home and office computer support for D.C., Virginia & Maryland
Many embedded videos are tricky to download. For example, news sites and Hulu do all they can to hide video files so that you can’t easily find them. If the standard browser plug-ins for downloading aren’t working, try StreamTransport, a free Windows program. I found that it is the only solution for many sites.
We just upgraded a 2011 Apple Mac Mini to have an SSD, a second hard drive, and new RAM.
Video
Also available on YouTube in High Definition or Standard Definition.
Parts List
Kit CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9 Model MC816LL/A 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 dual-core processor, AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard driveAlternate Parts List
The OCZ Vertex 3 is the fastest consumer SSD at the moment. Other SSD’s that you might consider include:
The Western Digital Blue drive mentioned above is high capacity and quiet. For a faster spinning hard drive consider:
7200RPM, 16 MB cache, 2.5 inch, 9.5MM height hard driveThe dedicated graphics in the mid-tier Mac Mini make it worth it for me. But for the cheapest Mini, consider:
UPDATE: My video shows adding two 9.5MM height drives. I just upgraded another Mac Mini with a 9.5MM SSD and a 12.5MM standard hard drive. As with my first upgrade, the hard drive goes in the bottom slot (the side closest to the top of the case when upright). This does fit. But first you need to slide the logic board out slightly. Be sure to remove the IR port adapter before sliding out the logic board. The OWC video shows how to do this. I used a cut up coat hanger to insert into the logic board holes and slide it out.
First Boot
Starting with a blank hard drive is easy on the 2011 Mac Mini. Hold down Command-R to boot into Lion Recovery which allows you to format the drives and download Lion over the Internet.
TRIM Support in Lion
For optimal SSD performance, enable TRIM support within OS X Lion. Grant Pannell describes the terminal commands to enable TRIM.
Photos of Upgrade
If you want to download Flash videos, such as from YouTube, there are many options. My favorite way is to use the Firefox plug-in called Download Flash and Video. It actually can download anything that’s Flash including Flash games.
Install it like any Firefox Add-on by going to Tools – Add-ons – Get Add-ons. Once installed you will see a down arrow at the the bottom right hand of Firefox. It turns blue when there is content on the current page that you can download. It’s simple.
After downloading a video, you can use Handbrake to change the video to another format you might need.
It is common for a household to have their DVR in their living room. But how can you watch your recorded shows in another room? If you’ve got Tivo, you can transfer some allowed shows between tivos but that requires paying for a second tivo and hence a second monthly fee. A cheaper alternative is to send the video wirelessly to another room. The RF-Link AVS-5811 Audio and Video Transmission System
There have been wireless video systems in the past similar to this that just never worked very well. This system improves upon those in 2 ways. It has an IR repeater so you can bring your tivo remote in the other room and this catches the signal and sends it back to the tivo so it is like you have the box in the room. Without that, you’d have to run back and forth changing shows. The second improvement is that it operates at the currently less crowded 5.8GHz. That gives it more of a chance to have less interference and hence a clearer picture.
There are a few downsides. This is not HD. It uses old standard RCA connections. However, if you send a widescreen picture over it and then set your TV to display in wide mode, the aspect ratio will look correct. The end result can be a good looking picture that just looks a little fuzzier than HD. If picture quality is less important in your secondary room, then this is the ideal option. The biggest possible downside is if you can actually get it to work or not.
The Amazon reviews
An Annandale, VA client is moving to France for a year assignment with his family. He wants to be able to play his kids’ favorite DVDs for them on a French TV when he is there. Will this work?
Not easily, for two reasons:
Work Arounds
There are a couple of ways to address these limitations:
Get a friendly DVD player
Several DVD players can be set up to be region-free by unlocking them with an unlock code entered with the remote control. This code simply allows the user to change the factory-set configuration flag to another region, or to the special region “0” which can play any region. See the videohelp.com/dvdhacks site to find codes to make DVD players region free and to find out if a particular player can be set to region free.
Many DVD players can play both NTSC/PAL standards. You will need to check the manufacturer information or search online to determine if a particular DVD player can read and display both formats.
Oppo
There are many brands of DVD players including dirt-cheap DVD players which should work. The AVS Forum DVD Section also has a lively discussion of the best DVD players available.
Most of these DVD players are rated for 110-240 volts, meaning that they can be plugged into a US (110 volt) or European (220 volt) outlet, with only an adapter needed for the plug to fit. Otherwise, a larger transformer will be needed to step up or step down the voltage.
Play Video Files created from Handbrake
Most DVD players will also play back individual backed-up or ripped video files, as we described how to make with Handbrake. You can burn these files to a CD or DVD. This will get rid of the DVD region issue because the Handbrake-created files are not region specific. It will also allow you to put more video on a disk because the files are compressed with Handbrake. Cartoons, because they have few colors, can be highly compressed without a noticeable impact on quality. That allows you to burn many cartoons onto one disk.
While it’s not made to work out of the box, the limitations of format and region encoding can be overcome with a little work.