1. TiVo ($149.99 for dual-tuner Series2, www.tivo.com). Your Tivo already controls most of your video entertainment. Add in Roxio’s Toast 10 Titanium ($99.99, www.roxio.com), and its Mac2Tivo feature will have your networked Series3 or HD box playing back files from your Mac.
If you rock one already, your Series2 TiVo can talk to your Mac with help from Roxio Toast.
PROS: Simple to do. Video streaming doesn’t eat up TiVo disk space. Free Tivo Desktop software can also be used for music and photos. TiVo interface is—let’s face it—the one that all the others should be judged against.
CONS: Your Mac has to be on while streaming. Requires Roxio software, although if you’re comfortable converting your own video and fiddling around in the Terminal, you can transfer your own files for free. See our How-To, Sending Videos to a TiVo, for details.
2. Nintendo Wii ($249.99, www.nintendo.com) When you get tired of Guitar Hero: Metallica and World of Goo, put your Wii to work playing video with the help of Riverfold Software’s Wii Transfer ($19, www.riverfold.com).
The Wii is a wondrous gadget on its own. And it can stream the movies you've got on your Mac too.
PROS: Can stream movies from your Mac or play back converted files from an SD card. Works with lots of common video formats. Also supports music and photos. Can also be used to back up Miis (Wii avatars) and game data to your computer.
CONS: Requires Internet Channel ($5) and Wii Transfer software ($19). Obviously wasn’t designed for use as a media center.
3. Western Digital WDTV ($129.99, www.wdc.com). One of the easiest—and cheapest—ways to get media files off your computer and into your television. WDTV eschews fancy networking and streaming for good old-fashioned sneaker-net for transferring files (for details, see our review.)
When you need Mac- and wallet-friendly streaming, the WDTV delivers.
PROS: Ultra-affordable—the WDTV box can be found online for about $100. Plays back nearly every audio or video format under the sun from an attached hard drive you supply. Speedy file transfers (hook the drive up to your Mac, drag over some files, and go). Can output full HD quality via HDMI. Simple to set up and very reliable.
CONS: Moving files on and off requires shuttling a hard drive between your Mac and the WDTV, which can get tiresome, even though it’s easy to do. The interface is clean, but we wouldn’t describe it as “Apple elegant.”
4. Xbox 360 ($299.99, www.xbox.com). When you’re not playing Left 4 Dead, you could be streaming your videos from your Mac to your TV with Vuze (free, www.vuze.com) or Connect360 ($20, www.nullriver.com) software.
The Xbox is one thing that Microsoft's done right. You can let it stream videos from your Mac in between Madden marathons.
PROS: If you already have one, you can keep track of who’s playing what while watching videos.
CONS: The Xbox 360’s UI for accessing video files is horrible. All the videos are in one folder and that folder displays the name of the episode or file. Very un-Maclike!
5. Sony PlayStation 3 ($499.99, www.us.playstation.com). Like the Xbox 360, the PS3 is a great way to add streaming video to your entertainment setup. Use Vuze (free, www.vuze.com) or Nullriver MediaLink ($20, www.nullriver.com) software on your Mac to stream video.
The PS3 offers a way better gaming experience than your Mac, but it's pricey.
PROS: The PS3’s UI is much nicer than the horrid Xbox 360’s. You can Copy media directly to your PlayStation 3 from your Mac with MediaLink.
CONS: Unless you already own a PlayStation 3, it’s an expensive add-on.
6. SageTV HD Theater ($199.95, www.sagetv.com). A viable alternative to the Apple TV, with more ports and a wider range of supported video types.
More flexible than the Apple TV but not as purty.
PROS: Component, composite, S-video, and HDMI ports. Great for people living in the television past. Supports a wide range of video codecs.
CONS: Streaming only. It’s only a little cheaper than the Apple TV, and its UI is nowhere near as slick.
How much can you save by cutting cable? If you watch less, you’ll spend less; it’s an amazing concept we’d all but forgotten after years of sending in checks to our cable provider. Here’s a rough overview based on our own setup before we ditched cable for good. Your savings may vary depending on how much time you spend in front of the boob tube.
(click to enlarge)
Contributing editor Zack Stern had to watch a lot of TV while researching this article. He's not complaining, though.
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August 09, 2010 at 8:26am
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benpasley
October 29, 2009 at 5:16pm
check this link for how to do it:
http://www.timtoon.com/2009/06/21/getting-51-audio-out-of-a-mac-mini/
hope it helps
tankusaf
October 06, 2009 at 7:00am
I have done exhaustive searches on the internet and Apple support and they all tell me the same thing. iTunes does NOT support 5.1 sound on regular Macs. ONLY on the Apple TV. In your article you say that 5.1 is possible with the Mac Mini, did you actually prove that? I am using a 2Ghz Macbook, with Snow leopard and iTunes 9, and a toslink adapter to fiber optic going into my Sony receiver. I have several tv shows and movies in iTunes that refuse to work in surround sound, even when I change the sound output from stereo to surround. Playing DVD's works just fine with surround sound, however none of my iTunes content works. Have you found a way to make this work on your MacMini, since you said it would in the article? If so, lots of people on the internet are looking for that solution.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the desire to go beyond it.
tankusaf
October 06, 2009 at 7:00am
I have done exhaustive searches on the internet and Apple support and they all tell me the same thing. iTunes does NOT support 5.1 sound on regular Macs. ONLY on the Apple TV. In your article you say that 5.1 is possible with the Mac Mini, did you actually prove that? I am using a 2Ghz Macbook, with Snow leopard and iTunes 9, and a toslink adapter to fiber optic going into my Sony receiver. I have several tv shows and movies in iTunes that refuse to work in surround sound, even when I change the sound output from stereo to surround. Playing DVD's works just fine with surround sound, however none of my iTunes content works. Have you found a way to make this work on your MacMini, since you said it would in the article? If so, lots of people on the internet are looking for that solution.
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the desire to go beyond it.
DrOct
August 14, 2009 at 11:40am
Wait, the new Mini's don't have an IR port? They how do they work with the apple remote that you cay buy with them for $19?
goswim
August 14, 2009 at 5:37am
While I didn't follow this article to the letter, I must say, it did inspire me to pull out an older 13" Intel MacBook, connect it to my 42" LCD and do some testing. Between Hulu subscriptions, iTunes, NetFlix, and a great program called Remote Buddy by iospirit.com, I'm giving it through this weekend, then calling the cable company on Monday to come pick up my cable box. I'm estimating since I'm using existing hardware, I'll save about $1000 this year. Thanks for a great article.
