Mac-Mini as an HTPC

For those of you who just want the links.

• mac-mini quiet, fast, flexible.
• Plex Really nice XBMC fork to work as a media center.  Can launch other apps, comes with a server for iTunes/iPhoto from another box.
• RemoteBuddy Software that makes the apple remote more useful.
• RipIt DVD -> Hard Disk
• HandBrake Ripped DVD -> Video

I recently picked up a mac mini to plug into my television.  I’m a mac user in general, and the mini seemed like it would make a good htpc.  I hadn’t really done much research on it, but I figured I could make it work.  I have to report, yes, it works, and it works very well.  Getting things running smoothly took a little bit of work and a few dollars (beyond the cost of the mini).

Hardware
Not much was needed beyond the mac mini. I picked up the late 2009 refresh of the mini (low end) which has been more than fine. I needed to pickup a mini display port to VGA adapter, and the goofy 1/8th inch to toslink cable. I also ended up getting the aluminum apple remote (to assist in doing the multi-code remote hack I’ll discuss later). VGA to my TV, toslink to my receiver, power cable, and I was ready to go.  Since I’m running the mini wirelessly, I needed to pickup a dual band G/N router (I need G for my phone, old laptop etc).  I got the WRT610n V2 and promptly put dd-wrt on it.  Works great, simultaneous G and N.

Software

Plex

The first piece of software is my main media center application. For this I’m using Plex. This is a really nice fork of the fantastic XBMC project.  It is tailored to OSX, as such it integrates nicely with iPhoto, iTunes, DVD Player, and other OSX media apps (including Hulu Desktop, Boxee, etc).  It has plugins that support Hulu, Netflix, last.fm, etc.  I’ve been underwhelmed by the netflix and hulu plugins.  I generally end up using netflix on my xbox, or running Hulu Desktop.  The ability to launch other applications from within Plex make it an ideal “hub” for all of my media applications.  Once nice feature is the built in Plex Media Server.  I have all of my content (Music, Movies, Pictures) sitting on my desktop machine.  The Plex Media Server allows me to serve my iTunes and iPhoto libraries from my desktop to Plex on my mini.  For movies I just have an AFP automount setup (seems to work well)

Remote Buddy

The next piece of software, and the glue that really holds everything together is Remote Buddy.  This software basically presents a customizable menu that you can drive with your apple remote.  The menu allows you to launch applications, turn your remote into a mouse, and play movies/audio directly.  Remote Buddy calls each of these different contexts behaviors.  For example, when I switch to the Plex behavior, Plex is launched, and remote buddy knows that when I hit the pause button on my remote, that it needs to send the spacebar to Plex.  Remote Buddy  has built in configurations for Hulu, Boxee, Plex, iTunes, iPhoto, Finder, etc.  It really improves Apple’s pathetic remote handling (7 discreet codes, really apple?  is that the best you can do?).  The apple remote can only send 7 discreet codes (14 if you count holding down a button as a new code).  This hack allows you to create limitless button mappings with a programable remote.  I think RemoteBuddy costs about 20 bucks, and is well worth it.  Makes my whole system work without having to break out a keyboard/mouse.

RipIt

The next piece of software is one of two things I’ve been using to slowly get my DVD collection onto my computer.  When I started I was using HandBrake to both rip and transcode.  This worked pretty well, but the ripping took forever, and was difficult to do in bulk.  Enter RipIt.  I was introduced to RipIt by the most recent MacHeist.  It seemed interesting so I grabbed a demo.  All this application does is rip DVDs (there is a beta transcoding feature that doesn’t work very well).  The good people at The Little App Factory have started a DVD identification service so RipIt can accurately name the discs you rip with it.  The workflow becomes: insert disc, when disc ejects put a new one in.  This allows me to get the raw DVDs into a place where I can start to transcode them in bulk.  RipIt seems to be faster and more reliable than HandBrake’s DVD ripping feature.

Lastly comes the transcoding software.  For this task I am continuing to use HandBrake.  It threads nicely on my Mac Pro and has done everything I’ve asked of it (subtitles, multi language, etc).  I’m using the MKV container format because it seems a bit faster as it doesn’t have to touch AC3 audio.  I’m still mucking with settings, but the video quality is quite good.

Overall I’m really happy with the mini as an HTPC.  It’s quiet, and I can do more with it than just play movies/music.  My kid plays her games on it, and I’ve been using Google Earth to show her where various places are on the planet.