You know you’ve thought about it. Ditching cable and hooking a small computer up to your TV to stream videos, TV shows, movies, music and more is something that every geek would love to do. Well, there isn’t really a better computer on the market for doing this than the Mac Mini from Apple. In this article, we will tell you everything you need to get and install to be able to hook your Mac Mini up to your TV and maximize your viewing experience.

Hardware Requirements
There are a few things you’ll need to buy (or already own) for this to work.

• Mac Mini – You won’t get too far without actually owning a Mac Mini. Coughing up a little extra cash for more RAM and a larger hard drive is likely something you will not regret.
• Wide-Screen HDTV – This really isn’t worth doing without a good TV.
• Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter – Gives your Mac Mini an HDMI port.
• HDMI Cable – Along with the Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter, this will allow you to hook up your Mac Mini to virtually any modern television.
• Apple Remote – This will allow you to control and navigate through most of the programs you’ll be using in your media center.

Optional:

• Apple Wireless Keyboard + Magic Mouse – There will be times when you’ll need and/or want to do something that just can’t be done easily or quickly with the remote. This duo will make life at your couch a lot easier.

Hardware Setup
Setting everything up is relatively straightforward and really much more complicated than setting up any other Mac. Find a good place to put your Mac Mini near your TV where it is visible and has room to breathe (overheating is bad, mmkay?). Once you’ve got it where you want it, simply plug everything in (power, hdmi adapter, and hdmi cable) and power up the Mac. It should automatically adjust to display correctly on your TV, but you can always adjust the resolution to suit your needs. If this is a brand new Mac Mini, just run through the set up and configure it like you would any other Mac. The initial setup is where you will find that having a keyboard and mouse is needed the most. Once you’ve got everything in place and working, it’s time to decide what software you want to use to view various different shows and programs on your Mac Mini.

Software Options
There is a decent selection of different programs you can install (or come preinstalled) on your Mac Mini to improve your viewing experience. Here’s a quick selection of the best options and what they offer you. Are there more than just these three? You bet there are, but many of the features overlap with these or aren’t as extensively developed.

Front Row is Apple’s very own media center application. It will seamlessly integrate with anything you’ve added to iTunes or iPhoto and give you a nice clean full-screen interface with with to view your movies, tv shows, pictures, or listen to music. It also has access to a huge assortment of movie trailers, if you’re looking to catch up on what will be hitting the theaters soon.

Boxee is a beta product and comes with its fair share of bugs, but it is still one of the absolute best media center solutions that you can get. It can play back just about any type of audio and/or video file format that you throw at it, scrapes the web for coverart and information on whatever you’re playing, will function as your DVD player, offers social networking integration, and much more.

Hulu’s Desktop Client gives you access to all of the content of the net’s most successful destination of streaming TV & movies without having to open up your web browser. As a joint venture of Fox, ABC, and NBC, this offers you access some of the biggest hit shows on network and cable television, not to mention feature length films, trailers, and more.

Drawbacks
If you’re doing this as a replacement for your Cable or Satellite TV as opposed to a supplement, then there are some caveats you should be aware of. Unless you are one to illegally pirate all of your viewing materials, there is a plethora of content that you might have access to now that simply isn’t available on the Internet, free or otherwise. One huge glaring example of this is the hugely popular programming on pay channels such as Showtime or HBO. Neither of these networks currently offer any kind of online access to their content, even as a paid subscription (Which I would gladly pay if any executives happen to be reading this!). Another factor to keep in mind is new programming. Not everything that is available through services such as Hulu is available as soon as it has aired through traditional means. Sometimes you have to wait a day, week, or more and sometimes it won’t be available until it has been released on DVD.

Summary
If none of the above drawbacks are a huge concern to you, then setting up a Mac Mini as your new media center solution is a fantastic and fun idea that can provide you, your friends, and your family with endless entertainment. It requires a decent initial investment to get any hardware that you might not already have, but can save you hundreds of dollars a year in cable or satellite costs, if not more.