Comments on: Notes on Running a Mac Mini as a Home Media Server

By: Chris (Admin)

Chris (Admin) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:03:39 +0000

Rob – actually, I have had a lot of problems with it and am now running Ubuntu on it.

After a while it was very rare I would ever see my external drive over the network at any given time, and my VNC access (and even ssh at times) would not work.

After some debugging I really had no idea what the issue was and just decided to use the mini as my ubuntu development webserver.

Using the mini with a 10ft interface turned out to be a challenge anyway.

It was a fun little htpc experiment – but I’ve done several of these over the years, and as always its just easier to stick with my TiVo.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:48:17 +0000

Hi there, I am thinking very similar thoughts to what you have written up so well!

Can you tell me — is the mini server still working fine? Any issues? Would you say it is 100% reliable so far? It is a good file server and do permissions work properly?

Cheers,
Rob

By: Matt W

Matt W — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:03:24 +0000

Upon reading about your struggles with the video connection and the resulting audio input snafu, I just thought I would mention a relatively new product that I discovered.

http://www.kanexlive.com has several different adapters that allow you to covert the MiniDisplayPort into HDMI….with audio. The audio is either grabbed from the 3.5mm audio jack or via USB digital signal. The adapter splices the audio into the HDMI cable along with video.

I used the USB audio version with a newer 13″ Macbook to Pioneer Plasma setup, which works great with 1080p/Boxee/Front Row.

Cheers