Remote Buddy

I was very exited when a bunch of my best friends got me a Nintendo Wii for my birthday. I've played some games, learned how to golf and bowl, and now it's time to start seeing what else I can get out of this puppy.

For starters, I decided to research the use of the WiiMote as a mouse for my Mac Mini.
Some quick research turned up a cool program called "Remote Buddy".

This will be the first program I will test out. I'm sure there are other, more free versions out there, but this one seems pretty slick at first glance. I'll write up a more in depth-review when I get some more time with it.

For now, it's time to see what I can get out of the 30-day trial.

Firewire recording from the Cable Box to the Mini Pt 2

Ok so a few more bits of info here...I got a response from Cyberlink and none of their apps will open a .m2t file. So scratch that idea.

I also put a post on the xbmc.org forum about .mt2 files playing in XBMC and found out some good info. If you create a file called Advancedsettings.xml and save it to the /user/library/Application Support/XMBC/UserData directory you can get XBMC to include .m2t into its accepted file formats. Here is what you put in Advancedsettings.xml:

    

    .m2t|.msts

    

Enter XBMC and play your hi def recorded content! Now if I can only find a way to contact someone from Verizon to ask why CBS and ABC are flagged Copy Once!

Firewire recording from the Cable box to the Mini

Over the past couple days I have been testing the AVCbroswer and AVCvideocap apps provided in the the Apple FirewireSDK. Once I figured out the quirks of how the program interacts with the cable box, operation was pretty simple. The big thing was figuring out which channels are marked Copy Freely by FIOS and which channels are marked Copy Once.

The copy freely channels can be viewed in AVCbrowser through VLC and recorded with AVCvideocap and played back in VLC. When you tune in to a channel that is copy once, the video freezes or stays black. When you try to record a copy once channel with AVCvideocap it creates a files that cause VLC to show an error. The purpose of copy once is to tell 5C compliant devices (e.g. HDDVRs from Verizon) that they are allowed to copy the program once and that's it. Unfortunately, there are no apps for the Mac that are 5C compliant. I ran into an app for windows called Power DVD that supposedly has the proper compliance to be able to playback copy once programming. I am not sure if it will only playback on disc or if it will play a computer file. I have sent an email to Cyberlink to find out.

Now regarding which channels are copy freely on FIOS. Here's the list and it's not pretty:

Channels 1 - 49: copy freely
All Digital Channels: copy once.

HD Channels:
802 - PBS - Copy Freely
803 - WSBK - Copy Once
804 - CBS - Copy Once
805 - ABC - Copy Once
806 - CW - Copy Freely
807 - NBC - Copy Freely
808 - FOX - Copy Once
825 - TNT - Copy Once
826 - ESPN - Copy Once
827 - ESPN2 - Copy Once
828 - NFL Network - Copy Once
829 - NESN - Copy Freely
830 - Comcast SportsNet - Copy Freely
833 - HDNET - Copy Once
834 - HDNET Movies - Copy Once
835 - UHD - Copy Once
836 - HD Theater - Copy Once
837 - Wealth - Copy Once
838 - National Geographic - Copy Freely
839 - MTVHD - Copy Freely
840 - FOODHD - Copy Freely
841 - HGTV - Copy Freely
842 - A&E - Copy Once
845 - Lifetime - Copy Freely
846 - Discovery HD - Copy Freely.

So out of 25 HD channels only 11 are copy freely. The thing that is really not cool is that CBS and ABC are copy once. From everything I've read, local network stations are suppose to be copy freely. I am going to email customer service and see if I can get some info regarding this. On an unrelated note, I am also going to drop a note on the XBMC forum to see if there are any plans to support .mt2 files.

Record from HD DVR on Mac

Record from your HD-DVR

Input device for the mini

Now that it has pretty much been decided that we're going with the Mac Mini, I decided it was time to figure out which input device I am going to use. I think I have settled on the Logitech Dinovo Edge. It is a full keyboard with a touchpad, left and right mouse buttons and a dedicated volume control. Unfortunately there are no OSX drivers for it but I found a link on avsforum.com to a guy's blog who uses the Dinovo edge with his mini, http://5thirtyone.com/archives/751.

In his blog he states that the main problem is that it's a windows formated keyboard so your command and option keys will be swapped. Not to fear! I came across this Quick Tip on cnettv.com about remapping keys on a windows formated keyboard, cnettv.com clip.

Now the main issue is that this freakin keyboard lists for $199! Amazon has it listed at $157. However I think I may take my chances on ebay. I have seen a few "buy it now" listings for $129, albeit with the usual overpriced ebay shipping of $20. I think for something like this I would take a chance on an auction in the $60 - $80 range for a used version. I have seen a few auctions around that price range.

Edit: If I have to, I will settle for this.

High Definition Content Playback on the Intel Mac Mini

I came across this blog about the Mac Mini's ability to play high definition content. It is not a "how to" but rather theory behind the feasibility of HD playback and future improvements that could be made to increase HD playback capability.

http://blog.kozubik.com/john_kozubik/2008/03/high-definition.html

Medialink, PS3/ Mac media streamer

According to Nullriver, it'll be releasing its MediaLink application later this week, which it says has been "designed from the ground up for the PS3" and provides "true integration with the Mac. I checked out their site today and it looks pretty decent. No mention in the supported formats section about .VOB, video_ts or mpeg_ts. It also will not stream itunes DRM files to the ps3. They actually suggest getting around the DRM by burning all of your itunes music to a CD and reimporting them all as mp3.

MediaLink by Nullriver

5 Steps to output Dolby Digital from Quicktime Player

I saw this and didn't want to lose the link

Output dolby digital in Quicktime player

FastMac Blu-Ray Drives

FastMac provides "performance" upgrade for Mac computers. One of the items they just released is a blu-ray writable drive upgrade for the Mac mini. The price ($999.99) is 3x more than I would want to pay and writing 50GB at 2x would take forever but the idea is cool nonetheless.

Fast Mac Blu-Ray upgrade for Mac Mini

Media Center software for Mac

I think I have found the media center software I am going to try first when I get the mini. It is called Xhub. You can find it at www.snarb.tk. The other two I was looking at are CenterStage (www.centerstageproject.com) and MediaCentral (www.equinux.com).

CenterStage looks like it is going to be absolutely sweet but it will probably never get finished. It is an open source project that the developers work on when they have time. I downloaded a zip of screenshots and the graphics are incredible. I'll try it when it is completed.

MediaCentral's list of features is impressive. The few screenshots they have on their site have not thrilled me though. The thing MediaCentral has going for it is Skype integration.

Xhub looks like the real deal. The graphics aren't as good as what CenterStage will look like but after reading through the forums, the feature set looks sweet.

Podcast: Using a Mac Mini as a video server

HT Guys from HTguys.com talk about how to take your mac mini and turn it into a video server. There is good info about software and storage ideas.

Podcast