Help me take advantage of my new Mini

[rawl316]

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some help. I just purchased my first Mac mini, the $799 model. I mainly bought this to use as a home theater. As of now, I will only be using this to watch movies/shows I've bought in iTunes, as well as any digital copies of movies I have. This all seems really boring and standard.

One question I do have is that I will also use my Apple TV in my bedroom to stream movies. Can I do this while the Mac mini is asleep? If not, is the solution to keep the mac awake at all times? This seems pretty wasteful.

I'm not super tech savy. I plan on putting MAME on there so that I can play some arcade classics on my huge TV. What are some other things I should be doing with my Mac to take advantage of this? Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[Defend Tacoma]

Hey there! I'm new to Mac minis myself. I'm interested to see where this thread goes. I just got the same model as you and have it hooked up as an HTPC in my bedroom.

I have it running as a Plex server, feeding 4 clients (kids rooms and family room), including my bedroom TV. Plex is set up to stream movies, TV shows, Netflix, Hulu+, Pandora, etc... The mini also acts as a SABnzbd, Sickbeard, Couch Potato, and Headphones server, with VPN controlled by Viscosity. That's where I'm at right now with it.

This weekend I've been looking into XBMC, which could be a bit dicey, as my wife loves Plex. I am also looking into doing some game emulators, was kind of interested to see how XBMC does with that.

Eventually I plan on getting a Mac Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse so me and the lady can do a little light gaming together. Nothing heavy, she's mostly into puzzle games.

I'm with OP! What's everyone doing with the mini's chained to a TV set?

 

[Paulywauly]

One question I do have is that I will also use my Apple TV in my bedroom to stream movies. Can I do this while the Mac mini is asleep? If not, is the solution to keep the mac awake at all times? This seems pretty wasteful

Nope if the Mini is asleep you can't get it to do anything, sort of like a person i guess lol

If your Mini is basically just sat there idle though it draws very little power (which will be even less if you turn its screen off) even streaming movies to an Apple TV wont add much to this.

 

[marsmissions]

Your mini should wake up when the Apple TV tries to access it.