hardware

Apr 27 2009

mini Speed Backup

Don’t toss that old Mac or PC yet. Yes, I know you’d be hard pressed to fit a slice of processed cheese in the tiny case of the Mac mini, but expansion isn’t limited to the mini’s tiny interior.

In this tutorial, we’ll take advantage of the speed and power of Firewire to turn your mini in to a fast, powerful backup machine. And we’ll do it using hardware you didn’t even realize you had.

minibackup mini Speed Backup

Hardware

For this tutorial you’ll need one of the following:

  • If you have an old internal hard drive from your old Mac or PC, you’ll want to grab a Firewire hard drive enclosure, like MacAlly’s PHR-100AF 3.5 inch enclosure (MSRP is $69, but Amazon has it for $37 and free shipping)
  • Don’t have an old drive? You have two options. Buy a drive on sale and get an enclosure or just get a Firewire drive like LaCie’s slick (and reasonably priced) Porsche 80 GB or 160 GB Firewire drive for $115 and $144 at Amazon (again, shipped free). I have the 80 and it’s great.

Either way, you’ll have an external companion to your mini that is almost as stylish as the mini itself.

Salvaging the Drive

Now, unless you opted for a new drive you’ll have some surgery to do. The regular warnings are applicable. I’m not responsible for damage, blah blah blah. That said, this is cake. If you’re de-braining a PC tower, you have six screws to get the case off, then you’ll find the old drive under the CD-ROM held in a bracket. If you’re digging in a Mac (like an old CRT iMac) you search may be harder, but again, you’ll find the drive under the optical drive. Unplug it (DON’T cut any wires) and stick it in your arm-pit (kidding).

Now, all you have to do is put the drive in the enclosure, plug in the ribbon and power cable and close it up. So, what do you do with this thing? This is where the fun begins.

Software

With a Firewire drive you can not only back up your system quickly, you can create bootable backups of your OS X install. Unlike USB 2.0, you can boot your Mac directly from your Firewire drive (hold down the Option key at startup) to recover from problems.

I use Carbon Copy Cloner, an excellent shareware application from Mike Bombich ($5). Super Duper from Shirt Pocket adds some extra features, with the same base functionality for $20. Either will work for out purposes.

ccc mini Speed Backup

As you can see, were going to back up our main system to a Firewire drive. This will give us a full backup that, in a pinch, we’ll be able to boot from. CCC will backup any of your mounted volumes, and can archive OS 9 and Windows installs. Even the drive icon gets backed up.

Now, if your Firewire drive is big enough to hold you backup and then some, you might consider partitioning it. An extra few gigabytes can become home to your iTunes music library or other media files and free up space on your boot disk.

With a bootable backup, you’re ready to live dangerously.

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

mini PVR with EyeTV and ConvertX

No, this isn’t the first Mac mini – PVR tutorial, but new products and
software have made this more interesting than ever before. And, with the best options available, this will be the last Mac PVR tutorial you’ll need to read.

minipvr mini PVR with EyeTV and ConvertX

The Hardware

The Software

  • Elgato’s EyeTV (included)

There are plenty of hardware options that will turn your mini into a PVR. I selected the ConvertX for its hardware encoding, which takes the processing load off your mini (the EyeTV Wonder does not hardware-encode incoming video, and is not recommended for use with the mini). It also has the widest array of hardware encoding options including MPEG 1, 2 and 4 and DivX.

What’s more, the ConvertX is the least expensive of the lot (excluding the EyeTV Wonder) that comes bundled with Elgato’s easy to use software. And while we’re on that subject it is worth mentioning that the EyeTV software that comes with the ConvertX interfaces with TitanTV – a free online programming guide. Using TitanTV you can cue recordings from the web with a right-click.

titantv mini PVR with EyeTV and ConvertX

Getting back to the nuts and bolts, you’ll find that the ConvertX comes with everything you need, with the exception of a coaxial cable. The EyeTV software installs in seconds and requires no reboot. EyeTV scans your channels and sends you to TitanTV to register.

eyetvprograms mini PVR with EyeTV and ConvertX

Encoding options are what set this configuration apart from other setups. With the ConvertX and EyeTV you can capture to VCD (MPEG-1), DVD (MPEG-2), QuickTime (MPEG-4) or DivX. Within each format there are options for longer play or higher quality, with DivX offering the best compression to quality ratio. EyeTV exports to about anything QuickTime can
handle and to all your favorite iApps for editing and burning. EyeTV also has a built-in editing interface that allows for quick deleting of commercials.

eyetvedit mini PVR with EyeTV and ConvertX

But lets not forget the options: on the install disc, Elgato has included the key-maps to control the software using Keyspan Digital Media Remote software. So, your presentation remote can double as your TV remote. And, if this weren’t enough, the ConvertX also sports RCA and S-Video analog inputs, so when you’re not recording TV, you can transfer video from older cameras and VCRs.

