Mac / Home Theatre Solution?

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zwbuntster

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 26, 2005
Messages
384
Looking for some ideas for the best possible setup for the following:

27" iMac in one room (housing any sort of movie/tv files, automatic torrents for shows, etc)
Home Theatre in living room with DVD/BluRay

Basically, I previously had the two connected directly with HDMI and could send HD/5.1 right from the computer. Now that I have moved, they are no longer next to each other, so basically trying to figure out the most elegant and simple way to be able to stream or access any sort of file from the computer onto the home theatre. Ideally this would include 5.1 support and 1080P. Netflix, etc access would also be nice somehow integrated. Worst case is through an xbox separately but would like to avoid if possible.

Everything will be connected to the same network if that helps. Thanks
 
apple tv is pretty idiot proof and super easy to setup
 
AppleTV bridges the gap between PC and TV. Great product to complete your mac ecosystem.
 
here's why i didn't immediately think apple tv...

1. i don't have most of these files within iTunes
2. from what i have read, it is pretty difficult to get 5.1 to work well over airplay
 
I'm planning on getting a Mac Mini setup for this use.
 
Do you have any old PC parts laying around? I took my old parts, bought a HTPC case that could accommodate a full ATX sized motherboard (Silverstone GD08, which is awesome and looks great, but is not inexpensive), dropped my old parts in there, waited until one of those little logitech remotes with a full keyboard and a little track dot thingy went on sale for like $25, and created a homegroup with my main machine. Granted, my main machine isn't a mac and I don't know the ins and outs of sharing access between the two, but what I have is incredibly versatile and can be done for very cheap if you don't buy an expensive case and have extra parts laying around. I run Windows 8.0 on it, but you could use one of a few free solutions oriented towards a HTPC.
 
I broke down and bought an Oppo BDP-103 to do all my media playback since I was looking to replace a PS3/Apple TV for that purpose (I hated hearing the PS3 fan during movies and wanted something fanless). I had an Apple TV as well but got tired of converting things to MP4 and needing them in iTunes / needing iTunes open; the Oppo can browse SMB network shares and is also a digital media renderer if you have Windows 8.

I believe the higher end Sony blu-ray player does a good job in this regard and is a few hundred cheaper.
 
Your best bet might be an Apple TV, especially if you have an iPad or other iOS device that you can use to remotely control the iMac. From what I understand about ATV you have to play the media on another device (at least for movies??). You can access any media in iTunes from the ATV. I'm a little fuzzy on how it all works... I was at an Apple store a few weeks ago and asked about it, and was told the media has to be in iTunes or be playing on another device. If you have a store near you I would go in and but a "Genius" for the low down on how it all works.

As for me...

I'm also planning on a Mac Mini to replace an aging bunch of hardware that was my Windows Home Server, now my Win7 Media PC. The parts are between 5 and 8 years old.

In addition I want an external BDXL burner for movie rentals and burning back-ups of my media files (60+ gigs of music and growing, 600+ gigs of ripped Blueray and DVD's, and about 30+ gigs of pictures).

We may also supplement that with an Apple TV for some of the free content (PBS, Smithsonian, and any others I'm not aware of yet).

The reason I still want a Mini is because the ATV can't read media files off of our NAS box (or any NAS for that matter)... as far as I know. DLNA maybe? He'll, I'm an Apple fan boy now so I may as we'll buy a few more Apple devices... :eek:
 
Mac Mini - used. Should be able to get a 2009 or 2010 model for about $350-400.
 
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