Mac Mini as a Mediacenter: The Hardware
Apple has created with the little Mac Mini is a great Alternative to the house's own Apple TV. The Apple TV is much cheaper, and structurally a little smaller but has much less connectivity options, Performance, and flexibility.
- The Mac Mini comes with a full-fledged Mac OS X Mavericks, you can so in the case of Software and Apps to the Fullest.
- With the Mac Mini, you need to worry about connections. In addition to four USB ports, Apple provides a network port, Thunderbolt, Audio In/Out, SD card, etc. With the remote control you can control the Mac Mini from the Couch.
- It comes to the Performance of the Mini depends on Apple TV lengths. Even some of the games are for the Mac no Problem.
Mac Mini is sociable
Full-fledged operating system in the Mac Mini
You can, as already mentioned, with the Mac Mini to a full-fledged Mac OS X Mavericks to fall back. So you can play virtually all the content with the Software you would like.
- Whether it's Spotify or Google Music, Amazon Prime Instant Video or Watchever - everything running on the Mac Mini.
- We recommend, however, that the font size in the display options to adaptto the larger distance, everything seen can.
Mediacenter-Software for Mac Mini
To make the most of your media properly, you should enjoy access to a Mediacenter solution. Currently, they offer two Alternatives: "Plex Home Theater" or "XBMC". Both allow for a sofa-friendly operation with large fonts, symbols, and access to a variety of media and extensions.
- XBMC is the more flexible solution in our comparison, however, you need to configure more for themselves. You can have XBMC but look and operate how you imagine it. XBMC also offers TV functionality, and can be equipped without problems on extensions - for example, BBC News or Youtube.
- You want a pure media solution for TV shows, movies, music and pictures, the stream, thanks to server function also on all your other devices, Plex is probably your choice. You install the server function, you show her where the data is stored and you can access it with "Plex Home Theater" Clients via Mac, but also with iPhone, Android, or Windows movies. Of course, Plex also good with Youtube and co. can
Mac Mini as Mediacenter with Plex
You also have a PC in your household, you can Windows PC, and Mac in the network.
