Hello peeps, I read a post a few weeks back by someone that said they would use the Mac Mini as a DVD player instead of buying an actual DVD player because the prices of Mac equipment is so low now.

Can I ask, how would that work ??

Mac Minis have a DVI output, how would you connect that to a tv or AV amp ?? what about digital audio / 5:1 decoding ?

How about multi region facilities/tweaks - are they possible?

I ask because, I am about to buy a DVD player, not one of those cheap and cheerful £100 jobs though and I thought I could spend an extra £150 on top of what I was going to spend and get a Mac Mini - it looks cute and obviously can be used for many more things.

cheers

Kevin

From the Apple Site:

Quote:

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Graphics and Video Support

* Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory(1)
* DVI video output to support digital resolutions up to 1920 by 1200 pixels; supports 20-inch Apple Cinema Display and 23-inch Apple Cinema HD Display; supports coherent digital displays up to 154MHz; supports non-coherent digital displays up to 135MHz
* VGA video output (using included adaptor) to support analogue resolutions up to 1920 by 1080 pixels
* S-video and composite video output to connect directly to a TV or projector (using Apple DVI to Video Adaptor, sold separately)

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Quote:

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Audio

* Built-in speaker
* Combined optical digital audio input/audio line in (minijack)
* Combined optical digital audio output/headphone out (minijack)

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Combine that with Front Row & this little note from Macworld:

Quote:

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The new mini models also have 5.1-channel digital audio output (instead of just stereo analog output) for connecting to a surround sound speaker system for watching DVDs. There’s also-built in digital and analog audio input as well, something that the old Mac mini lacked entirely.

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& your done!

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| iMac 24" Core2Duo | 2GB RAM | Reason 3 | Logic 7.2 | ReCycle 2.1 | Ohmboyz! | Alesis iO 26

I am thinking of going down this route mysel. In my case it is more driven by wanting to digitise my music collection. I don't watch many DVDs so that will be secondary.

You might find this page useful

http://www.apple.com/uk/macmini/accessories.html

If I went down this route I would be looking to pair the mac with an LCD TV. The Mac will connect to the HDMI port on a digital TV using a DVI to HDMI converter/cable which can be bought from Apple and other places. You can also connect the DVI port to the PC port if your TV has one, This can be down using the DVI/VGA adapter that Apple supply with the Mac (or at least they did).

The resolution of the TV can be an issue. You have some flexibilty in the set up of the Mac to try to match the resolution of the set.

I haven't looked into quality issues much though I have seen some very positive feedback on using the MacMini with the current Sony LCD sets via DVI/HDMI convertion. It may not be reasonable to expect the Mac to match the perfromance of a high end DVD but others may have comment on this.

I am not sure how Mac's work with multiregion though it is likley that there will be software available to get around any restrictions that might exist (my guess would be that there are no regial restrictions). I recall that there were several 'utilities' available for the PC that would bypass multiregion restriction, I am not clear on the legality of such an approach.

I am not clear on how the Mac handles a 5.1 encoded signal. There seems to be some contradition in looking at the internet. The Apple page above reads like this can be delivered over the optical link but if you read it carefully it doesn't say that for sure. If you look through the links below there are two that that describe how to set the mac up to provide 5.1 output. You need a second opinion on this one but I believe it will work through the optical out through a suitable AV processor.

I only use stereo and this could be fed by the analogue out on the Mac though I plan to use a USB enabled Appogee Mini Dac as I have a relatively high end stereo (though I am still looking at the options).

http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/minidac.php

It should also be possible to rip your DVDs to the Mac for future playback though I have not looked at this in detail and it may well be that 5.1 wont be an option in that situation.

There are some other approaches to enabling 5.1 on a Mac. These might be of interest;

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/firewave/index.php?www.reghardwa re.co.uk

http://www.earwicker.com/200607221351500000.html

http://homepage.mac.com/chamady/MacMiniReview/

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/desktops/0,39029426,49256662,00.htm

http://fplanque.net/Blog/devblog/2006/04/10/two_weeks_of_facts_about_the_i ntel_mac_m