Applications...?

[jimskisbreck13]

My friend explained he was purchasing a Mac Mini for use as a media hub in the living room – I was intrigued. However I am struggling to workout the requirement – is it any good? I am not interested in doing any ‘work’ stuff – I use a work laptop, no gaming, only music, home video & movies / TV.

My current plan:
• Mac Mini
• Hooked up to a TV (HDMI)
• Mac Mini will be hard-wired to adjacent Linksys router - high speed internet via cable modem
• Control the Mac Mini via netbook pro from the existing wireless network – is this possible?

If anyone uses their Mac Mini in a similar way and recommends it pls let me know how you use it & what you use it for. Is there an alternative I should be looking at?

Download movies from internet – assume that these are stored on hard drive and functionality is same as DVR? The Cable DVR makes selection of programmes very easy – is the Mac Mini any better? Are there any advantages over a DVR?

What is the best way to download movies? I’ve got lots of DVDs but why would I put them on a hard drive?

Convince me pls… much tks

[Cypher]

I run Plex as my media center, its currently installed on my iMac & Macbook Pro but I'll be switching it to a mac mini soon. I mostly watch my media on a second monitor attached to the iMac, but occasionally connect the Macbook Pro to the main TV. The mini will be permanently connected to the TV.

I also have a 4TB NAS drive attached to a Gigabit Ethernet which I use as a media source for Plex. The media on the NAS is organised into two folders, Movies and Tv Shows. Plex scrapes the show data automatically from the Internet and provides a rich user interface. You can also navigate it very easily with just the Apple Remote.

Check out Plex on http://www.plexapp.com
_________________
Phil

Mac Mini 2.53GHz - iMac 2.0Ghz - Macbook Pro 2.4GHz - iPad 1 32GB 3G
6TB Netgear Ready NAS NV+ - 6TB Drobo S