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Mac mini plex7/30/2023 As optical drives disappear from our devices (Macbook Retina, Macbook Air, iPads, Galaxy tablets etc) it's getting harder to watch my existing library of DVDs and blu-ray disks … not that Apple ever supported blu-ray anyway, even though I still think its the best format for purchasing content.Having our collective libraries available centrally, and easily playable on our television allows us to enjoy our TV shows and movies together as a family - rather than in insolation, crouched over our laptops and iPads as we’d previously done. I want to make it easier for my family to share our individual libraries of iTunes videos that we’ve been accumulating.There are several good reasons for setting up a home media server. As such, it’s now comfortably nestled next to my TV, blu-ray player, and network router. Although there are cheaper and more powerful machines, the Mac Mini is small and discrete, with low power consumption, and a solid Unix-like OS that’s pre-configured and immediately usable. Usage as a media server was really just a happy bonus, and a more tangible reason for buying the server that I could explain to my wife. My real intent was getting a small server to run apache along with various VM images to support my development projects. There’s no need for a screen or keyboard with the Mac Mini since as I can connect to it remotely from my Macbook via OS X’s in-built screen sharing … although I admittedly needed to book time with the Genius bar of my local Apple Store so I could use one of their screens/keyboards for the initial setup. In the following posts I will focus on the details and how to setup the software and tools.įor now I’ll give you a few useful resources to get you head started.20 NovemberWith the advent of the new 2014 Mac Mini, I took the plunge configuring one as a lounge-based server (I’d previously toyed with the idea of the brilliantly retro C64x, but my family would never have understood). This is just the beginning of a lot more posts about Plex. Implement SickBeard for easy automatic TV show downloads.Better automated syncing of iTunes and iPhoto.Better automated downloading of movies & TV shows.Logitech TouchMouse server and iPhone app and.OSX websharing, filesharing, screensharing.Plex plugins: RTL XL, Uitzending gemist, YouTube. Apple Mac Mini (2010 version with HDMI).Very simple and most important: Girlfriend proof! Used hardware and software The remote takes care of setting-up the TV and the Home Cinema to the correct input channels. Using Activities on the remote it is possible to switch between watching TV, listen to the radio, use Plex, play on Xbox360 or watch a DVD using the DVD recorder. Remote file access using OSX file sharingĪll Plex features are controllable using the Harmony Remote.Remote monitoring using iStat and your iPhone or iPod.Remote controlled using iPod/iPhone/iPad (via WiFi).Remote controlled using Logitech Harmony Remote.Stream movies & TV shows to other Macs or iPhones/iPods/iPads.Download movies & TV shows (queue/manage downloads via an other Mac).Watch other video material like YouTube, RTL XL (dutch), Uitzendinggemist (dutch) etc.Beautify your movie and music libraries automatically with rich metadata and fanart.This will just be the beginning of a lot more posts about this awesome media center combination. Let me show you what it can do and what tools I used to make this work. I already owned a Logitech Harmony Universal Remote and it turned out it all works together like a charm. This started after I bought a Mac Mini and hooked it up to my HDTV. Since last year I became a huge fan of Plex. Plex, Mac Mini, Harmony Remote and How They Roll Together
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