Three SL upgrades attempted. Three successfully completed.
This is by far the best OS upgrade experience I have ever had. Thank you, Apple.
Friday, August 28, 2009
2 Down, 1 to Go
I've now got one of the MacBooks upgraded to Snow Leopard. The upgrade took almost the same amount of time as the iMac. This time I did note how much HDD space was used before and after, and I regained 5.18GB of space on this machine.
In the meantime, I've discovered three control panels that will need to be upgraded eventually since they are 32-bit: Flip4Mac, Growl, and Menu Meters. No big deal, although I'll miss the Menu Meter functionality until it becomes ready for 64-bit action.
Hopefully the last upgrade will go just as smoothly as the first two.
In the meantime, I've discovered three control panels that will need to be upgraded eventually since they are 32-bit: Flip4Mac, Growl, and Menu Meters. No big deal, although I'll miss the Menu Meter functionality until it becomes ready for 64-bit action.
Hopefully the last upgrade will go just as smoothly as the first two.
And......Time!
And we're done! By my watch, the total installation took 39 minutes from launch to reboot. So here are some of the things that surprised me about this installation.
1) The original estimate was 1h 3m, but the actual time was 39m.
2) The progress bar actually meant something.
3) Did I mention that it actually took less time than was originally estimated?
Unfortunately, I forgot to see how much data was on the HDD before I upgraded, so I don't know how much space was recovered. After a quick run thru all my apps on the Dock, I can say that things do seem to be a bit faster than they used to be. I was a little freaked when the Mail configuration dialog box came up, but when I clicked Continue, it simply optimized my mail folders and brought up my mail just like always. Even my Vista VM seems to be a bit peppier. Meanwhile, Time Machine is running in the background, calculating the changes since my backup just prior to the upgrade.
Speaking of which, Time Machine has finished its calculations and is now backing up 8.49GB, which would probably be the installed footprint of Snow Leopard.
Overall, I'm very impressed. Off to spread the goodness to my MacBooks!
1) The original estimate was 1h 3m, but the actual time was 39m.
2) The progress bar actually meant something.
3) Did I mention that it actually took less time than was originally estimated?
Unfortunately, I forgot to see how much data was on the HDD before I upgraded, so I don't know how much space was recovered. After a quick run thru all my apps on the Dock, I can say that things do seem to be a bit faster than they used to be. I was a little freaked when the Mail configuration dialog box came up, but when I clicked Continue, it simply optimized my mail folders and brought up my mail just like always. Even my Vista VM seems to be a bit peppier. Meanwhile, Time Machine is running in the background, calculating the changes since my backup just prior to the upgrade.
Speaking of which, Time Machine has finished its calculations and is now backing up 8.49GB, which would probably be the installed footprint of Snow Leopard.
Overall, I'm very impressed. Off to spread the goodness to my MacBooks!
Installation Proceeding Smoothly
The iMac has rebooted and the installer is continuing on its merry way.
Time Remaining: About 33 minutes
Time Remaining: About 33 minutes
Snow Leopard!
Okay, so it's been a while since my last update, which I see involved my FlipVideo Ultra and iMovie. A lot has actually happened in the multimedia arena since then. I have gone from SD to HD (720p) by way of Sanyo's Xacti VPC-CG10. Since most of this effort wasn't truly Mac related, I didn't bother to blog about any of it. Maybe I'll do that after I get Snow Leopard installed, because I did learn a lot during that effort.
So back to the main feature. Snow Leopard! I probably should start off by mentioning that this is actually the first time that I've looked forward to an OS update instead of immediately adopting a wait and see attitude. I'm hoping that I'm not let down. So I had some errands to run after I dropped of my son at daycare, and I managed to include swinging by the Apple Store to pick up the SL Family Pack. You just can't beat this - 5 licenses for $49+tax. Since I have 3 machines to upgrade, and the single license is $29+tax, it's pretty much a no-brainer.
The package is pretty efficient. It's a box no bigger than a CD jewel case, and inside are: Install DVD, Installation/Features/Refinements card, Support card, and two white Apple logo stickers. I got a kick out of the fact that the Installation instructions are two short paragraphs that take up less than 25% of the page, and the remaining 9 pages of this multi-fold document are the cover and features. Simplicity at its finest. Let's see if the install lives up to its billing.
[Inserting Install DVD now]
Okay, the installation app has been launched, all appropriate buttons have been clicked, and it's time to sit back and let it do its thing.
It's about 11:20A.
Time Remaining: About 1 hour and 3 minutes
So back to the main feature. Snow Leopard! I probably should start off by mentioning that this is actually the first time that I've looked forward to an OS update instead of immediately adopting a wait and see attitude. I'm hoping that I'm not let down. So I had some errands to run after I dropped of my son at daycare, and I managed to include swinging by the Apple Store to pick up the SL Family Pack. You just can't beat this - 5 licenses for $49+tax. Since I have 3 machines to upgrade, and the single license is $29+tax, it's pretty much a no-brainer.
The package is pretty efficient. It's a box no bigger than a CD jewel case, and inside are: Install DVD, Installation/Features/Refinements card, Support card, and two white Apple logo stickers. I got a kick out of the fact that the Installation instructions are two short paragraphs that take up less than 25% of the page, and the remaining 9 pages of this multi-fold document are the cover and features. Simplicity at its finest. Let's see if the install lives up to its billing.
[Inserting Install DVD now]
Okay, the installation app has been launched, all appropriate buttons have been clicked, and it's time to sit back and let it do its thing.
It's about 11:20A.
Time Remaining: About 1 hour and 3 minutes
Saturday, April 18, 2009
FlipVideo, iDVD and iMovie... Oh my!
