The Mac Mini Home Theatre Saga, Part II: Neena Strikes Back

I've actually had the Mac Mini Home Theatre going pretty good for about a month now, but I haven't posted. Here's a revisit of the gear:

Mac Mini 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, UPGRADED to 2GB RAM and 320GB hard drive (I did the upgrade myself for about $150)
Acomdata Mini-Pal 500GB external drive
Apple Bluetooth keyboard
Microsoft Bluetooth mouse (it was half the price of the Apple one)
Elgato EyeTV Hybrid with Clear QAM tuner

What I purchased:
Samsung LNT2353H 23" LCD TV refurbished from Amazon

We were able to run a cable from the 1980s antenna on the roof to my room. I have split both the cable and the antenna in two, so they run to an A/B switch for the EyeTV and straight to the Samsung TV. What I love about last year's Samsung models are the two coax inputs.

Once the antenna cable was run, presto! HD on the Mac Mini and the Samsung! Recording HD on the EyeTV looks fantastic, but the files are around 6GB. That just isn't practical, so if I want to keep files, it's better to record them from cable in standard def instead. The EyeTV simply records the MPEG-2 stream for HD broadcasts--no conversion needed.

I figured out how to disable the Mac Mini's start up chime (aka the voice of God). On the Mini, the sound comes through the internal speaker, even if you have something plugged in the headset jack. By the way, I did split the audio so it runs to both the stereo (for iTunes) and the TV (for...uh, TV).

To disable the internal chime, unplug any external audio devices and go to Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup. Select properties for Built-In Output, then select mute next to internal speakers. Ta-da! Now the chime won't play when the Mini starts. Some people like the chime because it tells you things are working, however, I have the EyeTV scheduled to record Angel at 6am every day and I prefer to wake at 7am. You can see the problem.

The EyeTV only records to the internal hard drive, and it got annoying having to transfer things to the external drive on a daily basis, so I upgraded the Mac Mini's internal HD and RAM. The hardest part of that is getting the case apart. The plastic putty knife recommended as the tool of choice was too thick to get in the seam. I did end up scratching the bottom of the case a little, but not too bad.

Now I can record like a fiend...except the TV season is over.

As an added bonus, I learned that watching Hulu.com through my setup is amazing! I've been watching the first season of Bones on there, and it fills my 23" TV screen perfectly, and the quality is surprisingly good for streaming video. It's not HD, but it's pretty darn good! If you haven't checked out Hulu.com, I do recommend it. The TV shows available are hit and miss, but you might find something you like, and it's free.

The only downside is that my old TV was actually a TV/VCR combo, so now I have no way to watch VHS tapes. I'd like to find a small VCR (though I suppose a full-size one would fit behind the TV) and maybe one day, I'll try to transfer some stuff to digital.