The performance of the unit was as-expected. You can set aside you concerns of over-taxing the mini. With hardware encoding you won’t notice any slow down watching or recording. In fact on my mini I watched a recorded clip with the incoming television window still open at full resolution without a hiccup.

With superior hardware encoding options, the ConvertX is a unique
combination of TV tuner, PVR and analog video encoder. And, shouldering the processing load for you Mac it is perfect for the mini. The EyeTV software guarantees that you’re not missing anything by picking a less expensive PVR.

Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s a matrix of tthe PVR hardware options out there for Mac:

border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
style="font-weight: bold;">PRV
Price Resolution Hardware
Encoding		 Encoding
Formats		 EyeTV
Software
ConvertX $210 720×480 Yes MPEG 1, 2, 4 and DivX Yes
EyeTV Wonder USB $137 720×480 No MPEG 1, 2 Yes
EyeTV 200 $286 720×480 Yes MPEG 1, 2, 4 Yes
Evolution TV $240 720×480? Yes MPEG 2,4 and DivX No
myTV.PVR* $139 720×480 Yes MPEG 2 No

* This product has abysmal reviewer ratings

Please direct comments/corrections on the article to the author, brian AT macmerc DOT com.

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Apr 27 2009

mini Land-line

Combining your mini with a USB Skype handset and Skype’s cheap call-out service can turn your mini into a virtual land-line with long distance calling rates no traditional phone company can beat. Forget paying a monthly fee. For about $4/month you can even buy a phone number for your Skype account and have people call you from land-line phones. And with more than 40 million members, you’ll be able to talk to tons of Skype users for free.

One word of warning: the phone service described here should not be considered a full replacement for your traditional phone line – as it does NOT support 911 emergency calling.

minilandline mini Land line

The Hardware

  • Mac mini (or any Mac with a USB port)
  • A USB Skype Handset like Hawking Tech’s Net-Talk USB Phone or Ipevo’s Free-1. Prices range from $30-$75.

Contrary to what you may read, the Free-1 isn’t the only Mac-compatible Skype phone. For the purposes of this tutorial I went with the Net-Talk because it has a display on the unit that allow you to use it without interacting with your Mac.

The Software

  • Skype mini Land line for OS X and a Skype Account.

Skype is a free download, and your account is free to open. To call out to regular phones you will need to purchase SkypeOut credit (in increments of $10) and to purchase a phone number by which land-line callers can reach you, you’ll need to buy SkypeIn at $12/3 months or $35/year.

Now, to put it all together – with Skype installed you are ready to install the Net-Phone’s drivers. Once you have granted the Net-Phone access to the Skype API (in Skype) you are ready to make calls from your handset. From the Net-Phone you can start Skype and make calls.

hnt1a mini Land line

From the Net-Phone you can navigate between Skype’s tabs, your contacts list and recent calls. Using the navigational wheel you can also view and select contacts and recent numbers and start calls. The handset can be used for free Skype-to-Skype calls as well as calls out to external numbers. Incoming calls from Skype users or external numbers via SkypeIn ring on the handset and can be answered just as you would your old analog phone (you must be logged in to your Skype account on your Mac to receive calls).

hnt1amini mini Land line

We should note that Skype requires an audio input – which out of the box the mini lacks. The Net-Phone satisfies this requirement and also makes up for this lack by including input and output jacks for microphones and headsets right on the unit. In addition to interfacing directly with Skype, the Net-Phone is recognized by the OS as an audio input and output. This means that while the dial pad may work only with Skype, the handset can be used with audio chat applications like iChat AV.

Hardware buttons for volume and mute are quite useful too. The Net-Phone complements new Mac silver-on-white hardware and the back-lit display is very readable. The handset makes Skype’s cheap calling easy and accessible. And, thanks to the power of VoIP you can take your Skype account anywhere and call from any Internet connection.

Please direct comments/corrections on the article to the author, brian AT macmerc DOT com.

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