My latest experiment with the Mac has been with videos. I have a lot of video clips of my son that I've taken with my FlipVideo Ultra digital camcorder. I created two DVDs on my Windows PC that are essentially all of the clips strung together one right after another with a basic menu system. It's basic and utilitarian, but with no production value whatsoever. So I thought that I'd start playing around to see what the Mac can do, since this is what seems to set the Macs apart from the WinPCs.
I started by firing up iDVD, and the first thing I noticed is that the level of themes was quite a few notches above what I had available in Windows. Even though these would be out-of-the-box productions, they would still be pretty impressive. I then proceeded to drag in movie clips with reckless abandon to see what would happen. Whereas my Win DVDs would just play clip after clip without stopping, the iDVD build would return to the menu immediately after playing one clip instead of continuing on to the next one. Apparently this is because each movie is treated as a separate "title", so like when you put in an Iron Man DVD, it plays the movie "title", and when it's done, it returns you to the menu. As it turns out, what I was wanting was for the individual clips to be treated as "chapters". This is where iMovie comes in.
With iMovie, you basically edit together all of your video clips into a single movie. You can add transitions from clip to clip, on-screen titles, title overlays, and even throw in a soundtrack if you like. It also allows you to insert Chapter points as well as name them, which is really handy as I will describe later.
Now the problem that I had with iMovie was that it would not recognize the FlipVideo AVI files, even though they played just fine in QuickTime Player. The FlipVideo uses the 3ivx codec, but from what I've read, it uses a modified version of the codec, which would explain why QT can play the files but iMovie can't import them. I decided not to install the FlipVideo version of the codec because as you'll recall from my previous post, it caused problems with other video playback. So what to do?
Behold HandBrake, a video conversion utility. Using HandBrake, I converted all of the video files into MPEG4 videos using the h.264 codec, which should make iMovie happy. The interesting thing is that the first time I converted a file for testing, it gave the file a .mp4 extension, which iMovie found without any problem. The next time I converted a file, iMovie wouldn't import it, because it had a .m4v extension, which is apparently what iTunes likes. I changed the extension to .mp4, and iMovie found it just fine. So as I converted all of my files, I had to make sure to change the extension to .mp4 in order for iMovie to see them.
The other quirk about HandBrake is that it automatically crops your videos, which is not really what I wanted. So another thing I had to watch was to make sure the output file was also 640x480. If not, then I had to go into the Picture properties, change the cropping to custom, and zero out all the values.
Having done all this, I finally had all of my video clips converted to .mp4 and imported into iMovie. Looking back on it, I probably should have converted them at 100% quality to minimize any degradation due to compression, but so far the clips seem to be perfectly fine. If anything, some of the grainier clips seem to be smoother after the conversion. I would like to think there's some way to set the defaults, but I haven't taken the time to track it down.
So back to iMovie. The final element of having converted all of the video clips is that they do not have the actual date and time stamp for the videos. Fortunately, iMovie allows you to change these so that they appear in order of when they were recorded. Yes, this is all tedious, and yes, I would prefer not to have to do it, but that would involve installing the FlipVideo 3ivx codec. I may do some additional testing in the future. Either that, or I'll use it as an excuse to upgrade to an HD camera like the MinoHD or the Kodak Zx1, but I need to do more research on those and what codecs they use. While I like the FlipVideo Ultra's overall performance, the codec issue does make this whole process more tedious. (Okay, so now I'm installing the current FlipVideo 3ivx codec, are you happy?)
I'm not going to bore you with what I did within iMovie, but suffice it to say that it a) is fairly intuitive, b) looks VERY professional, and c) pretty easy to use. I even built a decent facsimile of the Star Wars opening titles using the Far Far Away title template. How could I not? As soon as I saw that template, I knew I was going there, and you know you would, too. So having completed my movie, complete with titles, transitions, and chapters, I told it to share the movie to iDVD, and it started rendering. About 3 hours later, it arrived in iDVD, where I applied a DVD theme and found my movie, scene selection submenus, and everything ready to go. I edited some of the chapter titles so they would fit onscreen, and saved the project to a DVD image, which took about 2 hours to encode.
I mounted the DVD image and launched DVD Player, and I was very disappointed to find that the title text was EXTREMELY pixelated. Imagine playing a modern video game at full 1980x1200 resolution only to find the in-game text to resemble that of the Atari 2600 console instead. Back to Google! From what I read and assuming I understood everything that I read, what happens is that when iMovie shares to iDVD, it will render and encode everything for DVD, which then happens again when iDVD preps the image. The recommended method is to save the movie using the Export Movie command, which saves it as a .m4v file. Then open iDVD and drag that .m4v file into iDVD.
I created a test movie, dragged it into iDVD, and it automatically created all the same movie and scene selection menu items and submenus just like when I shared directly from iMovie to iDVD. Next, I saved the project to a DVD image, and when I opened the new image in DVD Player, all the title text looked significantly better.
Now that I have the FlipVideo 3ivx codec installed, it's time to go see if iMovie can use the FlipVideo files directly. That would certainly save a lot of time.
I started by firing up iDVD, and the first thing I noticed is that the level of themes was quite a few notches above what I had available in Windows. Even though these would be out-of-the-box productions, they would still be pretty impressive. I then proceeded to drag in movie clips with reckless abandon to see what would happen. Whereas my Win DVDs would just play clip after clip without stopping, the iDVD build would return to the menu immediately after playing one clip instead of continuing on to the next one. Apparently this is because each movie is treated as a separate "title", so like when you put in an Iron Man DVD, it plays the movie "title", and when it's done, it returns you to the menu. As it turns out, what I was wanting was for the individual clips to be treated as "chapters". This is where iMovie comes in.
