Mac Home Theater Project - A work in Progress

Mac powered home theater systems are quite underrepresented on sites like YouTube. I thought I would share my work in progress to give a very simple overview of how I approached accessing my media in my living room.

I have BOXEE but have been too busy to play around with it. (Update: I removed boxee, not for me.) For now controlling the system with my iPhone seems to work well.

The system features:
-Brains: Mac Pro (3.0GHzX8cores - 18GB memory - 4TB storage (0:28)
-Sound: Logitech Z5500 (Optical in) (1:08)
-Storage: ReadyNas NV+ (3.6TB) (1:13) + XServe SAN (not seen) 10TB.
-TV: Samsung 50" plasma (0:05)
-Remote: iPhone (0:02)
-iTunes library: 3.7TB
-3.5" hard drive dock - For import/exporting large files.
-Everything that is geographically locked (ie: DVD players) are Region 1. It is far cheaper to import new stuff from North America than it is to buy it in Australia.
NOTE: For some reason my camera couldn't pick up the visualizer... quite strange.

Updates:
-I updated the video cards on the Mac Pro to: Nvidia 8800GT
-Replaced last 750GB drive with 1TB
-Upgraded with 4gb more memory.

Update 2:
-Added a new 400MB/s 10GB PCIe Raid Tower (CalDigit HDPro): ~75% in formatted for iTunes playback.
-Downgraded out 4GB of memory in prep for Mac Pro update at MacWorld in January.
-Got $3000 in gift cards for iTunes from friends for Christmas, sadly I already own most of the videos/shows available on iTunes.
-Hid Mac Pro, HDPro Tower, Time Machine, HDD dock, etc inside cabinet as I like everything hidden.

Update 3:
-Added PS3 and XBox360... I'm not as big a gamer as I used to be but got them über cheap. As with everything else, they're region 1 even though I live in Australia... So much cheaper to import everything than buy it there.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Mac
• Pro
• Logtiech
• z5500
• Home
• Theater
• storage
• HTPC
• iphone
• remote
• readynas
• NV+
• frontrow
• boxee
• media
• center
• surround
• sound
• leopard
• OSx
• audio
• visual

[cactuskid007]

YEH BUT FILMS ON ITUNES R NOT EVEN TRUE HI DEF PICTURES...BLU RAY IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO WITH FILMS ,NOT BLOODY ITUNES

[sydcansam]

@cactuskid007 Given you can't find the "caps lock" key on your keyboard I don't expect you to know iTunes on >core i5 supports video of up to 50mbps, comfortably higher bitrate than blu-ray. I still buy blu-ray, but they all end up in storage after they've been aded to my library (usually within hours of purchase). Currently the library sits at 2700 movies from Blu-ray and HD-DVD, and 12k TV shows from DVD, BD, and HDDVD.

[N3orion]

Hi tell me, the readynas, I take it you use it hardwired? I am thinking of getting one and hooking it into a timecapsule for HD streaming.

How do you find it for movie streaming?

Thanks

[sydcansam]

@N3orion I have since upgraded from the ReadyNas as I needed more storage. It worked great over the network for streaming video, but sadly maxed out at 8TB and my library is now >15TB. I have since purchased an enterprise NAS to serve my network.

[hippievogelei]

@ 0:42 whats that thing on the floor moving?, probably ur dustcleaner.

[sydcansam]

Yep, its a Roomba 500

[2ndtoJohn]

Fucking bad ass set up. This is what I aspire to haha.

[Halbmond]

Isn't a Mac Pro a little bit overpowered for such a simple task?

[uberstar100]

thats remote app app by apple

[iPhongus]

Is that a windows view on the side?!?

[MrEahz]

@Halbmond I agree,

hey sydcansam wanna swap it for a Mac mini much more suited to the task? ;P

[assassin4332]

what song is that you played ?

[gadgetboy1234]

nice

[MarshMellowChronic]

@hippievogelei bar mat sorry..