The first is that, in theory, Kodi is AirPlay compatible, allowing you to play music and videos from your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. However, there are two useful pointers for using Kodi. Kodi is designed to be ultra-easy to use and there’s little we can say that won’t be revealed by simply clicking around. Kodi turns any Mac into a multimedia powerhouse, and turns a Mac Mini into an excellent set-top box You might also want to click Login Options, and enable Automatic Login. To make Kodi start automatically each time the Mac Mini boots, open System Preferences, click Users & Groups, select your user account, click the Login Items tab, then drag the Kodi icon from the Applications list within Finder. Then click Open in the dialog box that appears. Open Applications and then right-click the Kodi icon, selecting Open.
To install Kodi, download the 64-bit version of the app, then copy it to your Applications folder as usual. This turns your Mac Mini into a fully-fledged set-top box able to play just about any type of music or video file stored on your Mac’s hard disk, or offered from other computers on the network via most network sharing technologies – including DLNA, which is used to share media files from Windows Media Centre. A superb replacement that also happens to be free of charge is Kodi (formerly known as XBMC). Unfortunately, Apple discontinued the excellentįront Row software a few years ago and it’s no longer possible to hack old copies to work on OS X. If you intend to use only a remote control to access your Mac Mini, you’ll need to leave a USB keyboard and mouse attached but hidden out of the way.įor the complete home entertainment hub experience you might want to install some media centre software to playback movies and music you download outside of iTunes. However, a word of warning with regard to any kind of remote control: if the Mac Mini boots without a keyboard and mouse attached, or paired via Bluetooth, it will forever attempt to detect one. Rowmote Pro (£4.99 and £3.99 respectively) turn your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch into a wireless trackpad and keyboard for a Mac, and are also worth considering. Despite what the app says upon starting, you’ll need to tap the Home Sharing link within the Remote app and also set up Home Sharing on iTunes in the Mac Mini (File > Home Sharing) for the Remote app to work. IOS Remote app to control your Mac Mini’s playback via your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Third-party accessories like the Henge Dock Clique let you fix the Apple keyboard to the Magic Trackpad, allowing easy storage of bothĪll Mac Minis come with infrared receivers, and you can use anyĪpple Remote to control both video and audio playback in apps like iTunes. Despite its name, the Audio MIDI Setup app in the Utilities folder within the Applications list of Finder offers sound in-depth configuration options that it can be useful playing with. If this doesn’t fix things, open System Preferences, click the Sound icon, select the Output tab, and ensure the receiver is selected in the list beneath. You may have to deactivate auto-detect on the receiver and manually configure its output options. Various solutions are listed across the web – just Google – but start by ensuring the receiver is configured for 5.1 output. Typically, you might find 5.1 channel sound isn’t working. The optical output also supports 5.1 channel sound for connection directly to your receiver, allowing you to connect the HDMI output directly to the TV.Īlas, problems with sound output from a Mac Mini via HDMI are common. Just extract it from the zip and import using Bearded Spice preferences.The Mac Mini also features a headphone output that in addition offers both analogue audio output for a stereo or headphones (via a 3.5mm jack to RCA adapter) and SPDIF optical digital output, although you’ll need a TOSLINK to TOSLINK mini adapter.
Media keys can be used to control various media sites using an app called Bearded Spice. Some of the buttons are IR programmable (power button and colour buttons).
The one I got has a qwerty keyboard on one side and "normal" RC buttons on the other. I purchased an "air mouse" from Amazon for $20 (incl postage).
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