Build an Anime Media Center
With a freaking Mac Mini!
Free yourself from the chains of your computer! Let your perversion into the living room! Anything to avoid blogging about Geass!
I really don’t want to start the Mac/PC thing, that’s worse than dubs vs. subs, Ford vs. Chevy, and Hiromi vs. Noe all put together, but I don’t think anyone could argue that the easiest way to do a lot of things is with a Mac, even if it’s not always the best. I’ve had an HDTV for a while and realized that I was downloading my cartoons in HD, so I started plugging my laptop into it, to much pants-wetting effect. But to take it one step further, I put together a dedicated box. Here’s the steps I took:
1. Buy a Mac Mini, the Apple wireless keyboard, and a mouse. Minis come in a couple flavors, the cheaper one won’t burn DVDs and has a smaller hard drive, but you’ll probably need an external drive anyway, so judge based on the DVD burning. They all come with Apple remotes. You won’t need to use the mouse much after setup, so having a bluetooth wireless one isn’t essential if you’re looking to save about 20-50 bucks.
2. Plug the Mini into your HDTV’s DVI port. Again, out of the box. There are adapters out there that will convert a computer’s DVI cable/signal into HDMI component cables, but I happened to have a DVI port already. Notice how the mini fits easily where you put it.
3. Order Pizza Hut. This is nonessential, but you’ll need maybe an hour or two for the whole setup, and lord knows it’s what C.C. would do. (Incidentally, I didn’t actually do this, but I was napping on the couch with the TV on and I swear I heard a commercial for C.C.’s Pizza Buffet. Turns out, it was real, just spelled Cici’s. Weird huh?)
4. Install your movie watching components. Flip4Mac is a good move just in case some douchebag makes you watch Windows Media, and depending on how you plan on watching your animu flicks, Perian. This AnimeSuki thread is actually a nice little resource. I know most of you on Macs are probably using either MPlayer or VLC, but here’s the Perian story: Media center software almost all plays movies using Quicktime. And of course, Quicktime will play those pesky Matroska (.mkv) files if you have Perian. Have you noticed, Matroska sounds like some kind of car that Yakov Smirnov would drive? Or perhaps in Soviet Russia, it drives you. Not sure. At any rate, Mplayer makes a good backup — just set it up with one additional option: “-sid 0″ will automatically turn the subs on.
5. Install CenterStage. It’s an open source media center app that basically replaces Front Row. Because Front Row only plays what iTunes plays, and that means it’s dumb. CenterStage will play anything QuickTime plays, even Perian stuff, and it’ll play your VIDEO_TS folders for that silent experience. I know when you’re watching that Al Green Live DVD, the whir of the disc really spoils the mood. Because it’s open source, it updates frequently and various updates tend to break the remote (in fact right now you have to get a nightly if you use Leopard and want a remote), so watch out and have that little keyboard handy.
5a. Install Remote Buddy. I personally have been using Remote Buddy and loving it. It’s not free, but it’s not expensive either. It lets you use your Apple Remote, iPhone/iPod Touch, or even a Wii Remote to do most everything on the Mac. It’s a little dodgy, but the Wii-mote can even be a mouse. MPlayer and VLC are both default apps, so if Center Stage and Perian have a problem playing a movie, it’s a great backup. There’s a free trial of the software, which isn’t as pretty but is a really clever solution. The iPhone remote is omega sweet.
6. Install Transmission. Why Transmission? Well, it’s easy, but the one feature I love is the auto-search. You can set the program to watch for torrents in a directory and automagically change those torrents into movies! Poof! Not to mention it’ll delete the pesky leftover torrent file when it’s done, and stop seeding when it reaches a certain ratio. So when I go through my RSS feed of new stuff on TT or Baka Updates from my other computer, I drop them all in the watch folder on the mini, which is shared. Then Transmission picks them up and starts downloading the torrents. I’m sure there are other programs that do this, but Transmission was pretty easy to do.
7. Start watching! Oh yeah. Get some speakers. Of course. Note: If you’re like me and your TV is visible from the street outside your house (big front window), you might not want to watch everything you download on the tube. The occasional Shana panty-shot is one thing, but too many episodes of Kamen No Maid Guy and who knows what the neighbors might think.
- otou-san out!
May 5th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I figured all this out with Ubuntu. Also who in Venguaq’s name is CC?
May 5th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Hi James I spent a while thinking I was going to do a MythTV setup, probably with Ubuntu, but once you factor small form factor cases, etc. etc., it wasn’t going to save me much money over the cheapest Mac, and the Mac was dead easy. Curious, what’d you end up going with for a case and a remote control?
Also, who in Cheese-Kun’s name is Venguac?
May 5th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
… If I only had an HDTV and another $600 for a Mac Mini ><
May 6th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Sorry, I wasn’t consciously trying to sound super-bourgeois in this post. But when you sell out to the man, the man gives you possessions. It’s gross. That said, even the cheapest HDTV you can find will make those giant-ass matroska downloads worthwhile.