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AMEX DIGITAL's Mac mini Blu-ray drive upgrade kit is not what it seems

A Blu-ray "upgrade kit" for Apple's revamped Mac mini... sounds like the ultimate for home theater buffs right? After all, such a device holds the promise of adding Blu-ray playback to a relatively powerful, off-the-shelf micro computer starting at $599 that'll run any of the amazing media center apps available for either Windows 7 (with some extra legwork) or OS X. Not so fast bub, remember, OS X still doesn't support native playback of Blu-ray discs pressed by Hollywood's media fairies. As such, Blu-ray films purchased on disc can only be played by booting into Windows -- under OS X you are limited to reading and writing data assuming you already have software like Adobe's Premiere Pro CS3 with Encore or Roxio's Toast with Blu-ray plug-in. Unfortunately, AMEX Digital is purposely unclear on this point by suggesting that the kit will simply "play Hollywood Blu-ray Disc movies on a properly configured PC or MAC." For the extra $199 required to take the BD-UG1 home, we'd suggest a native PC solution, cheapo standalone Blu-ray player or PS3 and avoid these headaches altogether. Image of the drive laid bare after the break.

[Via I4U]

Kanex Mini DisplayPort Adapter will take your Mac mini to HDMI town

Kanex Mini DisplayPort Adapter will bring your Mac Mini to HDMI town
Your Mac mini cranks out its video via DisplayPort and audio via a mini Toslink. Chances are your home entertainment system doesn't like either of those. It will, however, like the Kanex Mini DisplayPort Adapter, which can turn a DisplayPort video signal into a 1080p signal over HDMI, and will even integrate either digital or analog audio into the mix. It's USB powered, so there's no need for a clunky power adapter, and while $70 isn't particularly cheap for a chubby cable ($50 for the USB analog audio model), it's about the cleanest way to get your Mini pumping tunes and vids through your system.

[Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Check out this Mac Mini/Plasma setup


We found this setup over at TUAW where they feature everything Apple. They have had a few Mac Minis, and one Power Mac G5, media centers before but really nothing worth mentioning. But this rig is impressive. The first pic just looks like the Mac Mini hanging there but the really magic is behind the 42 1080p Westy. Check out the read link and be prepared to be amazed.

YAMMMC - Yet Another Mac Mini Media Center

That little white box from Apple sure is loved. It must be its great size but yet huge amount of power that is drawing so many people to it. TUAW caught wind of another Mac Mini Media Center project using Front Row and EyeTV. Chris, the owner and builder, also added on to the Mini's small hard drive with an encloser that clones the Minis footprint and size.

From the looks of things, everything turned out just peachy. The system works great for him and although this system is not on an HDTV, the setup he describes would work on one as long as you upgrade the tuner. The Elgato EyeTV EZ does not do anything digital or high-def but the EyeTV 500 does.

If any of our readers has a great setup like this one, drop us some pics at our Flickr pool!

MacBook Pro: the ultimate portable HD machine!

MacBook Pro
I have had my MacBook Pro 2.0 for almost a whole week and let me tell you, it is fast! The only way I have been able to max out both cores is by playing a H.264 and HD DivX files at the same time. (If I try two H.264 files QT crashes) The 2.0 Core Duo has more than enough juice to decode any HD files I can find for my computer. It can decode two HD videos at once and watch them in Expose, but not without dropping a few frames 

The Intel Macmini is perfect for HDTV

Mac mini
It's finally arrived: the Mac that is made to be used with your HDTV! Browsing through Apple's list of accessories for the new Mac mini reveals just what we have been waiting for. Not only do they list the various adapters that we mentioned in our "How to connect your PC to your HTPC" article but they also mention all the various resolutions. So it doesn't matter if you have DVI, HDMI, or VGA, you are covered. (no love for component video without a converter

I am the most excited about the mention of the resolutions; in the past you would have to use a third party product such as DisplayConfigX to get your Mac mini to output the correct resolution, now it seems it's supported by OSX. This in combination with the overscan adjustment built into to the display preferences is very impressive. Audio was considered as well as the new Mac mini includes SPDIF in and out so you can enjoy DD 5.1 in all it's glory.

Now all we need are HD movies via iTunes and life would be perfect. I am of course assuming that the Core Solo 1.5 is fast enough to decode H.264 HD material. Even though I just got my MacBook Pro I am off to Apple.com to order a new Mac mini!




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