connector418

How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 – Install the Media Center Connector)

By on November 5, 2010 in Uncategorized

Yesterday, we completed our installation of Windows Media Center on the Mac Mini, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that our project was finished. But wait! Sure, your Mac Mini works really well with a vanilla Media Center installation, but there are a few additional steps I’d strongly recommend to create a Media Center PC that’s a little ahead of the game. Let’s recap on the story so far:

  1. Get the Mac Mini Up and Running (with OSX)
  2. Configure Boot Camp to Allow Dual Booting With Windows 7
  3. Install Windows 7
  4. Installing and Configuring Codecs
  5. Install and Configure the Windows Media Center Remote Control
  6. Connect and Configure our TV Tuners
  7. Set up Windows Media Center
  8. Install the Media Center Connector
  9. Install and Configure Media Center Master
  10. Install and Configure Media Browser
  11. Install and Configure TunerFree MCE

Next up is connecting our Mac Mini to Windows Home Server. Why? There are a few great reasons to use Windows Media Center together with a home server. Aside from the fact that Windows Home Server will back up and protect the PC’s system files and data, it brings some special sauce which automatically connects Windows Media Center to the shared Music, Video and Photo folders stored on the home server, giving us access to terabytes of media storage on the network. Furthermore, Windows Home Server automatically archives our Recorded TV, copying it across the network to ensure our Mac Mini doesn’t get clogged up with huge video files. Want to play back a recorded TV program? No problem, the Recorded TV area of Media Center automatically includes archives TV programmes – it’s just like they were on the Mac Mini.

In this walkthrough, we’re going to skip the home server hardware installation and the Windows Home Server Connector – there are a few walkthroughs on installing home server hardware here on the site, so feel free to check them out. So for this brief walkthrough, we’ll assume that your home server is set up, and you’ve installed the Windows Home Server Connector on the Mac Mini.

1. Go to Start > All Programs > Windows Media Center Connector

When the Windows Home Server Connector is installed on the Mac Mini, it adds a second connector, the Windows Media Center Connector, to your Start Menu. This connector creates the library links between your home server and Windows Media Center.

42 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)

2. Click Next to start the Windows Media Center Connector Wizard

43 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)44 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)45 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)

The wizard is very quick indeed – you simply need to type in your home server’s Administrator password, and it’ll do the rest. Once it’s finished, click Done to restart the PC.

3. Open Media Center and Check Out Your Libraries

When the Mac Mini has rebooted, open up Windows Media Center and visit your Music, Video and Photo Libraries – they should now be populating with any content stored on your home server’s Music, Video and Photo shared folders. It may take a little time for the libraries to build, but all of your content should be available soon enough. If you have any Recorded TV saved on the home server from a previous Media Center installation (in your Recorded TV shared folder on the server), that will now be available in Recorded TV.

46 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)47 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)48 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)49 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)50 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)51 thumb How to Create a Mac Mini Media Center (Part 8 Install the Media Center Connector)

That’s all for this part of the project – your Mac Mini may only ship with a smallish hard drive, and you had to partition that for Windows. But now you’re hooked up to a huge archive of storage for all of your music, video and photos, and your Mac Mini’s Windows installation is fully protected and will be backed up every night by Windows Home Server.

Next time, we’ll take a look at a great application for Windows Media Center called Media Center Master, which examines your TV and DVD rips and automatically downloads a host of meta data, including screengrabs, posters, banners, ratings cast and crew information and more.


Enjoyed this post? Share it.

If you enjoyed reading this post, then why not share it with your friends and followers?

About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
View all posts by Terry Walsh →

Sign Up for WGS Daily News

If you don't want to miss out on the latest news from We Got Served, why not subscribe to our daily digest? You'll get the day's headlines and a short summary of each news item delivered straight to your inbox each morning.

, , , ,

  • eagle63

    Hey Terry, love this mac-mini media center guide! A couple of questions for you if you don't mind:

    1. So the "media center connector" allows your windows media center machine to connect with a windows home server. Got it. BUT, when you are recording shows on your mini, are they getting stored on the home server? Or are you attaching an external drive to the Mini for that purpose? It would be awesome if the Mini could treat the windows home server as it's master repository for both writing to and reading from, but I didn't think that type of integration was possible.

    2. I have a mac mini circa 2008, with the core 2 duo 2.0 ghz CPU. It's a great machine, but do you think it's powerful enough to handle HD video? I believe it only has an integrated GPU rather than a separate one….

    Thanks again for this guide, looking forward to the next segment!!

    • http://www.wegotserved.com Terry Walsh

      Hey eagle63,

      In response…

      1. The shows record to the local hard drive, but are then automatically archived over to the home server, freeing up space on the Mac Mini. Shows play back directly from the home server in Media Center – you just use the standard Recorded TV section of Media Center – very cool.

      2. I think you may struggle due to that integrated GPU – take a look here for more http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/fa…

      Cheers
      Terry

      • eagle63

        Thanks Terry, in terms of HD playback it looks like my mini is borderline. 720p should be fine but 1080p maybe not. Still I'm going to try it and see how it goes.

        As for point #1, do you know how quickly the archiving takes place? My mini only has a 120Gb drive, so it's probably not going to last very long if it's putting recordings on it's own drive. (especially since a big chunk of that will be taken up by my OSX partition…)

        I DO have an older (2nd gen) Drobo that I could plug into the Mini…. Maybe I could record my shows directly to that instead?? And then archiving wouldn't be as big of a deal.

  • http://www.wegotserved.com Terry Walsh

    I actually don't know exactly how quick the archiving is, but it's very quick – you shouldn't have a problem. I'd lean towards the home server as you'll get the Mac Mini backed up every night too…

  • Andrew Rawlinson

    Hey Terry, loving the guide as ive been looking at the mac mini for some time but do you think its possible to do this without using windows and instead using mac media centers. (not sure of which ones could accomplish this).?

  • Esau

    Excellent guide, Terry. I'm looking to build a mac mini – based server for streaming video only(movies, concerts and teaching materials). I don't care to use the media server for television or, otherwise, as a DVR. I also already have all of my music as flac files on an NAS drive sent wirelesly to a DAC(digital to analog converter). I recently purchased a mac mini server for the increased RAM and hard drive storage. Realistically, would I do just as well to have purchased the lower cost mac mini? I'm curious to know since I can still exchange it(unopened in original packaging). Thanks.

    • http://www.wegotserved.com Terry Walsh

      Hi,

      Any reason you went for a Mac Mini here? Depending on how much content you have to stream, I wonder whether you may be better off with a 4 bay home server or NAS device? That way you can expand storage really easily in the future, which you can't do as neatly on the Mac Mini – take a look at the HP MediaSmart Server EX490 or 495, both of which support Mac and Windows backup.

      To answer your question, you should be fine with a standard Mac Mini, but again, remember that you get less storage…

      Terry