Between the end of his work day and his bedside reading time, your frugal Mac mini blogger likes to unwind with some audiovisual intellectual stimulation and/or time-wasting indulgences.
In the not-too-distant past, we couch jockeys would have the option of subscribing to Cable TV or a satellite dish and not much else.
But I’m happy to be able to blog that times have changed (and actually for the better in this regard).
With so much video content available for free on the Internet (or at a very low cost), it’s getting harder to justify shelling out $40.00 a month for cable TV service.
I already subscribe to High Speed Internet so I decided to take the money that I would have spent on a year’s worth of cable TV (which I probably wouldn’t have watched much anyway) and buy an Apple Mac mini with it.
BONUS:
Unlike the money that you can spend on cable TV (which you’ll never, ever see again), you have the option of selling the Mac mini on Ebay to recoup a surprisingly large percentage of its full retail price.
After purchasing the Mac mini (at a discount through Amazon.com), I connected it to my Panasonic HDTV.
After that surprisingly easy (once you know how) operation my Mac mini media center goals were as follows…
- Gaze upon movies & TV shows through Netflix’s “watch instantly” service.
- Watch movies & TV shows via Hulu.com – they have a large collection of (unedited) TV shows with just a few commercials.
- Observe the videos that I captured with my awesome Flip MinoHD Camcorder.
- Contemplate Antiques Roadshow, History Detectives, and Masterpiece theater through PBS.
- Gape at the movies I downloaded from the Apple iTunes store (both rentals and purchases).
- Take a good look at the music videos that I downloaded from iTunes.
- Behold the DVDs that I “ripped” (via the free and easy to use Handbrake program) into my Mac’s movies folder.
- Search for / browse and then stare at HD videos through YouTube (it’s not all junk), Vimeo, Google Videos and others.
- Play DVDs from Netflix, my local video store, and my friendly neighborhood public library.
- Listen to podcasts (with the iTunes visualizer playing on the HDTV screen).
- Hear my favorite classical music stations such as WGBH Boston.
- Broaden my horizons through iTunes University.
- Lend an ear to the songs, Tibetan chants & gongs, nature sounds, white noise loops, etc. from my music library (again with the iTunes visualizer enthralling my cats).
- Take heed of my favorite radio programs (“Piano Jazz” and “This American life”) through WUSF in Tampa.
And finally(!), I’d like the option of being able to watch actual factual broadcast television (such as a live sporting event).
NOTE:
All of the above (and more!) would have to be controlled from the couch with a remote (no keyboard and mouse required) and an intuitive (or at least easy to learn) visual interface.
