As a brief introduction to what this site is all about, I wanted to detail exactly how my Intel Mac Mini acts as a media hub to demonstrate what YOUR Mini can do for you!

I’ve had a couple of request lately for a chart detailing exactly how my HDTV/Mac set-up is, well, set up. So I opened up Photoshop and put this together, detailing all of the components involved in viewing and recording free(!) HD programming onto a Mac and then watching it over my home network on multiple [...]

BOTTOM LINE: Plex is hands-down the finest media manager/player available for the Mac HTPC enviornment. Gorgeous and exponentially more flexible than Front Row, it rules HD playback, handling 1080p material with ease.

A definitive list of apps that help my Mac Mini HTPC realize its full potential.
Plex - Amazing (and free) media manager/player that has no peer. Read my full review here.
EyeTV - The only real option for a Tivo-like experience on a Mac is thankfully well-tended by its developers at El Gato Systems. Use it to [...]

JULY 2008 UPDATE: I’ve recently begun using Plex (aka OSXMBC) and it eats up ANY 1080p material I throw at it. My full review is available here but the short version is a strong recommendation to anyone interested in playing back 1080p on their Mini. It’s amazing.

Until now, my Mac Mini’s limitations haven’t slowed down [...]

When I read about HDHomeRun being integrated into EyeTV’s software, I immediately ordered one from El Gato. I’ve been using two EyeTV 500 units to watch and record OTA HDTV programming for a while on my Mac HTPC and have been quite satisfied with the set-up. So, why the change? A few VERY compelling reasons.
1. [...]

When the AppleTV was announced last year, one red flag immediately flew up in the feature list… what about HDTV? Not “near-HD” quality or “DVD quality”, why wasn’t Apple talking up what was a rapidly-becoming-mainstream format?
Because it’s not natively set-up to deal with HD. No recording and watching live content. Let alone an ATSC tuner. [...]

Macworld offers a pretty thorough review of the EyeTV Hybrid. I shied away from this model due to the USB connection and the reviewer doesn’t mention the 500 (which I use x2), so it’s not entirely complete from my POV.
Regardless, it does sound awesome for folks on the road with Intel laptops…no way I’d drag [...]

Among the colossal missteps El Gato has made in recent releases sits a gift…version 2.3.2 introduces a surprisingly robust Picture-In-Picture feature.
DISCLAIMER: For some reason or another, there a lot of folks who think adding PIP means they just gained an additional tuner. They didn’t. You must have TWO EyeTV units to use PIP with two [...]

Yesterday around 6pm PST, El Gato released a new version of EyeTV’s software. Despite an avalanche of complaints from users over the major changes made in 2.3.1, El Gato ignored all of the major ones and even managed to cripple functionality a little more. Here we go:
THE GOOD
PIP - Adding Picture-In-Picture explains a lot about [...]