Regarding the remote, check the security panel in the System Prefs. It may have the remote disabled as the default setting for a server-mini.
Instead of messing with Overscan, check your TV settings for display options “zoom” “dot by dot” etc… On my Sharp, the “Dot by Dot” aspect means perfect picture from a Mac mini.
Thanks for the review. Now even more excited about my 'soon to ship' Mini.
Maybe I should have gone for the Server edition. Does that lack any other features/functions?
I highly recommend you try out Boxee too. I really like Plex but really like Boxee too and use it in my theater on my last rev Mac Mini
As far as I can tell, the only losses on the server version are the super drive and iLife programs. In exchange, you get the two faster hard drives.
You were absolutely correct! I've updated the post. Thanks.
Downloaded Boxee last night. Amazed by all the free TV shows.
I'm doing this same experiment, replacing my old Apple TV plus remote iTunes server with a new Mini doing both jobs…
I have a few issues currently:
1) If I turn off the TV for a while when I left Front Row up, when I turn the TV back on I get a solid blue screen and have to reboot the mini. If I remember to turn off Front Row, the finder doesn't seem to have this problem. I'd love if you could see if you have this same issue, or if it's just being mean to me. :)
2) The Front Row interface is a step back from the Apple TV 3.0 interface (it looks a lot like the old 1.0 interface)… I'd switch to Plex, but Plex can't play all the TV shows and movies we own from iTunes purchases…
Other than those two things though, it's nice! Smooth 1080p playback, good sound, fun to play WoW in the family room, and a convenient place for us to sync up all the iPods, iPhones, and iPads littering our house nowadays… :)
I just got mine and have a Samsung 42″ 1080i Plasma too and frankly I am underwhelmed by the picture quality vs the mini I am replacing. I think the picture is actually crisper when I start up in bootcamp than OSX. The text (file names) looks just as clunky as they were with my old mac mini, but slightly more readable now – but not was I was hoping for. I plan to call Apple, as I hope it's just a connection issue – but I fear not.
BTW, I vote for Boxee vs Plex or Front Row based on my . Also, I use Rowmote Pro from my iPad which is awesome and also use a Logitech Harmony Pro to control my component.
Thanks for the review too.
Boxee is great, but only if you're in the USA (possibly Canada too, I'm not sure). A lot of the free TV shows are blocked for people in other areas.
If we turn the TV off while Front Row is up and turn the Tv back on later, there is a blue screen but almost immediately cuts back to the computer, no reboot necessary.
The Front Row interface does kind of stink, agreed. Apple are you listening?
I have a Samsung LCD (B750). I plugged it in via HDMI to the new Mac Mini and it detected the 1080p settings. However, I'm experiencing image delay when moving the mouse around and I also have video/audio syncing problems. Are there certain settings on the Mac or TV that I need to make?
I'm seriously thinking about doing this. Just to be sure, you connected your Mac Mini(2010) to your T.V. via HDMI to HDMI.
I only use Boxee to watch movies. i like the fact that it will search for subtitles for foreign films.
Yes – one cable for sound and video.
I connect through my surround sound receiver by HDMI, which in turn connects to the TV (SAMSUNG) HDMI to HDMI and get video and surround sound. If you use just your TV for audio then you would get video and audio from the mac mini HDMI connection to the TV's HDMI input.
Has anyone tried using picture in picture with their mac mini and a tv? I just hooked up my new mac mini to my sony bravia via that hdmi and it appears that the pip function only works with the pc rgb input on the tv.
Hi. I've had a 2010 mini for a couple weeks now and have just started noticing this problem. For me, I've had the blue screen when I switch to another input (Game,Antenna,etc.) on my TV (Panasonic Viera) and then come back to the mini later. Not sure if I've seen it when turning off/on. And I've had iTunes open not Front Row. So maybe the mini is losing some kind of talk-back it needs from the display? On the other hand, up until a couple days ago I had seen the blue screen briefly but it would pop right back to the computer without any trouble.
Overall I am happy with the set-up but I'm still working through some nuisances like this.
BTW, my HDMI is connected directly to the TV.
I, too, just purchased my mini after doing A LOT of research. My wife and I kept discussing canceling cable, and after I told her what we could do with the new Mini and EyeTV, she gave the OK to start making purchases. I got the baseline Mini, an EyeTV Hybrid USB Tuner, a second USB tuner from a different company, an apple remote, apple wireless keyboard, and a cheap bluetooth mouse. In all, it was around $850, but after canceling cable, it will pay for itself in about 8 months.
To make things short, we love the setup. I have OTA antenna going through a splitter to the 2 USB Tuners. I have 2 so that we can record 2 shows, record 1 while watching another, etc. — just like we could w/ our cable company DVR. The recordings are uncompressed and playback is great. I highly recommend the EyeTV PVR program. It's pretty amazing and doesn't take too much work to fine tune. Right now, all of our TV show recordings go on the internal hard drive. I'm ripping movies and will place those on an external soon. We watch movies, some TV shows, and netflix through Plex. Boxee is good too, but I just started using Plex more often and stuck with it. They are also releasing a big update on Plex sometime soon.
A piece of software that I am also using is called Remote Buddy. It's a trial for 30 days and probably around $30 after that. It allows you to use the Apple Remote to control pretty much every application you will use for your setup (Plex, EyeTV, Hulu Desktop, iTunes, Front Row, etc.). It will also allow you to use your Harmony Remotes with your Mac Mini's IR receiver by making the Mac think the Harmony is multiple apple remotes. Great little program.
One issue I am having, sometimes when I reawaken the computer, the audio automatically goes to the internal speakers, not the HDMI Out. I then have to go to Settings -> Sound and switch the audio out. Anybody know why this is? If needed, how would I go about making an Automator program to ensure HDMI is the audio out everytime the mac reawakes?
Thanks!
How is picture quality and what is it like saybchecking email and reading news online. Lastly do you have sluggish mouse or keyboard responsiveness on the tv like some have complained about?
Thanks.
On my new Mini HDMI linked to a 50″ Panasonic Viera plasma, I get a blue screen when switching to another source about 50% of the time. I need to reboot the Mini.
This happens both from iTunes or Front Row…..very unfortunate
Hi Myron.
No solution, but sometimes, randomly, my Mini goes to internal speakers too. An Automator program would be neat, but outside my limited knowledge I'm afraid
What about imovie ?
I would like to play my HD-camcorder movies via HDMI to TV-box (Flatscreen)
Does anyone have experience with quality and performance?
with mac mini of course