With the exception of the display and the amplifier/speakers, my Mac Mini is running the show. It’s got a built in DVD player, connects to the network to stream media from my office and connects to the Internet for downloading podcasts and video. The only thing it doesn’t do out of the box is live television, but my wife insists on her Tivo with DirecTV so I haven’t crossed that bridge. However, there are some great options in that area if I ever needed it.
Here’s a list of the software I’ve installed that help things work smoothly.
VLC
The best video player in the world. VLC is awesome. It supports just about every codec you can think of, plays in full screen and best of all it’s free. This is what I use for all video files that aren’t iTunes protected or are DVD rips in Video TS folders. Although I don’t use it, it also supports control over http, so you can run an app or a widget on your laptop that controls it. I’m sure there’s a ton of features I don’t even know about. I don’t have anything negative to say about this, except there are some WMV files that won’t open sometimes.
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Transmission
There isn’t a perfect Bit Torrent app for OSX yet, but Transmission is by far the best I’ve found. It’s made by the same guy that wrote HandBrake, the excellent DVD rip to DivX/H.264 convertor. Transmission leaves a small footprint and gets great speed downloading torrents. What I like best is the ability to cap upload speeds so I can still use the internet while seeding and the way it deletes torrent files after they’re done and seeded. I wish speeds were improved though, I’ve found I get better speed with uTorrent on my PC. Would also be nice if it supported RSS. It’s also free.
http://transmission.m0k.org/
Chicken of the VNC
While I usually control the system with a wireless keyboard or the Keyspan Remote, sometimes I need to get in there and do maintanence. CotV is by far the best VNC client I’ve used, and I’ve used a bunch. For those of you not familiar, VNC stands for Virtual Network Computer and allows you to control your computer from across the network. I have it installed on my G4 tower in the office as well as my wife’s MacBook that lives on the couch. I usually just fire up the MacBook and pop up a VNC window of the Mac Mini. All the keys work fine including key combinations and two finger scrolling. Open source, free, awesome.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/
SwitchRes
I’m connected to my display through a VGA cable. Sure I could have gone with DVI, but it would require an additional module installed in the plasma which runs a few hundred bucks. Plus, since the display maxes out at 848×480, I can’t display HD and didn’t see the point in spending the money. SwitchRes is a great little utility which sets the resolution of the Mini to the perfect 848×480 pixels and 60Hz required by my display. I don’t think this was an option with the Displays : System Preference when I bought the Mini, it might be now. The only bad part of SwitchRes is that it doesn’t remember my resolution, so every time I have to restart it goes back to some random resolution I don’t want. There might be an update for it that allows this, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it on my version. $17
http://www.madrau.com/
Front Row
Yes, I know, Front Row isn’t supposed to come on a G4 Mac Mini. Since the day it was cracked I’ve been running Front Row on my Mini. It’s just such a great app, I really don’t understand why Apple hasn’t released it. Granted it’s a bit slow on my G4, the video previews really slow down my system, but I’m fine with that if I get a great user interface from the couch. I’d no doubt pay up to $40 for this app if Apple would let me, but since they won’t, I’ll continue to run the cracked, sketchy version.
http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html