Installation of a wall-hanging 37-inch Samsung LCD connected to a Mac Mini.
I have thought about this project for a long time and done a lot of research on whether I could do it right and legitimize the cost. The short-answer is yes; you can get a simple clean setup that might not be cable-box easy, but at least seamless enough to make it not feel like a project every time you sit down to watch TV.
We recently bought a house in which the previous owner left a custom designed entertainment room complete with AV closet, in-wall speaker cabling, and above-fireplace TV mount. Unfortunately, before moving out he removed all the electronics. This left me with a great start to creating a really nice setup, but prior to Christmas ‘09 all we had was a giant hole in the wall.
We did our best to make it look nice for the holidays, but we weren't fooling anybody - something was missing.
My dream was to create a setup that would rely on internet video for the majority of the content and set the stage for leaving cable behind. There are a variety of technologies that promise this for a fraction of the cost of a full computer (Apple TV, Roku, as well as Blu-Ray units with internet video built-in), but each rely heavily on either a Netflix account or an iTunes account as the source of most of their content. I have not used all of these technologies, but the problem I see is that internet video is changing too fast for a single-source or even a couple of sources to really promise a lasting approach (as recently noted in an NYT piece).
No matter what the future of internet video brings the central point of delivery is always going to be a computer. I am an admitted Mac fanboy, so for me the choice was clear; the Mac Mini has the right design, cost, and power to be the perfect settop computer (others at Gizmodo might not agree).
Final Setup
The completed design looks fantastic and works really well. The amount of content is immense; from low-quality youtube videos, to mid-quality Netflix or Hulu streams, to stunning high-quality HD iTunes purchases. Navigation is good, although a variety of controls works best (keyboard mouse for some content, Apple remote for others; a wii-mote style controller [or this] would also be a nice addition). Overall the setup has been a success and happily the balance in the house is shifting away from the cable box.
In the spirit of both brevity and clarity, I’m going to break this post down at this point.
If you would like to learn more about the specifics of the hardware setup go here.
If you would like to learn more about the specifics of the software setup go here. (coming soon)
