Using a Mac Mini from another room

[oliverstacey]

Hi

I’m looking to run a Mac Mini from another room and need some help on how best to do this. Details are...

* The Mac Mini is set up in the front room as a media centre plugged into the television and also directly into the router

* I want to be able to work in the dining room with a screen, keyboard and a Wacom graphics tablet

I have cat 5 running between the two rooms but not sure if this helps!

Any advice welcome and I’m open to all solutions. I also wasn’t sure if it would be easier to move the Mac into the dining room and reverse the set up?

Thank you


Oliver.

 

[darkcompass]

Not easily, I've tried it. Depending on what you need, cables and even a small computer to VNC/Screen Share is going to cost you. Might just be easier to move the Mac Mini into the Dining Room and set up a streaming device (roku, or apple tv), on the television for media play (use Plex on the streamer to connect to the mac mini for streaming.

 

[omvs]

With the mini in the front room, you'd need to get video, keyboard and mouse info to your dining room room. With another machine you could just screenshare to the mini - I've used this approach. But with the wacom tablet, that probably wouldn't be able to go through screen sharing.

I'd reverse your setup - put the mini in the dining room, then run HDMI cable to your front room. It looks like there may be some HDMI over CAT5 solutions, though i've never tried it myself - i just have a very long HDMI cable. If you need mouse/keyboard control in the front room, bluetooth keyboard/mouse might work fine over that distance.

 

[spatlese44]

I’m a big Mac Mini fan partly for the portability of it. Today I travel to my other home about an hour away. We do this shift on an almost weekly basis and the mini is on the packing list. Power cord, monitors keyboard and trackpad all are duplicated and stay where the are. Similarly, if I want it in the living room, I just disconnect the Apple TV and plug in the mini. Not so clever if you want to do this everyday. My 2012 i7 is still a great machine, but can’t run latest OS so I’m about to get new M1. Old one will probably stay put after that, but I’m certainly not selling as would be ideal for what you want to do. I have tried to do what you are trying. Bluetooth from distance was my main problem. Thinking about it again, optical thunderbolt to a dock with a Bluetooth USB might work, but would likely be as expensive as another machine. Can’t believe what people will pay for a 2012 i7, but as a media machine, a 2010 or 2011 should do.

 

[Boyd01]

Not sure how you define "media center", but perhaps just move the Mini to the room where you plan to work and connect an AppleTV to the television as an alternative. You could hardwire it on ethernet and use sharing on the Mini to access your media. Depending on your needs, an AppleTV 3 might be good enough and should be quite inexpensive if you get a used one. Or you could go with a certified refurb AppleTV HD or the old AppleTV 4k if you don't want to buy the new AppleTV 4k.

I have a Mini that is dedicated as a media server and directly-connected to a screen in one room plus two AppleTV's in other rooms. IMO, the AppleTV user experience with its remote is far better than the directly-connected Mini. The AppleTV also gives you the possibility of airplay from the Mini or any iOS device. And, of course, you could use the AppleTV by itself even when the Mini is turned off.