With iMovie, you basically edit together all of your video clips into a single movie. You can add transitions from clip to clip, on-screen titles, title overlays, and even throw in a soundtrack if you like. It also allows you to insert Chapter points as well as name them, which is really handy as I will describe later.
Now the problem that I had with iMovie was that it would not recognize the FlipVideo AVI files, even though they played just fine in QuickTime Player. The FlipVideo uses the 3ivx codec, but from what I've read, it uses a modified version of the codec, which would explain why QT can play the files but iMovie can't import them. I decided not to install the FlipVideo version of the codec because as you'll recall from my previous post, it caused problems with other video playback. So what to do?
Behold HandBrake, a video conversion utility. Using HandBrake, I converted all of the video files into MPEG4 videos using the h.264 codec, which should make iMovie happy. The interesting thing is that the first time I converted a file for testing, it gave the file a .mp4 extension, which iMovie found without any problem. The next time I converted a file, iMovie wouldn't import it, because it had a .m4v extension, which is apparently what iTunes likes. I changed the extension to .mp4, and iMovie found it just fine. So as I converted all of my files, I had to make sure to change the extension to .mp4 in order for iMovie to see them.
The other quirk about HandBrake is that it automatically crops your videos, which is not really what I wanted. So another thing I had to watch was to make sure the output file was also 640x480. If not, then I had to go into the Picture properties, change the cropping to custom, and zero out all the values.
Having done all this, I finally had all of my video clips converted to .mp4 and imported into iMovie. Looking back on it, I probably should have converted them at 100% quality to minimize any degradation due to compression, but so far the clips seem to be perfectly fine. If anything, some of the grainier clips seem to be smoother after the conversion. I would like to think there's some way to set the defaults, but I haven't taken the time to track it down.
So back to iMovie. The final element of having converted all of the video clips is that they do not have the actual date and time stamp for the videos. Fortunately, iMovie allows you to change these so that they appear in order of when they were recorded. Yes, this is all tedious, and yes, I would prefer not to have to do it, but that would involve installing the FlipVideo 3ivx codec. I may do some additional testing in the future. Either that, or I'll use it as an excuse to upgrade to an HD camera like the MinoHD or the Kodak Zx1, but I need to do more research on those and what codecs they use. While I like the FlipVideo Ultra's overall performance, the codec issue does make this whole process more tedious. (Okay, so now I'm installing the current FlipVideo 3ivx codec, are you happy?)
I'm not going to bore you with what I did within iMovie, but suffice it to say that it a) is fairly intuitive, b) looks VERY professional, and c) pretty easy to use. I even built a decent facsimile of the Star Wars opening titles using the Far Far Away title template. How could I not? As soon as I saw that template, I knew I was going there, and you know you would, too. So having completed my movie, complete with titles, transitions, and chapters, I told it to share the movie to iDVD, and it started rendering. About 3 hours later, it arrived in iDVD, where I applied a DVD theme and found my movie, scene selection submenus, and everything ready to go. I edited some of the chapter titles so they would fit onscreen, and saved the project to a DVD image, which took about 2 hours to encode.
I mounted the DVD image and launched DVD Player, and I was very disappointed to find that the title text was EXTREMELY pixelated. Imagine playing a modern video game at full 1980x1200 resolution only to find the in-game text to resemble that of the Atari 2600 console instead. Back to Google! From what I read and assuming I understood everything that I read, what happens is that when iMovie shares to iDVD, it will render and encode everything for DVD, which then happens again when iDVD preps the image. The recommended method is to save the movie using the Export Movie command, which saves it as a .m4v file. Then open iDVD and drag that .m4v file into iDVD.
I created a test movie, dragged it into iDVD, and it automatically created all the same movie and scene selection menu items and submenus just like when I shared directly from iMovie to iDVD. Next, I saved the project to a DVD image, and when I opened the new image in DVD Player, all the title text looked significantly better.
Now that I have the FlipVideo 3ivx codec installed, it's time to go see if iMovie can use the FlipVideo files directly. That would certainly save a lot of time.
The Great Migration
I was originally planning on doing a single "catch up" post, but I decided to break it up a bit since it's all going to be pretty lengthy as it is.
So now that we've made the full scale jump into Appleland, it was time to migrate data and secure it. At this point, all of my data was scattered about on the Windows PC's attached drives, complete with questionable Windows backup files and recovered restorations. I took the primary attached drive and connected it to the USB port. Not surprisingly, the iMac recognized it immediately and mounted it. I thought I'd just grab my data at the top-most folder and simply drag it to my Documents folder and see how it played out. Not surprisingly, it did encounter an issue with one of the files. I'm not sure what kicked out the process, but a quick search on the error message introduced me to the "cp -R" console command. Using this command with a quick drag of the source and destination folders to the console window, I was then able to copy all the data files without any problem. I didn't time how long it took, but it didn't matter since I went to bed. So repeat this process for my 4 other drives, and I soon had all of my critical data on the iMac's internal hard drive.
