The new Mac Mini

So, Apple has released new Mac Minis. My question still remains: Can the Mac Mini replace my VCR/PVR? Can it be my TiVO? And why, for the love of god why, is the hard drive so small? 80GB? that doesn’t even fit my music, let alone record any tv shows for me. Because once I have to add an external drive, the elegance of it is lost. Is this upgradable?

What I’d like is for someone, probably Apple, to show me a product page/instruction page that shows me how to make this the hub of my home entertainment centre. Because that’s what I want. Oh, yeah, and I gotta be able to use my TV as a screen. I’m assuming that with the DVI out, that can hook up to modern TVs? Does anyone know this?

Update: According to this guy, it works great with TVs. Now, I wonder how I can convince Leah we need this….oh yeah, I’d still need an external drive, just to jack the price a little higher…

8 Replies to “The new Mac Mini”

  1. If you watch TV even occasionally, I cannot recommend a PVR enough. I’ve been using one (built my own Windows-based box) for just over a year now, and I will never go back to regular TV.
    – You’ll never miss a show you want to watch — can’t stay up for The Colbert Report? No problem, it’ll be there in the morning.
    – You’ll never have to schedule your life around the TV schedule — you can watch The O.C. on a boring Sunday morning instead of wasting your Thursday evening.
    – Need to get up and do something all of a sudden? Now you can press Pause.
    – Never watch commercials again (that saves you a whole 22 minutes per hour of TV!)

  2. If you watch TV even occasionally, I cannot recommend a PVR enough. I’ve been using one (built my own Windows-based box) for just over a year now, and I will never go back to regular TV.
    – You’ll never miss a show you want to watch — can’t stay up for The Colbert Report? No problem, it’ll be there in the morning.
    – You’ll never have to schedule your life around the TV schedule — you can watch The O.C. on a boring Sunday morning instead of wasting your Thursday evening.
    – Need to get up and do something all of a sudden? Now you can press Pause.
    – Never watch commercials again (that saves you a whole 22 minutes per hour of TV!)

  3. I believe that the Mac Mini has both an Optical “In” and Optical “Out” port – so you could record via that, I’d imagine. So I guess you’d pass the signal from your cable-box, to the mini, then out to the TV. Or possibly, from the mini, to the amp, then to the TV? gets horribly complicated, doesn’t it!

  4. I believe that the Mac Mini has both an Optical “In” and Optical “Out” port – so you could record via that, I’d imagine. So I guess you’d pass the signal from your cable-box, to the mini, then out to the TV. Or possibly, from the mini, to the amp, then to the TV? gets horribly complicated, doesn’t it!

  5. I’m almost sure that the optical-in port is only for audio and not video.
    For video you’ll need to get an external TV tuner or video input box – you might have to wait a couple of months for an Intel Mac version to come out.

  6. I’m almost sure that the optical-in port is only for audio and not video.
    For video you’ll need to get an external TV tuner or video input box – you might have to wait a couple of months for an Intel Mac version to come out.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: