Apple Mac mini MB463LL/A Desktop
Mac Mini as home theater PC
I’ve had my Mac Mini for two months now. I bought it to be used as a home theater PC (HTPC). I’ve hooked it up to my Sony Bravia TV (1366×768 screen resolution) via the VGA input using a Mini-DVI to VGA Female Adapter Cable. The display is fantastic and it just worked. I didn’t have to do any configuration. I’m using it to watch streaming video from NetFlix. I’m getting less than perfect performance, but I think that’s entirely due to my slow DSL (testing at 1.4 Mbps download speed) which I’m trying to get fixed with the ISP. DVDs look great. Streaming audio via iTunes can’t be greater than 64 kbps to avoid rebuffering, but again I’m sure that’s due to my DSL and not the Mac. Leopard has been performing well.
I bought the minimally configured version and ordered 4GB of memory from Crucial. I’d read around that it was possible, but not easy, to upgrade yourself. I found various tear-down explanations–the one that seemed most relevant was here: [...]. I managed to get the case open with a combination of metal and plastic putty knives. The metal knife scratches, but the plastic one wasn’t strong enough to get the tabs loose on the outer cover. I could not figure out how to remove the bluetooth antennas–none of the instructions I found explained that part, including the ifixit instructions (they just said “carefully remove” them, but there seemed to be no easy way to release them from their holders). So I decided to try operating with the antennas attached. That was a mistake, because in the process I inadvertently popped the tiny connector loose from the circuit board for the front bluetooth antenna. I managed to get the memory installed OK. When trying to reconnect the bluetooth connector, I mangled and eventually broke it loose from the wire. I ended up having to take it into the Apple store to get the antenna replaced. Of course, they charged me for that, but believe it or not, it was still cheaper than buying it with the memory pre-installed (mainly because any vendor that pre-installs memory charges me sales tax). If I had to do it again, I’d buy the Mac with the memory pre-installed.
I also bought the Apple wireless keyboard (bluetooth) and a Logitech bluetooth mouse. They both work well, but sometimes the Mac Mini has a hard time connecting to them. Apple support had me do the PRAM reset and I’m not sure that helped.
I’m using a wireless connection (Airport). I don’t broadcast the SSID for my wireless network, so Airport doesn’t detect it on its own. Therefore, I had to set it up as a preferred network. The Mac Mini finds it most of the time, but occasionally fails to find it. The only way I’ve found to get it to find my network in this case, is to turn off Airport, then turn it back on again, at which point it tries the preferred network list.
Overall, I’m very happy with the Mac Mini and it’s serving its purpose well as a home theater PC.
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