The next item on the agenda was to get all of my email out of Microsoft Outlook 2007 and into Apple Mail. I had read online that this was no minor feat considering that even Microsoft Entourage for the Mac could not read Microsoft's own .pst files. Attempts to export/import using other mail apps like Mozilla Thunderbird produced spotty results, i.e. some messages converted fine while others did not with nothing to indicate why. I then came across a few posts about a product called O2M by a company called Little Machines (http://www.littlemachines.com). For $10, this little application was supposed to be the answer to all my email migration problems. I downloaded the application, which comes as crippleware until you register it, and proceeded to test its capabilities. The first thing I did was I opened Microsoft Outlook 2007, created a test folder, and copied 5 messages that Mozilla Thunderbird missed. Then I launched O2M's demo (which by no mere coincidence is limited to converting 5 messages) and pointed it at my test folder. I then imported the newly created mbox file into Apple Mail, and there were all 5 test messages. A few minutes later, Little Machines had my $10, and I was well on my way to converting all of my emails, contacts, and even my schedule appointments. This little application was truly a lifesaver since I was able to use it to convert all of my wife's emails, contacts, and schedule appointments as well.
I now have Apple Mail set up on the MacBooks and the iMac so that emails are left on the server until they are moved out of the Inbox. The iMac is the primary workstation, so if any emails are going to be saved, they'll be saved here where Time Machine will backup the data. Unfortunately, I cannot get Apple Mail to interact fully with Hotmail, which has been my primary mail account for the last 10 years. Unlike Gmail, Hotmail does not allow Apple Mail to access it using IMAP, and its POP3 configuration only allows it to read messages. Any deletions or message movements appear to work until you Get Mail, and then all those pesky messages show up again. So it may be time to say "Sayonara" to Hotmail and replace it with Gmail as my primary online mail address.
Now that I had all of my critical data on the iMac, it was time to protect it. With that in mind, I decided to buy an attached drive which would solely be used for Time Machine backups. To save you some reading, I'll break it down like this. I considered a Seagate 1.5TB FW400 drive, a WD 1TB MyBook FW400 drive, and a WD 1TB MyBook FW800. Again, I consulted my Apple buddy, and I ended up with the WD 1TB FW800 drive, which only cost me about $20 more than the FW400 version. While the 1.5TB would have been nice, I think the performance is a worthy trade off.
With drive in hand, I headed home, plugged it in, answered Time Machines questions regarding the drive, and sent it on its merry way to backing up my hard drive. It completed the entire initial backup of about 300GB of data in approximately 3 hours. FW800 ftw!
Now that I had Time Machine backups of this data, I was able to begin freeing up space on the attached drives, since I no longer required them as a backup.
All that remained now was to consolidate my non-essential files using the attached drives. Since these files tended to change quite frequently, I didn't want them clogging up my Time Machine backup, so I decided to keep them on the attached drives. After about a day of data file Tetris, I finally had things consolidated onto two 500GB drives. At one point, it was very tempting to simply go out and purchase a second WD 1TB Mybook, but I'm glad I didn't, since I have the storage already. It would be nice, though, if these drive enclosures had at least FW400.
The final piece to the hardware puzzle was getting my Canon MP960 multifunction connected and working on the iMac. I downloaded the printer and scanner drivers, and the MP Navigation and EZ-Print utilities from the Canon website, installed them, plugged in the MP960, and just like that, I was back in business. One thing that I was surprised to find was that using the scan function, I was able to save multiple scanned documents into a single multi-page PDF. In all honesty, this function may have been available in Windows, but I do not remember seeing it as an option when I scanned files previously, and it is a feature for which I had looked, too.
So here I am, fully migrated to the iMac, and so far everything is working beautifully. I was even able to open and read some Word 2007 documents in OpenOffice.org 3.0.1. Not too shabby.
So now that we've made the full scale jump into Appleland, it was time to migrate data and secure it. At this point, all of my data was scattered about on the Windows PC's attached drives, complete with questionable Windows backup files and recovered restorations. I took the primary attached drive and connected it to the USB port. Not surprisingly, the iMac recognized it immediately and mounted it. I thought I'd just grab my data at the top-most folder and simply drag it to my Documents folder and see how it played out. Not surprisingly, it did encounter an issue with one of the files. I'm not sure what kicked out the process, but a quick search on the error message introduced me to the "cp -R" console command. Using this command with a quick drag of the source and destination folders to the console window, I was then able to copy all the data files without any problem. I didn't time how long it took, but it didn't matter since I went to bed. So repeat this process for my 4 other drives, and I soon had all of my critical data on the iMac's internal hard drive.
The next item on the agenda was to get all of my email out of Microsoft Outlook 2007 and into Apple Mail. I had read online that this was no minor feat considering that even Microsoft Entourage for the Mac could not read Microsoft's own .pst files. Attempts to export/import using other mail apps like Mozilla Thunderbird produced spotty results, i.e. some messages converted fine while others did not with nothing to indicate why. I then came across a few posts about a product called O2M by a company called Little Machines (http://www.littlemachines.com). For $10, this little application was supposed to be the answer to all my email migration problems. I downloaded the application, which comes as crippleware until you register it, and proceeded to test its capabilities. The first thing I did was I opened Microsoft Outlook 2007, created a test folder, and copied 5 messages that Mozilla Thunderbird missed. Then I launched O2M's demo (which by no mere coincidence is limited to converting 5 messages) and pointed it at my test folder. I then imported the newly created mbox file into Apple Mail, and there were all 5 test messages. A few minutes later, Little Machines had my $10, and I was well on my way to converting all of my emails, contacts, and even my schedule appointments. This little application was truly a lifesaver since I was able to use it to convert all of my wife's emails, contacts, and schedule appointments as well.
I now have Apple Mail set up on the MacBooks and the iMac so that emails are left on the server until they are moved out of the Inbox. The iMac is the primary workstation, so if any emails are going to be saved, they'll be saved here where Time Machine will backup the data. Unfortunately, I cannot get Apple Mail to interact fully with Hotmail, which has been my primary mail account for the last 10 years. Unlike Gmail, Hotmail does not allow Apple Mail to access it using IMAP, and its POP3 configuration only allows it to read messages. Any deletions or message movements appear to work until you Get Mail, and then all those pesky messages show up again. So it may be time to say "Sayonara" to Hotmail and replace it with Gmail as my primary online mail address.
