![]() The Incredibles you discover that you can’t navigate through the menus with Apple’s Remote-the plus (+) and minus (-) keys do nothing. And when you attempt to play disc 2 of Pixar’s For example, I have a large enough iTunes collection that I routinely use iTunes’ browser or Search field to find the music I want. ![]() As slick as Front Row may be, it offers a limited set of controls. Controlling them through Front Row makes sense when you’re sitting across the room, but with the Mac set before you on a desk, I prefer using iTunes and DVD Player directly. With those speakers or headphones and a decent monitor (my Apple 20-inch display, for example), iTunes sounds great and DVDs look fabulous. To that list I’ll add a set of computer speakers or headphones-listening to music or a DVD soundtrack through the mini’s tiny (and tinny) internal speaker is far from satisfying. Apple suggests that the bare minimum for the rest is a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. ILife ’06), a power supply, and Apple’s remote control. Out of the boxĪpple makes it clear that when you purchase an Intel Mac mini you get the basics-a computer packed with basic software (including As a client tasked with streaming media from another computer, Front Row and the mini have a way to go. Was such a small computer up to such large challenges? When outfitted with the proper peripherals (and those peripherals are correctly configured) the mini performed as a workable media center as long as its media files were stored on the mini or a hard drive attached to it. Goal 3: After the initial setup, I won’t have to leave the comfort of my couch to configure my Mac or play media through it.It will play CDs, play and record Internet and terrestrial radio, and stream music from another Mac in my home. Goal 2: The mini must serve nearly all my audio needs.Goal 1: The mini must serve all my video needs, including playing DVDs on my television in glorious 5.1 sound, displaying live television, recording television programs, and streaming video from another Mac in my house.If only the computer was smaller, cheaper, and-when plugged into my TV-free of the redundant display. Maybe the answer wasn’t in replacing my media center, but rather using the Mac as an enhancement to my existing components. Its display was too small for a large room and television pictures displayed on its monitor lacked the clarity that you find on a real TV. While the iMac proved to be an adequate multimedia center, it wasn’t about to replace my dedicated media components. The multimedia capabilities of that G5-based iMac earlier this year, approaching the task with a challenging goal in mind: Switch off the stereo, TV, TiVo, DVD player, and radio and replace those devices and their functionality with the iMac and a select set of third-party peripherals. IMac G5 and its accompanying remote control and Front Row media browser software, Apple hinted that the Macintosh was ready to add a new skill to its resume-serving as a multimedia center.
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