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ghostdawg · Sep 19, 2007, 05:32 PM

Well, I've decided to turn my G4 mini into a multimedia center. I've just purchased an HDTV, 32 in. Westinghouse, and I must say it looks pretty darn good hooked up to basic cable tv. Now I'm waiting on a basic wireless keyboard and mouse, don't need nothing fancy.

Can anybody tell me if it would be best to watch dvd movies from the mini drive or burn them to the hard drive to watch? Right now I don't have a regular dvd player. Only external speakers I have are normal computer speakers, just two.

Does anyone have an hdtv Westinghouse tv? Any comments on this? Also, comments/suggestions are welcome.

Thnx.

mduell · Sep 19, 2007, 07:11 PM

Ripping DVDs to the hard drive is a good idea; slot loading DVD drives are either slow or noisy.

I bought the 42" Vizio instead of the Westy.

ghostdawg · Sep 19, 2007, 08:36 PM

How is that Vizio? I was looking at getting the 32" Vizio but found the Westinghouse cheaper at the time and it has some features that the vizio doesn't have.

Thnx for the reply.

mduell · Sep 19, 2007, 09:09 PM

Fantastic. My only complaint is that the VGA input is only 1366x768 instead of the screens native 1920x1200, but it still looks good and of course goes full native res over DVI.

Oh, and I can't figure out how to program my DVR's remote for volume control.

But that's me, not the TV.

besson3c · Sep 19, 2007, 09:32 PM

I have a 37" Westinghouse. The Mac Mini should work fine playing DVDs. Rather than keeping your keyboard and mouse attached to it, I would install Synergy (or QuickSynergy if you prefer having a GUI). This will let you control the keyboard and mouse on your Mini from any other Mac. This setup works very well if you have a laptop.

ghostdawg · 10:16 AM

Well, I don't have another Mac...I would like to get a Macbook one day. I'm waiting on my wireless keyboard & mouse any day.

What is the best resolution for a 32" hdtv and using the G4 mini with ATI video card?

Thnx for the replies.

besson3c · Sep 20, 2007, 10:28 AM

Which ATI video card is in your Mini?

ghostdawg · Sep 20, 2007, 10:56 AM

System Profiler show this:

ATY,RV280:

Type: display
Bus: AGP
Display Type: CRT
VRAM (Total): 32 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x5962
Revision ID: 0x0001
ROM Revision: 113-xxxxx-116

It's not hooked up to the hdtv yet.

Thnx.

besson3c · Sep 20, 2007, 02:34 PM

Why doesn't the System Profiler actually tell you the ATI card model? Sheesh...

If you could figure that out, you could look up the max resolution for your card.

mduell · Sep 20, 2007, 04:04 PM

It's a 9200.

But it doesn't matter, any graphics card from the last ~5 years will support any HDTV.

ghostdawg · Sep 26, 2007, 03:03 AM

Thanks for the info. Over the weekend I hooked up my mini to the hdtv using the hdmi -> dvi on the mini and got a no signal message. I decided to get a vga cable and hook it up now I can surf the net without much problems.

I still haven't gotten my wireless keyboard and mouse yet, so not much surfing going on.

A few issues, I see some flickering at the bottom of webpages and watching a dvd movie using the mini's dvd drive has a black box around the screen, other than this, not bad.

Thnx.

ghostdawg · Oct 5, 2007, 05:51 AM

I finally bought a cheap wireless keyboard & mouse combo and took 2 weeks to get it, turns out the mouse doesn't work and had to return it. So now I've ordered an MS wireless combo from newegg.com and should receive it Friday afternoon.

Anybody have any experience with MS wireless keyboard & mouse combo?

Thnx.