Setting up a Home Theatre Macintosh (& Indigo)

Connecting your computer to the Television has become easier over the years.  Most high-end Televisions are effectively slightly specialized High Definition Monitors, with Built-in Speakers…

I will discuss how I have connected my Mac Mini to my home theatre equipment, but I will be expanding on this, giving a glimpse at how to connect almost any Mac Mini to the hardware.  This can easily be expanded to include MacBook / Macbook Pro’s, and any other Macintosh system.

There have been several different revisions of the Mac Mini, but for our purposes, all that matters is the video connectors:

  • DVI (Full Size) – “Original PPC Mac Mini”, Early 2006, Late 2006, Mid-2007
  • Mini-DVI & Mini-Display Port – Early 2009
  • Mini-DisplayPort  & HDMI – 2010 Mac Mini

The Audio output connects via:

  • The TRS / Toslink connector (The Audio out jack)
  • HDMI, if you are using an Mini-Display Port adapter that supports HDMI pass through audio

But what does your Television support?  And your Home Theatre receiver support?  Most newer Televisions support either DVI and/or HDMI.

So let’s use my current 2009 Mac Mini as an example…

The Video is connected via the Mini-DisplayPort, which connects to a Mini-DisplayPort to DVI Adapter.  The DVI Cable is an DVI to HDMI cable, so my Television is receiving HDMI video, but standard Stereo sound through a TRS to RCA audio cable.  If I was to rewire this now, I would use an Mini-Display Port Connector to HDMI (with Audio Pass through).  While the Mac Mini 2010 is not listed as being supported with this cable, it should supply Audio via the HDMI cable, which means that the Headphone Jack could be used for either Optical Audio to my Receiver, or TRS to RCA Stereo cable connect the Receiver.

So simply stated:

  • Mini-Display Port adapter to HDMI (with Audio Pass through), with a HDMI cable, would be the preferred method to connect a HD TV to a Macintosh.  This should supply both Video and Audio, with a single cable.
  • Mini-Display Port adapter to DVI, with DVI Cable, would be the next best method to connect your Macintosh to a HD TV.  You would also need to use a second cable to supply the Audio.  Either a Toslink (Preferred) or a TRS to Stereo RCA cable (Next Best), would be an excellent choice.
  • Mini-DV Port Adapter to DVI, with DVI Cable, would be the next best method to connect your Macintosh to a HD TV.  You would also need to use a second cable to supply the Audio.  Either a Toslink (Preferred) or a TRS to Stereo RCA cable (Next Best), would be an excellent choice.

The Receiver is being fed Video Audio through the Television’s Audio Out.  This greatly simplified the setup since, the TV would have to be on for us to watch video.  The Audio (eg CD) part connects to the Mac Mini via a TRS Splitter.  The Mac Mini Audio is split one connection going to the TV Audio In, and one going to the Home Theatre’s CD Audio In.  If I had an HDMI adapter with Audio, I would be able to use a TosLink connection for a better quality audio connection.

Now 10.6 / Snow Leopard has built-in support for 1080i, 1080p, 720i, and 720p video modes, as well as detected more non-standard video modes.  Generally that built-in support is sufficient for most HD Televisions. If it isn’t try using SwitchResX.  SwitchResX, allows custom resolutions to be added to your Video settings, as well as a host of other features.

For Video Recording, I use EyeTV with a Plexo USB Video box…  (More details to follow).

Items Mentioned Here…

Mini-Display Port connector to HDMI
[iframe http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=theschoarch-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&asins=B0041NFIBS” 120 240]		 HDMI to HDMI Cable
[iframe http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=theschoarch-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&asins=B003L1ZYYM 120 240]
Mini-Display Port to DVI Connector
[iframe http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=theschoarch-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&asins=B001IF5YLQ 120 240] 		DVI (Full Size) to HDMI Cable:
[iframe http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=theschoarch-20&o=1&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&asins=B001TH7T2U” 120 240]