Mac Mini, Mac OS X 10.7, XBMC Nightly version Oct 26; Latest XBMC 11.0 Eden beta version installed on both Windows Workstation and HTPC. Basic setup for module usage: Make sure the XBMC is setup first before loading the gui file. Make sure that the latest nightlies are used. The latest XBMC 11.0 Eden beta version can also be used. What are the current options for a IR remote for use with XBMC Frodo on a Mac Mini (2012 model)? I'm not interested in Apple's own remote (lack of mappable buttons). I own a Harmony 900 remote so I'm quite flexible req. Button-mapping, IR code learning and compatibility, but I'm looking for a USB IR reciever and/or remote. Ubuntu 9.04 beta problems with OpenGL accelleration for the Mac Mini The Ubuntu 9.04 beta Intel 945 OpenGL driver does not hardware accelerate as many features of OpenGL as in older versions of Ubuntu. XBMC's user interface runs very slowly. This is not XBMC-specific. Try using apt-get to install the 'amoeba' OpenGL demo.
Welcome to the seventh of a series of posts on setting up a Mac Mini Media Centre. This post will look at the daddy of open source media centre app’s, XBMC. When reviewing Plex and Boxee I mentioned that both were forks from XBMC, or Xbox Media Centre to give it it’s full title. In 2004 Xbox Media Centre was born out of another well known app – Xbox media Player. Both app’s were designed as media playback applications for Microsoft’s first console, the Xbox. Covers for mac air 13.
When I say Xbox, of course I mean a chipped Xbox. Chipping the Xbox and installing software like XBMC really showed the potential of a games console to act as a media centre device. No restriction on codecs, a great community constantly upgrading the software meant my chipped Xbox was untouchable for quite a few years. In fact it’s still a great media player today except the chip on the original Xbox couldn’t handle HD which for me is a deal breaker. So what does XBMC offer compared to the forked products?
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On first pass you can see that Plex and XBMC are very similar products. They share many of the same menu’s, options and skins which in some way isn’t a surprise although Boxee is very different in use than XBMC. In fact when you install the correct skin in XBMC you could be forgiven in thinking that XBMC is exactly the same as Plex. Almost. If you want to read about the functionality that XBMC offers, re-read the Plex review. There are a few differences though. Media shares are easier to add to XBMC and I found the menu’s generally a bit easier to use and follow in XBMC.
TV and Video’s are also browsable using the same rich content that the scrapers bring to Plex (unlike Boxee) but Music doesn’t integrate with iTunes in the same way as Plex. In fact the biggest difference I could see is that Plex has the Plex media Server which acts as a bridge between Plex and your locally stored media. It’s this that lifts Plex above XBMC in day to day use.
XBMC can also be extended via scripts and plugins. These aren’t as well organised as in Plex or Boxee but there is arguably a wider variety that allow you to access online content not only via audio and video but also via torrents and newsgroups which can integrate into XBMC. This won’t be for everyone though and I again prefer the easier to use accessibility of Plex and Boxee when it comes to installing and using plugins. With full skin support and some great skins available the look and feel is really down to personal preference and there are more skins available than in Plex which does have ports of the popular XBMC skins.
There are two iPhone app’s that work with XBMC. XBMC remote (opens in iTunes) is similar to the Boxee remote in that it allows for full control of XBMC from the iPhone. It has two modes – standard which controls XBMC via buttons and gesture which again I found a bit fiddly to use. How to minecraft for free on mac. It costs £1.79 but if you like XBMC it’s cheap for the features it gives you. Another app of more interest is XBMC Music Streamer (opens in iTunes) which allows you to stream music from XBMC to your iPhone. Again the app is £1.79 and although I’ve not tried it myself it’s got good reviews on the App Store an on other web sites so looks a good choice if you ned to stream your music collection.
Out of the three Media Centre tools I’ve used XBMC probably has the most active forums/developments but some of the developments are also in fairly obscure area’s. With a fully set-up XBMC and Plex it can be hard to tell the difference but for day to day usage I prefer Plex and will be sticking to that as my media player of choice. If you want to dabble with scripts and get into the guts of your media software then XBMC is the better choice. Either way, your spoiled for choice.
Xbmc For Mac Download
The next post in out Mac Mini series will look at other useful media applications that you will find useful alongside Plex, Boxee or XBMC. Until then, happy viewing.
Xbmc For Mac Mini Download
Xbmc For Mac Mini Download
I want to describe how I eventually was able to install a single-boot of Openelec on the somewhat difficult-to-change 2007 Mac Mini (Core2 Duo T5600). The result is very nice, especially the fast boot (~20 seconds to GUI) and having a built-in DVD drive in a small form factor.
Motivation for single-booting Openelec:
- Openelec boots faster and is more predictable than OSX + XBMC
- The Mac Mini was gathering dust in the garage and had no real purpose anymore
- The original OSX HDD will be removed for safe-keeping (and not be modified in any way)
- The new drive will be an SSD (and I don't want to waste space on OSX)
How I discovered Openelec:
I have a NAS (WD Mybook Live, wired with GbE, 2TB HDD, ~60MByte/sec max throughput, ~$100) that I use to backup family photos. Setup was easy enough, but until recently, there was no good (fast, attractive, easy) way to display the photos from the NAS on the HDTV. So until then, the NAS simply served as a backup, and primary photo viewing happened on the laptop, which had of course issues of limited local storage, limited throughput to the NAS (wifi), other processes using CPU, a small display, and so forth. Then there was also the LG Blu-Ray player, which can theoretically display photos from the NAS on the HDTV, but this one was crippled by 100Mbit ethernet and a really slow, and screen-area-wasting, photo viewer implementation.