Now that I had all of my critical data on the iMac, it was time to protect it. With that in mind, I decided to buy an attached drive which would solely be used for Time Machine backups. To save you some reading, I'll break it down like this. I considered a Seagate 1.5TB FW400 drive, a WD 1TB MyBook FW400 drive, and a WD 1TB MyBook FW800. Again, I consulted my Apple buddy, and I ended up with the WD 1TB FW800 drive, which only cost me about $20 more than the FW400 version. While the 1.5TB would have been nice, I think the performance is a worthy trade off.
With drive in hand, I headed home, plugged it in, answered Time Machines questions regarding the drive, and sent it on its merry way to backing up my hard drive. It completed the entire initial backup of about 300GB of data in approximately 3 hours. FW800 ftw!
Now that I had Time Machine backups of this data, I was able to begin freeing up space on the attached drives, since I no longer required them as a backup.
All that remained now was to consolidate my non-essential files using the attached drives. Since these files tended to change quite frequently, I didn't want them clogging up my Time Machine backup, so I decided to keep them on the attached drives. After about a day of data file Tetris, I finally had things consolidated onto two 500GB drives. At one point, it was very tempting to simply go out and purchase a second WD 1TB Mybook, but I'm glad I didn't, since I have the storage already. It would be nice, though, if these drive enclosures had at least FW400.
The final piece to the hardware puzzle was getting my Canon MP960 multifunction connected and working on the iMac. I downloaded the printer and scanner drivers, and the MP Navigation and EZ-Print utilities from the Canon website, installed them, plugged in the MP960, and just like that, I was back in business. One thing that I was surprised to find was that using the scan function, I was able to save multiple scanned documents into a single multi-page PDF. In all honesty, this function may have been available in Windows, but I do not remember seeing it as an option when I scanned files previously, and it is a feature for which I had looked, too.
So here I am, fully migrated to the iMac, and so far everything is working beautifully. I was even able to open and read some Word 2007 documents in OpenOffice.org 3.0.1. Not too shabby.
Apple? More like Rabbits!
Okay, it's been a while since my last update, and the landscape around here has changed appreciably. My wonderful wife was able to find a buyer for the Dell XPS laptop, and we were due a refund on our taxes. These two numbers coincidentally added up to a number that just about covered the cost of an iMac. So what was I to do? My Windows PC was still acting up even after rebuilding it using Vista, which is another saga in and of itself. Suffice it to say that it pushed me over the edge. So I decided to pull the trigger on a 24" iMac.
Since I had decided on the 3.06GHz model, the only decision was which graphics card. I'm typically an nVidia faithful, but the info on the Apple website showed the ATI Radeon HD 4850 as being appreciably faster. Unfortunately, the ATI option changed the ship time from 1-3 days to 3-6 weeks. Yes, weeks. After considerable Googling, I found that the reason for the delay was either that ATI could not meet its production commitments, or the drivers wouldn't be available until the Leopard 10.5.7 update was released later this year. So since nVidia was able to get its products delivered, I decided to go with the nVidia GT130. Besides, it scratched the Immediate Gratification itch as well without sacrificing much.
Shortly after placing the order, my wife was talking about how she thought it would be nice if we could have two workstations in the office so that we could both work on a computer. I pointed out that the likelihood of us overlapping like that was probably fairly low, and as such, it was hard to justify purchasing another iMac. If anything, I thought that maybe it would make more sense to have another MacBook in basic trim since most of the secondary work would probably consist of checking emails, surfing the web, or word processing/spreadsheets. At any rate, we decided to table the discussion since there wasn't really a pressing need.
The next day, my wife announced that she had thought about it, and she agreed that the path forward should be another MacBook instead of another iMac. In another coincidence, I received an email from MicroCenter announcing their Mac Month specials, which included a $200 rebate on the basic trim white MacBook. I stared long and hard at that advertisement just to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me. I even had my friend at Apple look at it, and she confirmed that it was the 2009 model white MacBook with the nVidia chipset. Much to my surprise, my wife quickly authorized procurement.
And just like that, our household is now an Apple household. The best part of it all is that thanks to the medical flexible spending account, selling the Dell XPS laptop, and the income tax refund, we only had to spend out-of-pocket on the latest MacBook.
So yeah, like the title says: Apple? More like Rabbits!
Since I had decided on the 3.06GHz model, the only decision was which graphics card. I'm typically an nVidia faithful, but the info on the Apple website showed the ATI Radeon HD 4850 as being appreciably faster. Unfortunately, the ATI option changed the ship time from 1-3 days to 3-6 weeks. Yes, weeks. After considerable Googling, I found that the reason for the delay was either that ATI could not meet its production commitments, or the drivers wouldn't be available until the Leopard 10.5.7 update was released later this year. So since nVidia was able to get its products delivered, I decided to go with the nVidia GT130. Besides, it scratched the Immediate Gratification itch as well without sacrificing much.
Shortly after placing the order, my wife was talking about how she thought it would be nice if we could have two workstations in the office so that we could both work on a computer. I pointed out that the likelihood of us overlapping like that was probably fairly low, and as such, it was hard to justify purchasing another iMac. If anything, I thought that maybe it would make more sense to have another MacBook in basic trim since most of the secondary work would probably consist of checking emails, surfing the web, or word processing/spreadsheets. At any rate, we decided to table the discussion since there wasn't really a pressing need.
