[netgo]

I am thinking of using a mac as a home entertainment center and have follwing questions. Can someone answer me?

Requirement

1. MP3 station, RIP, Burn, Copy.

Seems like no problem here. Itunes is ok. All I need to have is that Optical audio output for my receiver. There are M-audio card and DG2 USB-Optical converter.

2. DVD Player.

HDTV can be supported by VGA to component video switch. But I heard that current DVD player for X cannot support tv output. Is it true?

The biggest problem is that Dolby 5.1/DTS support. Eventhough I can make physical connection between mac and receiver, there is no way to carry these sound channels. Any solutions?

3. DTV tuner.

There are 2 cards available for Wintel system. But none for mac. Any suggestions?

4. Mac as a receiver. ( Not a big problem)

Any solutions? Actually I think that seperate receiver is better though.

5. Remote control

Keyspan? Any recommendation for IR remote keyboard. I know RF based remote kyboard is working. But I want to map my universal remote to keyboard command.

Thank you in advance

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: netgo ]

[- - e r i k - -]

I believe I am qualified to answer this as I just put in my Titanium G4 as my home entertainment center.

Originally posted by netgo:
<STRONG>I am thinking of using a mac as a home entertainment center and have follwing questions. Can someone answer me?

Requirement

1. MP3 station, RIP, Burn, Copy.

Seems like no problem here. Itunes is ok. All I need to have is that Optical audio output for my receiver. There are M-audio card and DG2 USB-Optical converter.</STRONG>

Uhm. Yup. I don't need optical outputs so I can't really answer that section. iTunes 2 is golden for everything else though.

<STRONG>2. DVD Player.

HDTV can be supported by VGA to component video switch. But I heard that current DVD player for X cannot support tv output. Is it true?</STRONG>

Not true. You need to reboot a powerbook with the lid closed for it to output to TV only though.

<STRONG>The biggest problem is that Dolby 5.1/DTS support. Eventhough I can make physical connection between mac and receiver, there is no way to carry these sound channels. Any solutions?</STRONG>

Not that I know of. There is a tradeoff by having a all-in-one solution as opposed to having separate components. If this is critical, get a real DVD-player.

<STRONG>3. DTV tuner.

There are 2 cards available for Wintel system. But none for mac. Any suggestions?</STRONG>

<STRONG>4. Mac as a receiver. ( Not a big problem)

Any solutions? Actually I think that seperate receiver is better though.</STRONG>

(read answer #2)

<STRONG>5. Remote control

Keyspan? Any recommendation for IR remote keyboard. I know RF based remote kyboard is working. But I want to map my universal remote to keyboard command.</STRONG>

This is my field. Get the Keyspan Digital Media remote. It navigates iTunes, DVD, Finder (although I prefer DragThing) and covers all your needs (except keyboard-filtering in iTunes of course). It's dead easy to program to anything, although it comes with presets for most apps (DVD, iTunes). Some tinkering is necesesarry though. I've set acceleration for scrolling up in QuickTime for speedy navigation on my TV and assigned a button for the visualiser.