OS X New to mac mini htpc.
#1
Hello all.

Im new to mac mini as htpc and wanted to ask here before going on..

I got a mac mini 2012 I5 4 GB ram.

Panasonic plasma 42 G20 "2010" model

Logitech Z-5500 THX-Certified 5.1 Digital Surround Sound Speaker System
Optic IN.

i have read some of this forum for Q&A on mac /xbmc, the mac mini are going to use XBMC, OSX Browsing, AIRplay.


??

1: What OSX would give me least headeake?

2: XBMC video setting, any thing to be aware of?

3: Sound setup, can se many having problems with sound on osx.

Hope i described my setup fully and someone can guide or link me to the best setup..

Thx
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#2
I gave up on Mac for xbmc and bootcamped windows 7 on my i7 mac-mini. Near flawless!
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#3
ok, have thought about it, the thing is that our house are most apple and aint there some issue with airplay??
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#4
Airplay works fine for me but I use 3rd party services like airserver and airfoil. I don't remember whether airplay via xbmc is working and on which build(s) as the mac mini is no longer my go-to box, and is primarily for 1 click kids flicks.
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#5
See this thread

My advice is use HDMI to HDMI on mountain lion (at worst DVI to HDMI onepiece cable) - I too have a 42 inch Panasonic plasma. Was flawless until I went to mavericks!

Airplay works well.
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#6
Hello again.

I tryed xbmc on windows 8.1 and its works perfect all sound problems are gone and the metro system are kind of good when navigating xbmc/netflix.

so finaly I'm happy with my mac mini HTPC.

The last think i would love to be able to have are wake on lan, i have installed Advanced on lan add-on and added my MAC address and IP, I'm using a Mele F10 pro as remote, does anyone know what i need to setup in windows 8.1 to make wake on lan work by using my remote.

are event ghost the way to go and if so, how do i set it up...

Thx for the help
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#7
(2014-02-22, 17:38)Jmhthefirst Wrote: I gave up on Mac for xbmc and bootcamped windows 7 on my i7 mac-mini. Near flawless!

I would like to do that how do I put windows 8.1 on my 2010 Mac mini? Thanks for infoSmile
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#8
Heh, I just got rid of my Windows and went with OSX. XBMC operation is identical so the transition was pretty seamless. Audio can be tricky to setup, especially if you are trying nightly builds...things will break but once Gotham goes past beta the majority of the problems should be sorted out.

As far as remotes go....the Mac does not support the wealth of cheap MCE infrared receivers that a Windows platform does but I really don't miss my Harmony that much. All my iOS devices have really sweet apps that control XBMC directly. Apps such as XBMC Constellation....very slick.

I've played with XBMC on my daughters MacBook Pro Retina and she can control it with the remote that came with her AppleTV.

I don't hate Windows, I still make a decent buck on the side fixing others software issues, mostly virus and malware related. I just got tired of having to use a very big hammer to get things done all the time.

(2014-03-08, 18:42)Chico0106 Wrote:
(2014-02-22, 17:38)Jmhthefirst Wrote: I gave up on Mac for xbmc and bootcamped windows 7 on my i7 mac-mini. Near flawless!

I would like to do that how do I put windows 8.1 on my 2010 Mac mini? Thanks for infoSmile
Look into either Parallels Desktop 9 or VMware Fusion 6. They'll both allow you to set up a virtual Windows machine inside OSX....or Bootcamp is free but the thing with Bootcamp is you can't switch back-and-forth quickly to your Mac environment.

I have 3 virtual windows boxes on my OSX desktop, XP, Win7 and Win8.1..I still need Windows for assisting clients.
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#9
(2014-03-08, 18:42)Chico0106 Wrote:
(2014-02-22, 17:38)Jmhthefirst Wrote: I gave up on Mac for xbmc and bootcamped windows 7 on my i7 mac-mini. Near flawless!

I would like to do that how do I put windows 8.1 on my 2010 Mac mini? Thanks for infoSmile

On my model there is an easy bootcamp utility. You can google how to do yours. I was never satisfied with virtual instances. An entire Windows partition suited me much better. I found tons of reasons to abandon osx as far as xbmc goes. Some things are just windows only or at least windows first. Having at least one windows machine in my house allows me to try out all the xbmc tricks and tweaks and bells and whistles. I run xbmc on Android devices in other rooms with airplay speakers for xbmc music....control it all from my Android phone. It's perfect for me. I highly recommend bootcamping windows for xbmc but keeping an osx partition for any apple proprietary needs you might come across. For instance, I'd be lost without at least Final Cut pro SOMEWHERE. But I digress.

Mac DOES have remote control limitations but I used Flirc with great success before I got an android phone for Yatse.
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#10
(2014-03-09, 05:34)clipper99 Wrote: Heh, I just got rid of my Windows and went with OSX. XBMC operation is identical so the transition was pretty seamless. Audio can be tricky to setup, especially if you are trying nightly builds...things will break but once Gotham goes past beta the majority of the problems should be sorted out.

As far as remotes go....the Mac does not support the wealth of cheap MCE infrared receivers that a Windows platform does but I really don't miss my Harmony that much. All my iOS devices have really sweet apps that control XBMC directly. Apps such as XBMC Constellation....very slick.

