Play 1080p Content on Mac Mini

Posted on December 31, 2007 by mr. Obsession

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 any HD material I’ve thrown at it. But, admittedly, I’ve never asked for anything beyond 720p playback. I recently began archiving HD material at 1080p however, using the .MKV file compression and I wasn’t sure if my Mac Mini could handle playing it back effectively.

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Posted in Applications, HDTV, Mac Mini | 27 Comments

Sync Audio/Video Playback in VLC

Posted on December 5, 2007 by mr. Obsession

Tonight, I found myself making an adjustment in VLC that I’ve been using for quite some time: easy tweaking to sync up audio and video. Continue reading →

Posted in Applications | 2 Comments

EyeTV 2.5 – WiFi Streaming to iPhone

Posted on November 4, 2007 by mr. Obsession

EyeTV is one of the cornerstones of my Mac home theatre system. I love the program and am eternally grateful to El Gato for continually refining and expanding the features it offers…particularly in light of the fact that there’s no real alternative for Mac users interested in an HDTV viewing/recording system.

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Visual Hub Rules iPhone Video Conversion

Posted on September 15, 2007 by mr. Obsession

As I’ve mentioned before, the iPhone’s 8GB storage space makes managing which videos to carry a delicate exercise. And file sizes from the iTunes store or EyeTV’s Export feature are significantly larger than they need to be for a clear viewing experience on the iPhone’s screen.

Luckily (as is often the case), a third-party software developer comes to the rescue with an excellent program that allows you to control file size when converting files specifically for the iPhone.

In this situation, Visual Hub is my program of choice. Not only does it have iPhone presets, but it allows control over the final file size…which is huge in my book. For instance, an episode of “Mad Men” purchased from the iTunes store runs about 500MB. Compressed by Visual Hub, I can get a perfectly beautiful file for around 200MB. I won’t insult your intelligence by explaining why this totally rocks. But in the context of the iPhone’s 8GB, Visual Hub has become indispensable for my workflow.

Visual Hub

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Hacking Sony Reader's Clock

Posted on July 29, 2007 by mr. Obsession

Having already gushed profusely over how much I love my Sony eReader, I was deliriously happy to find the following info in MobileTalk’s forums. Basically, there’s a simple procedure one can do on a Mac(!) or PC that activates and displays a clock in the lower right-hand corner…see below for before and after shots. All you need is a SD card, a card reader, and the files included in the post.

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