The next day, my wife announced that she had thought about it, and she agreed that the path forward should be another MacBook instead of another iMac. In another coincidence, I received an email from MicroCenter announcing their Mac Month specials, which included a $200 rebate on the basic trim white MacBook. I stared long and hard at that advertisement just to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me. I even had my friend at Apple look at it, and she confirmed that it was the 2009 model white MacBook with the nVidia chipset. Much to my surprise, my wife quickly authorized procurement.
And just like that, our household is now an Apple household. The best part of it all is that thanks to the medical flexible spending account, selling the Dell XPS laptop, and the income tax refund, we only had to spend out-of-pocket on the latest MacBook.
So yeah, like the title says: Apple? More like Rabbits!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Anticlimactic is good, right?
Okay, I've been using the MacBook for about two weeks now (I lost a week thanks to a rather nasty stomach virus that's been going around), and I have to say that it has been rather uneventful. As much as some may want to poo-poo Apple's tagline "It just works", there's a certain amount of verity in that simple statement.
Having done the basic poking around with the OS and applications, it was time to get to the whole point of buying the MacBook: hooking it up to the HDTV. I pretty much used the same connections as I did for the Dell. The mini-DVI to DVI adapter was connected to the MacBook, and then it was connected to the HDTV using a DVI-to-HDMI cable. I then connected the power to the MacBook, powered it on, and VOILA! I had the MacBook screen with the desktop extended to the HDTV. I changed the display mode to mirror so that the HDTV would display everything the same, put the MacBook to sleep, and then tried to wake it up using the remote.
The problem I had here was that every time I tried to wake up the MacBook, it would sense that the lid was closed, and go right back to sleep. I quickly found out that in order for the MacBook to operate in "closed clamshell" mode, three conditions must be met. 1) The MacBook must be connected to external power, not just battery, 2) there must be an external monitor, and 3) there must be an external keyboard and mouse present. After thinking about it, point 3 does make sense. So I plugged in the receiver for my PC wireless keyboard and mouse, quickly taught the MacBook about the keyboard, tried it again, and now we had everything running fine -- video on the HDTV and the MacBook in "closed clamshell" mode.
The first thing I tested was the main thing that irked me about the Dell -- video display detection thru DVI. I cycled the power on the TV, changed inputs, and switched it to tuner and back. Every time I came back to the MacBook's HDMI input, the picture came back without any problem.
And did I mention that it's quiet? Not even as loud as a whisper! It was so quiet that my wife was literally surprised at its lack of sound; so much so that she exclaimed, "Damn, there's no noise!" Nope, not a bit.
Next step was to get things set up so that I could get the MacBook running with at least the same level of functionality as the Dell. In this case, it meant running FrontRow to watch my video files. I made some aliases to the various folders whose files I wanted to view and placed them in the/Movies folder. Even though a majority of these files are TV shows, I opted not to try to get them to show up in FrontRow under the TV Shows menu, because that would have required jumping through hoops to get them to import into iTunes, which is where that particular heading looks. It was much simpler to just put all the video files under "Movies" and call it a day.
So far, everything was working beautifully. I was able to power everything on remotely, wake the MacBook remotely, launch FrontRow using the menu button on the Apple Remote, and browse my files from the Movie menu. One thing that concerned me, though, was that some of the videos seemed to stutter as they played, almost as if the framerates were too low. I copied the file locally, and it exhibited the same behavior. I verified that the CPU and network bandwidth weren't being overtaxed, which they weren't. Besides, the older Dell hardware handled it without any problems, so the MacBook was more than up to the task. I was starting to experience buyer's remorse.
Fortunately, a friend of mine has an iMac and was able to assist me with troubleshooting the issue. The long and short of the problem was this -- during my initial testing with video files from my FlipVideo digital camcorder, I installed the 3ivx codec that was originally provided with the camera. As it turns out, Perian also contains a 3ivx codec. Apparently, the two do not play well with each other. After removing the codec from the FlipVideo, all the video playback smoothed out. No more buyer's remorse.
As it turns out, Perian's codecs allow QuickTime to play Matroska container files, although it does not seem to handle the embedded subtitles. Sometimes it's okay, because the audio/subtitle defaults work out. Other times, not. Not a real big deal for now, since even on the Dell, I had to use Media Player Classic instead of the Dell Media Experience home theater application. The only difference is now I'd be using VLC.
The biggest improvement, though, is that FrontRow integrates with iPhoto and iTunes, so I get access to all my pictures and music as well. I kind of had this functionality with Dell Media Experience, but the overall feel was not nearly as well-integrated or polished as FrontRow. The biggest advantage is that FrontRow uses elements from the host applications, like iPhoto's Events or iTunes's Playlists. There's not extra step from the host apps to FrontRow.
It just works. It really does.
Having done the basic poking around with the OS and applications, it was time to get to the whole point of buying the MacBook: hooking it up to the HDTV. I pretty much used the same connections as I did for the Dell. The mini-DVI to DVI adapter was connected to the MacBook, and then it was connected to the HDTV using a DVI-to-HDMI cable. I then connected the power to the MacBook, powered it on, and VOILA! I had the MacBook screen with the desktop extended to the HDTV. I changed the display mode to mirror so that the HDTV would display everything the same, put the MacBook to sleep, and then tried to wake it up using the remote.
