Mac Mini as a Media Server

[ryanflucas]

My uncle has lent me his new Mac Mini for a month while he finishes moving. He wants me to set it up as a media server. He used to use an item called the Tvixbox but it recently died and purchased the Mac Mini as a replacement.

What would be the easiest way to rip full dvd discs to the system, and play them on a TV? He has the cables to hook this up to an analog tv, but plans on buying a LCD TV to replace it. What applications would make this process the simplest? Could this be done using the Apple TV?

Hardware: Mac Mini 1.83 Core 2 Duo, 1GB Ram, 80GB Hard Disk, 8X Superdrive, Mac OS 10.10, iLife 08 & iWork 08. He has a newertech ministack v2 with a 500GB harddisk attached via firewire.

Thanks!

 

[GoCubsGo]

To rip and such mac the ripper and handbrake. But Apple TV would certainly make life easier not to mention, faster I think.

 

[balahir]

To rip and such mac the ripper and handbrake. But Apple TV would certainly make life easier not to mention, faster I think.

You can also just copy the VIDEO_TS folder from the DVD (which you own, of course) to a hard disk and then play the folder using Apple DVD player or VLC. Connect to the LCD with a DVI-HDMI cable and to a receiver with an optical cable.

If you want to set it up as a more advanced media center, check this thread out:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/343725/