Mac Mini media center installation notes

So I decided to set up a mac mini as a media center last night, to replace an often dropped Macbook Pro that decided it didn't like me anymore. Everything went pretty smoothly, with a couple of exceptions.

My first hurdle was actually connecting the Mac Mini to my Samsung LCD tv. I had mistakenly assumed that the old Powerbook G4 12" shipped with a mini-DVI connecter similar to that on the new Mini (It has a mini-DVI, as well as a mini displayport). It turns out that the 12" actually shipped with a mini-VGA (analog). Damn. Luckily, I had a mini displayport to DVI adapter sitting around from a previous project. Although it had the extra pins that would indicate a DVI-I connecter, I discovered that after hooking up a DVI to HD15 VGA adapter that it wouldn't pass an analog signal. Damn.

Thus began my exciting journey into HDMI. I live in a small town, so parts are a little hard to come by. I managed to locate a DVI to HDMI cable at the local Radio Shack. It was stupid expensive, but it got the job done.

So the mini boots up, and I'm provided with a few possible display modes. Three TV-specific: 480p, 720p, 1080i - my TV doesn't support 1080p, so this is pretty much expected. Here begins the next issue. If I use the "overscan" setting, the desktop spills over the edges of the display to the point where I don't see the menu bar at the top. If I don't use the "overscan" I end up with a black border around the desktop. This is a real drag.

I hit the internet looking for a solution. Apparently, lots of people have run into this issue over the years. The most common solution via google is to use an app/pref pane that lets you set custom resolutions. The first hit is DisplayConfigX, which is a PPC-only app. Not so much help in Snow Leopard. I found another one that had universal binary support, but it was payware. Irritating.

A little more digging revealed the answer: A setting on the TV. Apparently, what was going on was that I was double overscanning the image. Setting the display to the somewhat un-intuitively named "Just Scan" gave me what I was looking for.

I'm pretty stoked on this new setup - everything is working great. A damn sight better than XBMC on an original Xbox, especially with the audio feeding into my Denon tuner directly over a TOSlink cable. Let the nerdy times roll.

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