How to turn an ordinary Mac into a MIVOmac-- a TIVO-like device for music, photos, and home movies. Part 2

Apple should do this. Not the way I did it, but the way Apple does it. With great design, a friendly user interface, and in a plug-and-play stereo-component sort of way.

Last night I converted a 1998 Beige G3 Desktop Macintosh into the ultimate entertainment center digital assets control system.

In short, a MIVOmac.

The MIVOmac rips and plays MP3s using iTunes and displays the iTunes visuals on my TV (my kids love that). In addition, it's complete with a remote control to operate the whole thing. I should be able to play iPhoto slide shows from my wife's Mac to our TV over our home network and access our iMovies over the network and play them on the TV screen too.

How did I do it?

First let me describe the hardware. I took a stock 1998 Beige G3 desktop and added some RAM (416 MB total), a PCI 10/100 network interface card, a 32MB PCI video card, a 466Mhz ZIF processor upgrade, and a PCI USB card. I had purchased all of these items over the last several years, so my out of pocket expense for this project so far was zero. If you are interested in trying this at home, check eBay for used Beige G3 Macs. I have seen them selling for under $250. You'll want to add a better video card, more RAM, and possibly a processor upgrade. But the USB card and network interface card are optional.

I then installed OS X, connected to our home network, and installed the current updates using Software Update. Cost so far: $120 for Mac OS X. Bad news: OS X v10.1.3 broke the driver for my Farallon 10/100 PCI network interface card. But I switched the network cable to the on-board ethernet port and was back in business at 10Base-T speed.

I bought a Y-Adapter Cable from Radio Shack to connect the stereo mini-jack audio output on the Mac to the left and right audio inputs on my stereo receiver (don't connect the cable to the Phono ports on your receiver, though. Those ports are designed to accept a different signal than the signal your Mac puts out). Cost $7.99 (Radio Shack part no. 42-2483). The Radio Shack cable is really nice. It has a 1/8" stereo right-angle plug on one end with two phono plugs on the receiver end. All connnectors are gold plated, and the shielded cable has a soft flexible rubber coating that has a nice feel.

For real audio buffs, you can add a $169 Midiman Audiophile PCI Audio Card for true 24 bit sound (most Macs output 16 bit sound standard). For more info, see the M-Audio web site.

For the video to TV connection I had a lot of choices. One option would have been to use a video card with S-Video or Composite Video output (like the Radeon 7000 Mac Edition from ATI). Instead, I chose to go with a scan converter made by AverMedia.

A scan converter takes the video output from your computer's video card and converts it to a format that works with your TV. Avermedia primarily sells their scan converters to business people and educators who want to be able to connect a computer to a standard TV for use in presentations or for teaching.

Avermedia offers quite a few scan converter choices, but I chose the AVerKey 500 Pro because it offered a remote mouse feature that I thought would come in handy for controlling the system from across the room. Cost: $249.99 at MacMall.

The AVerKey 500 Pro comes with all the cables you need and connects to your Mac's video output and to your keyboard and mouse. An S-Video cable runs from the AVerKey 500 Pro to your stereo receiver (or you could use Composite video if your receiver doesn't accept S-Video). I used the VCR2 ports on our receiver for all my connections because they were not being used by another device.

To view my Mac's desktop on my TV, I simply select VCR2 as the source on my stereo receiver. I found that the text on the display is easiest to read at a 640 x 480 resolution, so I set the Dock preferences to "auto-hide" to free up some screen real estate.

(Update: I found that the quality of the TV has a lot to do with the quality of the MIVOmac's display on-screen. I first tried this on a 14 year-old JVC TV. The picture was very blurry, pretty much unreadable at 800 x 600. My wife brought home a new Panasonic TV and the screen is easily readable, clear and sharp at 800 x 600.)

The infrared mouse remote works fine (although it takes some time to develop a touch for getting the mouse pointer to the proper place on screen). The zoom presentation features are really nice because they allow you to zoom in on a portion of the screen to make the text larger and easier to read.

If you like the idea of a remote control, but feel the AVerKey 500 Pro is a little too expensive, you might consider the Keyspan Digital Media Remote. This little device plugs into a USB port (you will have to have a Mac with USB support or add a PCI USB card to your Mac) and lets you emulate keyboard strokes from 35 feet away. The Keyspan Digital Media Remote retails for $49.00 and you can learn more at the Keyspan web site.

Don't get rid of your keyboard, though. You'll need it more than you think for typing commands to your Mac. However, once you get things set up, the remote mouse will probably suffice for 90% of what you need to do.

I would be interested to see if the S-Video output directly from a PCI video card that supports S-Video would provide a better picture on-screen. I may try that someday. If I do, I will post an update.

I plan to take some pictures and post them here so you can see what the system looks like. Check back once in a while for updates.

To get iPhoto to access my wife's photo collection over our home network I plan to use an Apple Script called iPhoto Librarian to cause iPhoto to load my wife's iPhoto library from her network-mounted volume. So far I have only had time to view the sample images that come with Apple's OS X screensaver on screen, and they are beautiful. I can't wait to pull up an iPhoto slide show and display it on our TV.

So far, I am really having a lot of fun with my MIVOmac. It's such a whack-in-the-side-of-the-head idea that I'm surprised Apple hasn't brought their own version to market. Apple could bundle the guts of a Mac in a TIVO-like box, give it a nice on-screen user interface, a remote control, wrap it in good Apple design and they would have an awesome product.

It's not rocket science. I'm sure Apple has the ability to pull it off if they want to. I was in Tweeter (a higher-end audio/video store) the other day, and no one out there has a product like it. I mentioned to a couple of salespeople what I was planning to do with my old Mac, and they stared at me blankly, as though they didn't get it. But then, if you don't use a Mac, you don't get it.

Update: I am not the first to think of this. Here is a link to MIVOmac Prior Art.

Part 1 of this story, the seed idea for this project, can be found here