You may have thought that the strangest connection you’d ever make on your Mac would be a seamless connection to a Windows PC over your home network. But what about devices specifically engineered and/or marketed to Windows users? You can often get those to work just fine on your Mac too.

Take Your Video With You

The Archos 504 160GB ($599.99) is a portable media player intended to work with a Windows PC: There’s a PC-only installer, and it works with Windows Media Player 11. When you connect the device to your Mac, you’ll be prompted to use it in USB mode or as a Windows Media device. Select USB, and the Archos hard drive will appear on your Mac desktop. Just drag all of your media files to the correct folder in the Archos volume to copy them to the player for viewing on the go. You’ll need a patch to view iPod-formatted videos, available at www.archos.com.

Store up to 200 movies on this portable entertainment box.

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Give Life to Framed Photos

Kodak makes big claims about how well its EasyShare EX811 Wi-Fi Picture Frame ($229.95) works for adding photos over a wireless connection - from a Windows PC. But, as with the Archos 504, you can connect the digital frame to your Mac via USB, and it should show up on your desktop. At that point you can just drag and drop photos onto the frame’s internal hard drive. There’s also another way: If you use the included EasyShare software, you can upload images to the online Gallery (select your photos, then select Gallery > Upload Photos), and then download them to the frame from the Internet via your Wi-Fi network.

Talk about living color.

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Perceptive Automation’s Indigo ($179.95) is an amazing Mac app that puts the “auto” into home automation.

Like a dashboard for your home, the Indigo home automation system helps you connect to just about any electrical appliance.

Using an Insteon PowerLinc V2 power module ($69.99), which connects to your Mac over USB and then with other modules over the powerline home electrical wiring system, you can quickly configure Indigo to turn lights on and off. Plug the Insteon PowerLinc V2 module into a wall socket, and plug the lamp’s cord into that. Plug the USB cable into the PowerLinc V2 and your Mac. Indigo will locate the PowerLinc automatically and allow you to control the lamp using your Mac. Of course, you can use multiple devices (some RF-based) as well, and even control lights from a remote Internet connection with Indigo.

Your can make home-automation hardware work seamlessly with your Mac.