OS X AirPlay Mirroring Questions

[mobydick01]

I am considering using a Mac Mini as a media server. My TV is in our living room, but the Mini would sit in my basement.

I plan on putting a monitor in the basement and connecting it to the Mini's HDMI port so I can "manage" the server junk. I then plan on connecting the Mini to my TV via Apple TV and AirPlay. We would control the Mini from our living room using our iPhones. Is this a feasible setup?

My main concern is whether AirPlay can be set to automatically connect and mirror to the Apple TV after a restart, etc. I don't want to have to walk down to the basement just to reestablish the AirPlay connection every time.

Thanks.

 

[cardsdoc]

I am considering using a Mac Mini as a media server. My TV is in our living room, but the Mini would sit in my basement.

I plan on putting a monitor in the basement and connecting it to the Mini's HDMI port so I can "manage" the server junk. I then plan on connecting the Mini to my TV via Apple TV and AirPlay. We would control the Mini from our living room using our iPhones. Is this a feasible setup?

My main concern is whether AirPlay can be set to automatically connect and mirror to the Apple TV after a restart, etc. I don't want to have to walk down to the basement just to reestablish the AirPlay connection every time.

Thanks.

By what means do you intend to play media? Video in iTunes? Plex? Or something else? Only iTunes content can be natively airplayed from OS X and in that case you can just browse and play everything directly on the apple tv. If you intend to just use airplay mirroring using some other way to play media I would not recommend that set up for a home theater. Airplay mirroring is of lesser quality and sometimes inconsistent. You also would not get any digital surround. You could use Plex in this set up if you don't have all your content in itunes. Best way to do that is to have plex media server on mac mini and then use plex on an ios device to airplay to the appletv. That would maintain the highest quality.

 

[mobydick01]

Only iTunes content can be natively airplayed from OS X and in that case you can just browse and play everything directly on the apple tv. If you intend to just use airplay mirroring using some other way to play media I would not recommend that set up for a home theater. Airplay mirroring is of lesser quality and sometimes inconsistent. You also would not get any digital surround.

That's what I needed to know.

Right now I've been using DVDpedia and VLC, but plan on transitioning to Plex, slowly but surely.

My alternative option was to split the HDMI from the Mini to the basement monitor and my TV using a 1x2 switch. However, I'm not sure what type of switch I need to get! I've looked at what Monoprice offers, but I still don't know what I need for what I'm trying to do. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[waw74]

you don't want to use mirroring, even on a wired network, it can stutter when showing full screen video.
Sending HDMI that far can be problematic, you would want a splitter like this, and then figure out the shortest length possible for the cable.
or just connect the tv directly to the mini, and use screen sharing from one of your other macs to deal with it. plus plex management is web based, so it's just as easy to do it from another computer.

if you're going with plex, look at roku, or chromecast they both have a native client.
with both of these, you'll loose the ability to airplay, and access to stuff purchased/rented from the iTunes store.

or as suggested, use the iOS app to run plex and then airplay from there to the TV.

a lot of newer TVs and blu-ray players have DLNA that can work with plex also, although it's not as clean and friendly of interface.

 

[mobydick01]

Sending HDMI that far can be problematic, you would want a splitter like this, and then figure out the shortest length possible for the cable.
or just connect the tv directly to the mini, and use screen sharing from one of your other macs to deal with it. plus plex management is web based, so it's just as easy to do it from another computer.

Thanks. I'm gonna go with both options- use the splitter and screen sharing. I already ordered that splitter.

My HDMI cable is 30 feet, I think. It's a very high quality cable I bought from Amazon a while back. It currently works flawlessly between my TV and a Monoprice DVI-HDMI converter that's connected to a (much) older Mini.