The problem I had here was that every time I tried to wake up the MacBook, it would sense that the lid was closed, and go right back to sleep. I quickly found out that in order for the MacBook to operate in "closed clamshell" mode, three conditions must be met. 1) The MacBook must be connected to external power, not just battery, 2) there must be an external monitor, and 3) there must be an external keyboard and mouse present. After thinking about it, point 3 does make sense. So I plugged in the receiver for my PC wireless keyboard and mouse, quickly taught the MacBook about the keyboard, tried it again, and now we had everything running fine -- video on the HDTV and the MacBook in "closed clamshell" mode.
The first thing I tested was the main thing that irked me about the Dell -- video display detection thru DVI. I cycled the power on the TV, changed inputs, and switched it to tuner and back. Every time I came back to the MacBook's HDMI input, the picture came back without any problem.
And did I mention that it's quiet? Not even as loud as a whisper! It was so quiet that my wife was literally surprised at its lack of sound; so much so that she exclaimed, "Damn, there's no noise!" Nope, not a bit.
Next step was to get things set up so that I could get the MacBook running with at least the same level of functionality as the Dell. In this case, it meant running FrontRow to watch my video files. I made some aliases to the various folders whose files I wanted to view and placed them in the
So far, everything was working beautifully. I was able to power everything on remotely, wake the MacBook remotely, launch FrontRow using the menu button on the Apple Remote, and browse my files from the Movie menu. One thing that concerned me, though, was that some of the videos seemed to stutter as they played, almost as if the framerates were too low. I copied the file locally, and it exhibited the same behavior. I verified that the CPU and network bandwidth weren't being overtaxed, which they weren't. Besides, the older Dell hardware handled it without any problems, so the MacBook was more than up to the task. I was starting to experience buyer's remorse.
Fortunately, a friend of mine has an iMac and was able to assist me with troubleshooting the issue. The long and short of the problem was this -- during my initial testing with video files from my FlipVideo digital camcorder, I installed the 3ivx codec that was originally provided with the camera. As it turns out, Perian also contains a 3ivx codec. Apparently, the two do not play well with each other. After removing the codec from the FlipVideo, all the video playback smoothed out. No more buyer's remorse.
As it turns out, Perian's codecs allow QuickTime to play Matroska container files, although it does not seem to handle the embedded subtitles. Sometimes it's okay, because the audio/subtitle defaults work out. Other times, not. Not a real big deal for now, since even on the Dell, I had to use Media Player Classic instead of the Dell Media Experience home theater application. The only difference is now I'd be using VLC.
The biggest improvement, though, is that FrontRow integrates with iPhoto and iTunes, so I get access to all my pictures and music as well. I kind of had this functionality with Dell Media Experience, but the overall feel was not nearly as well-integrated or polished as FrontRow. The biggest advantage is that FrontRow uses elements from the host applications, like iPhoto's Events or iTunes's Playlists. There's not extra step from the host apps to FrontRow.
It just works. It really does.
Monday, February 23, 2009
First Impressions
For those of you who are curious, here is what I ordered. It's a very basic setup.
13" White MacBook with nVidia 9400m chipset
2.0GHz Core2Duo
2GB RAM
250GB HDD (upgrade)
iWork '09 (option)
mini-DVI to DVI adapter (option)
Apple Remote (option)
So with the Unboxing Fetish portion of the program out of the way, I opened the lid and pressed the power button. After answering a few configuration questions (primarily for language settings), I was greeting by the MacBook with "Welcome" in more languages than I can remember. During the account setup, I was surprised to see myself on the screen, when I remembered the iSight camera. It was then that I realized that I really needed to brush my hair. After a quick brush, I had my account set up, and my MacBook was configured and on my wireless network. It really was as simple and painless as that. I even had access to my Windows shares when I looked in Finder.
I then connected my digital camera (Canon PowerShot G6) with a USB cable, and iPhoto came up shortly thereafter and asked how I'd like to handle importing my pictures. No additional drivers or software was necessary. Next, I tried importing some pictures from my Windows share, and within minutes, I had pictures of my son in iPhoto. The face recognition feature was almost criminally easy to use and just as effective in detecting faces in the pictures. I can't wait to import more of my pictures and really test this application.
Moving on, I opened a video file, but Quicktime didn't have the appropriate codec to play it. A quick Google search directed me to Perian (www.perian.org), which is similar to the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP) for Windows. With Perian installed, Quicktime was now able to play my video file. Now here's another key difference between the Mac and Windows: I was actually able to playback the video in reverse. None of the media players that I use in Windows allow for reverse playback. Either they simply can't, or I haven't figured it out. At any rate, this is a nice capability to have, seeing as how a lot of videos that I watch are subtitled, and sometimes a subtitle flashes by a little quickly for me to read. It will be nice to punch that rewind button instead of having to reach for the mouse to reset the progress indicator. In one of my multimedia apps, you can't even skip using the progress indicator, so if you miss something or worse, accidentally hit the Stop button, you're screwed.
The only negative really isn't a negative, and that's the controls. It's simply going to take time to re-train my fingers to use the Mac keyboard and the trackpad. Some of the immediate editing keystroke differences that I've come across are:
- delete instead of Backspace - delete
- fn+delete instead of Delete - forward delete
- command+X/C/V instead of Ctrl+X/C/V - cut/copy/paste
- control+Up/Down instead of PgUp/PgDn - Page Up/Down
- command+Up/Down instead of Ctrl+Home/End - Beginning/End of Document
- option+Left/Right instead of Ctrl+Left/Right - skip previous/next word
Overall, it has been a very positive out-of-the-box experience.
