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Progress Report on Drive-in
By Dave Peterson | August 4, 2008
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my plans to set up a movie server using Flip4Mac’s Drive-in, running on a Mac mini. I now have that system running, and I’m pleased with the results.
I initially attached the mini to the older of my two HDTVs, a Toshiba with a glass tube, which is more like an old SD TV than newer flat panels. That didn’t work out so well. The output from the Mac was hard to read and scrolling scan lines were visible rolling up the screen. This TV, although it works fine for most signals from cable and the DVD player, does not make an acceptable computer display.
For the second try, I attached the Mac to my Vizio VX20L, which is an LCD display well-suited for computer applications. I needed a couple of extra cables to run picture and sound from the computer to the screen. The mini has only one port to output video (a DVI, although a DVI-VGA adapter comes with the computer), and one for audio (a 1/8″ headphone jack). For my video, I needed a simple DVI-HDMI cable — easy enough. For audio I used an adapter to convert the headphone output to standard RCA audio cables (red and white). The Vizio does an excellent job of displaying output from the Mac. It could be used as a computer display full-time.
One important change I made was to turn off overscan on the Mac’s video setup menu. This is an option when outputting to a TV that makes the output signal slightly larger than the screen size. It’s good in that the entire screen is used for image. It’s not so good in that it puts the Mac menu bar off the screen. You can move your mouse up above the upper limit of the screen and cause menus to drop down, but you’re stabbing in the dark, which is not so good when you aren’t familiar with the menus. Turning off overscan fixes this, although it causes a small black frame around the screen image. Neither option is ideal, but being able to see the menu bar is worth losing a little screen real estate.
I’m using an Apple Wireless Keyboard (which I think is maybe the most purely beautiful piece of industrial design in technology that I’ve ever seen) and an Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse. The mouse is only slightly awkward in that I need to find a flat surface to use it on; that’s not always immediately available in a TV-watching environment.
Storage space is always going to be an issue when dealing with files as large as DVD images. Although disc formats vary, I’m considering each disc side to be around 7 – 8 GB. That would fill up the Mac’s 80 GB drive very quickly, so I’ve ordered a Drobo and 1 TB of storage (two 1 TB drives), which should be good for about 125 disc sides.
The DVD image runs using external DVD software such as that which comes with OS X. Picture quality of the video image is excellent, the same as if you were running it from the original disc, and all menu and special feature content is available as it would be on the disc.
Anyone interested in duplicating this system, or running Drive-in on an existing Mac would be well-advised to go download and register a copy of the beta immediately. On August 15, the beta period ends and Drive-in goes on sale for $59. Registered beta users get a substantial price break — their cost will be $19.
Note: For anyone considering a Drobo for this or any other storage needs, entering my friend Cali Lewis’ promo code “CALI” at checkout will save you $25. I don’t know how long this will last, but as of today (September 20, 2008), it’s still good.
Topics: Video | 11 Comments »
August 4th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I wonder if you could rig a Wii remote to act as your mouse. I saw a TED video presentation from someone who’d used a simple Wii remote to create a fully functional interactive whiteboard solution, the cheapest one yet!
August 5th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Didn’t know Drive In was moving to a final release. Very worthy system for me. Now I just need a larger hard drive in my powerbook for my next trip.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Good Day
Just wanted to share my new experience.
If your system denies to run due to an error corresponding to lost HAL.DLL, invalid Boot.ini or any other critical system boot files you can repair this by using the XP installation CD. Simply boot from your XP Setup CD and enter the Recovery Console. Then launch “attrib -H -R -S” on the C:\Boot.ini file and delete it. Run “Bootcfg /Rebuild” and then Fixboot
Regards,
Carl
September 6th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Anyone figure out how to do this with AppleTV? I have one already and would love to just have it store my DriveIn files. The problem there is storage. I am not sure you can get AppleTv to work with an external drive.
September 10th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Try out SwitchResX which is a tool designed to manage resolutions of all your monitors. requires a Macintosh with at least MacOS X 10.4.11
http://www.madrau.com/html/SRX/indexSRX.shtml
also, a great drive
http://newertech.com/products/externalhd.php
September 18th, 2008 at 10:55 am
You can’t get AppleTV to work with an external drive. You also can’t get AppleTV to work with DVDs or images. You CAN use other movies other than iTunes movies as long as they are in the correct format.
On the other hand, why stereo with such a great setup. The headphone jack on the mini is also an optical output. With the right cable and receiver you get 5.1!
http://www.macworld.com/article/49772/2006/03/macmini.html
September 18th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Mark, thanks for the link! This is a project in progress. I’ll take a look at the possibilities of an audio upgrade.
September 20th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I just downloaded an app from iTunes. I can now connect my iPhone to control my Mac Mini. Check this site out
http://www.jugaari.com/
September 20th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Just as a note I have been using an optical Mini plug. It works great!
September 20th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Thanks for the tips, Oscar. I’m going to check out both these possibilities.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:05 am
And just as a side note make sure you go to the preference window in the application “DVD player” and click the tab “disk setup” also, go to the section labeled “audio” and make your selection and check off the disable “Dolby Dynamic range compression”.