Looking for a better solution to view photos on the HDTV, I read about XBMC, then started to consider buying an Ouya or G-Box MX2. The biggest drawback of these, in my mind, was not having Gigabit Ethernet. I then started considering an Intel NUC, but I would have needed to buy it and wait for it, and supply extra components. Eventually I remembered I still had an obsolete Mac Mini in the garage. So I got it, and tested XBMC for the first time by installing it on the OSX HDD. Very nice! After considering possible final install scenarios (see single boot motivation above), and many hours later, I am now the happy owner of a Mac Mini which single-boots Openelec from a 60GB SSD.
I am really amazed at what is possible, and I am very happy that a community product based on Linux can show such superior performance and usability compared to everything else I have seen. Linux FTW!
Summary of How to install Openelec on Mac Mini (2007):
1. On a separate system, install Openelec Generic.i386 (3.2.4) onto a new or spare 2.5' HDD or SSD
2. Take the Mac Mini apart, install the Openelec HDD physically
3. Boot into your OSX recovery media (DVD or USB). Open terminal, and enter the following:
bless --device /dev/disk0s2 --setBoot --legacy --verbose
4. Reboot (and use the CD eject button in Openelec to eject OSX DVD)
5. Install the Quartz skin, which imitates Apple TV. I found it to be clean, fast, easy, and customizable.
6. For a fancier skin, I found Aeon MQ 5 pretty good
Potential problems:
I almost despaired trying to install Openelec on the Mac Mini from bootable media. The issues were many, and often compounded, but primarily:
Problem 1: Mac Mini will not eject DVD.
Once the Mac Mini had a new (blank) SSD installed and the recovery DVD in the drive bay, there was simply no method of ejecting the recovery DVD. Every conceivable method for this relied on OSX or one of the lower level OSX pre-boot environments which all reside not in bios or firmware but actually on the original HDD (which was no longer installed). The recovery DVD would not eject itself while running.
Solution: Eventually, I resorted to unscrewing the top cover of the DVD drive and manually removing . swapping various CDs in an attempt to install Openelec. Planning ahead also might work, if you remember that a non-booting system can't eject the CD.
Problem 2: Mac Mini with blank SSD has no BIOS or boot selection hotkey.
There is no BIOS on the Mac Mini. The only thing which the Mac Mini has is a minimal flash memory which remembers which volume to boot from - however, this flash memory string can't be modified without OSX. Take for example the 'F12 boot selector' key familiar to us from other computers, where it is a BIOS function. On the Mac Mini, the boot volume select hotkey function is actually a software boot loader that is loaded from the HDD. So once the original HDD is gone, you can't change the boot drive anymore with the Mac hotkey (alt-C or something, I forgot).
Solution: Boot the OSX recovery / install DVD, and to use the 'bless' utility which changes the boot volume setting in the flash memory.
Problem 3: Mac Mini won't boot from USB.
On my particular Mac Mini, a 2007 Core2 Duo T5600, model # MB138LL/A, firmware version MM21.009A.B00, booting from USB does not appear to work. For example, I used the rEFIt iso CD image as a boot medium, which indeed booted. However, when I then tried to select the Openelec live USB stick (or any other USB medium for that matter) as the boot drive, I would get an 'Error: not found' message. I read that this might have been related to a password protecting the boot selection, but I verified that I had no such password installed. It simply seems to be a compatibility issue, where the Mac Mini 2007 will not boot from FAT32 USB sticks, even if you try rEFIt or rEFInd.
Solution: Install to HDD in another system, install HDD physically into Mac Mini. I didn't try this, but this also might work: http://sevenbits.github.io/Mac-Linux-USB-Loader/
Performance:
Performance is o.k. on the Mac Mini (Core2 Duo T5600, 2GB Ram, Intel GMA 950, no CrystalHD). Using the default (Confluence) skin, and playing back the GoPro Hero3 Black Edition 1080p/60 demo video file (available for download here at youtube video # s6gpmt20SaA), and escaping to the transparent settings/video status display while the video is playing in the background, I got around 19 fps.
I plan to add a CrystalHD BCM70015 card soon, and will repeat the test afterwards (no need for WiFi card, since GbE is superior and preferable anyways).
The same test on an Acer Veriton VN2620G-UC887L (Celeron 887, 2GB Ram, Intel HM70) gave around 48 fps. And it was so much easier to install (hit F12 to select boot drive). Only downside, it doesn't have a DVD drive, and looks a little more ordinary.
Openelec XBMC remote control:
In terms of remote control, just install an XBMC remote control app on your smartphone to use the input control service on port 80. This is assuming you also have wifi on your LAN and smartphone to access the XBMC. Works very well. Still investigating more options.