I've played with XBMC on my daughters MacBook Pro Retina and she can control it with the remote that came with her AppleTV.

I don't hate Windows, I still make a decent buck on the side fixing others software issues, mostly virus and malware related. I just got tired of having to use a very big hammer to get things done all the time.

(2014-03-08, 18:42)Chico0106 Wrote:
(2014-02-22, 17:38)Jmhthefirst Wrote: I gave up on Mac for xbmc and bootcamped windows 7 on my i7 mac-mini. Near flawless!

I would like to do that how do I put windows 8.1 on my 2010 Mac mini? Thanks for infoSmile
Look into either Parallels Desktop 9 or VMware Fusion 6. They'll both allow you to set up a virtual Windows machine inside OSX....or Bootcamp is free but the thing with Bootcamp is you can't switch back-and-forth quickly to your Mac environment.

I have 3 virtual windows boxes on my OSX desktop, XP, Win7 and Win8.1..I still need Windows for assisting clients.

What is the difference from virtual then boot camp you stated that you can't switch quick enough? Would you have to log off to switch sry I'm kinda new to partioning
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#11
@Chico0106
The difference is, that virtual machines like parallels or vmware fusion will be started up while you're running OSX - like running any software.
The virtual machine gets some parts of you system memory and CPU recource.

With boot camp its an either ... or ... solution -> you choose the OS after starting your mac.
There is a native support for boot camp on OSX.
edit: on intel based Macs

edit#2
I'm running 10.7.5 / Frodo
Mac Mini 2010 attached to a Onkyo Receiver.
I have absolutely no issues with 5.1 sound. Everythings works like a charm.
And windows will be used for tax return software ONLY Big Grin
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#12
(2014-03-09, 05:34)clipper99 Wrote: As far as remotes go....the Mac does not support the wealth of cheap MCE infrared receivers that a Windows platform does but I really don't miss my Harmony that much. All my iOS devices have really sweet apps that control XBMC directly. Apps such as XBMC Constellation....very slick.

Not sure what you mean here. Mac mini has a built-in infrared receiver and it works fine with my Harmony in OS X.
LibreELEC 10.0.4 * ViMediaManager or TinyMediaManager | Raspberry pi 4b
Sharing media from NAS via NFS (optical out to receiver, HDMI to TV) | TV remote with CEC / Bluetooth keyboard
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#13
(2014-03-25, 16:57)Glorious1 Wrote:
(2014-03-09, 05:34)clipper99 Wrote: As far as remotes go....the Mac does not support the wealth of cheap MCE infrared receivers that a Windows platform does but I really don't miss my Harmony that much. All my iOS devices have really sweet apps that control XBMC directly. Apps such as XBMC Constellation....very slick.

Not sure what you mean here. Mac mini has a built-in infrared receiver and it works fine with my Harmony in OS X.

How do u set up the harmony? With Mac

(2014-03-24, 17:00)Bub4 Wrote: @Chico0106
The difference is, that virtual machines like parallels or vmware fusion will be started up while you're running OSX - like running any software.
The virtual machine gets some parts of you system memory and CPU recource.

With boot camp its an either ... or ... solution -> you choose the OS after starting your mac.
There is a native support for boot camp on OSX.
edit: on intel based Macs

edit#2
I'm running 10.7.5 / Frodo
Mac Mini 2010 attached to a Onkyo Receiver.
I have absolutely no issues with 5.1 sound. Everythings works like a charm.
And windows will be used for tax return software ONLY Big Grin

How do u have the 5.1 selected when I do it it gets juddery after like 40 mins or so then I switch to 2.0 and it's fine. Any suggestions on that?
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#14
I was in the same boat. I have a mac mini 2010 and running 10.9.2 with XBMC 12.3 and tried the various nightlies. Due to the audio issues and seeming that 2.0 analog was the only option that worked I boot camped and put w7 w/ xvmc 12.3 on it. Perfect. Wakes like its supposed to as well. I hate it being windows but i'd rather it work the way it was supposed to.
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#15
(2014-03-26, 13:56)Chico0106 Wrote: How do u set up the harmony? With Mac

In Logitech application:
Set up a Device (I called it Plex) as Computer > Media Center PC > Plex > Plex Player.
Set up Activity (I called it XBMC) with that Device, your TV and Receiver if you have one.
I'm not sure it is necessary, but I also manually duplicated all the button settings from the device into the Activity (except directed the volume settings to the receiver).

In XBMC: "System > Settings > System > Input devices"
Set "Apple Remote" to "Multi Remote (Harmony)" It seems to me a bit goofy because you have to say yes to a warning that I don't understand each time you change this setting. Since there are a number of choices, you may have to do this several times to get to the "Multi Remote (Harmony)" setting.
Set "Remote control sends keyboard presses" to ON

When you get that far, you can think about customizing buttons.

By the way, after you choose the XBMC activity on the Harmony, you can wake the mini up AND start XBMC with two consecutive presses of the Menu button. This also requires an XBMC setting "Allow start of XBMC using the remote".
LibreELEC 10.0.4 * ViMediaManager or TinyMediaManager | Raspberry pi 4b
Sharing media from NAS via NFS (optical out to receiver, HDMI to TV) | TV remote with CEC / Bluetooth keyboard
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