13" White MacBook with nVidia 9400m chipset
2.0GHz Core2Duo
2GB RAM
250GB HDD (upgrade)
iWork '09 (option)
mini-DVI to DVI adapter (option)
Apple Remote (option)
So with the Unboxing Fetish portion of the program out of the way, I opened the lid and pressed the power button. After answering a few configuration questions (primarily for language settings), I was greeting by the MacBook with "Welcome" in more languages than I can remember. During the account setup, I was surprised to see myself on the screen, when I remembered the iSight camera. It was then that I realized that I really needed to brush my hair. After a quick brush, I had my account set up, and my MacBook was configured and on my wireless network. It really was as simple and painless as that. I even had access to my Windows shares when I looked in Finder.
I then connected my digital camera (Canon PowerShot G6) with a USB cable, and iPhoto came up shortly thereafter and asked how I'd like to handle importing my pictures. No additional drivers or software was necessary. Next, I tried importing some pictures from my Windows share, and within minutes, I had pictures of my son in iPhoto. The face recognition feature was almost criminally easy to use and just as effective in detecting faces in the pictures. I can't wait to import more of my pictures and really test this application.
Moving on, I opened a video file, but Quicktime didn't have the appropriate codec to play it. A quick Google search directed me to Perian (www.perian.org), which is similar to the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP) for Windows. With Perian installed, Quicktime was now able to play my video file. Now here's another key difference between the Mac and Windows: I was actually able to playback the video in reverse. None of the media players that I use in Windows allow for reverse playback. Either they simply can't, or I haven't figured it out. At any rate, this is a nice capability to have, seeing as how a lot of videos that I watch are subtitled, and sometimes a subtitle flashes by a little quickly for me to read. It will be nice to punch that rewind button instead of having to reach for the mouse to reset the progress indicator. In one of my multimedia apps, you can't even skip using the progress indicator, so if you miss something or worse, accidentally hit the Stop button, you're screwed.
The only negative really isn't a negative, and that's the controls. It's simply going to take time to re-train my fingers to use the Mac keyboard and the trackpad. Some of the immediate editing keystroke differences that I've come across are:
- delete instead of Backspace - delete
- fn+delete instead of Delete - forward delete
- command+X/C/V instead of Ctrl+X/C/V - cut/copy/paste
- control+Up/Down instead of PgUp/PgDn - Page Up/Down
- command+Up/Down instead of Ctrl+Home/End - Beginning/End of Document
- option+Left/Right instead of Ctrl+Left/Right - skip previous/next word
Overall, it has been a very positive out-of-the-box experience.
Unboxing Fetish
No doubt, you are wondering what an "Unboxing Fetish" is. I know I did when I first heard the term, which by the way was maybe 10 minutes ago. The term refers to people who take lots of pictures documenting the unboxing of new items. My first reaction, of course, was denial. I mean, it does sound freaky. On the other hand, I did take pictures as I was unboxing the MacBook, but it's not like I do that with everything. So I started thinking about it, and the idea of sharing pictures of unboxing the MacBook did seem rather goofy. After all, I'm certainly not the first one to do so, and many others have already "experienced" this event. So why bother? Well, the point of this blog is, as you'll recall, to chronicle my return to Apple Land, and part of that is noting how the Apple Experience differs from the Windows Experience, and even the simple act of unboxing revealed a large gap. So if this makes me an Unboxing Fetishist, then I guess I am. Labels...why must we always apply labels to people? Can't we all just get along?
Alrighty then. Around 9:30A, FedEx shows up on my doorstep with a box for me. After signing for the package, I look down to find a much smaller box than I was expecting. You see, I have never seen a modern Mac in its boxed state (see also Justification for Unboxing Fetish). So for the many Windows users out there who wish to avoid becoming Unboxing Fetishists, the following pictures are for you. The shipping box is a simple, unassuming box, that isn't much bigger than the product box, which is safely wedged in there with environmentally friendly cardboard corner supports. No huge pieces of styrofoam to wrestle out or packing peanuts to litter the floor.
Now the thing that makes the shipping box noteworthy is its efficient use of materials. There's just enough space for fall protection and not much more. By contrast, a certain PC manufacturer, who shall remain nameless, shipped a notebook in a box that was easily three times the size of this box in volume, and included a large box for the power supply and CDs which was largely empty and pretty much unnecessary if you ask me. I give Apple props for their packaging. The actual product box is even smaller and looks to be only somewhat larger than the MacBook itself. It gives the impression of being as big as it needs to be and no bigger.
Looking inside, the contents are arranged very compactly and neatly. A foam pad on the lid provides cushioning and holds the MacBook in place. The MacBook is wrapped in a thin sleeve to protect it from scratches, and it lies on top of a shallow molded plastic tray containing the power supply, extension cord, video adapter, Apple Remote, and package containing the software DVDs and manual. Apple had enough foresight to include a small paper tab underneath the MacBook to make it easy to lift it out of the box. Then they cut a tab in the software package sleeve so that you can pull on it to conveniently remove the package from its tray.
Another big difference from my experience with Windows computers is that all the Apple accessories are bound with re-usable plastic bands. This is a huge improvement over those twist ties that often tear up your fingers. On the whole, I think it's quite possible to toss every last bit of packaging into next week's recycle bin. At least I could if I weren't a fanatic about holding on to packaging just in case. It's not a fetish so much as OCD, but it has served me well on more than one occasion.
That pretty much concludes the Unboxing Fetish. For those of you who don't know what the MacBook looks like, here it is freshly opened along with the accessories in their bound state.
Next stop, powering it on.
Alrighty then. Around 9:30A, FedEx shows up on my doorstep with a box for me. After signing for the package, I look down to find a much smaller box than I was expecting. You see, I have never seen a modern Mac in its boxed state (see also Justification for Unboxing Fetish). So for the many Windows users out there who wish to avoid becoming Unboxing Fetishists, the following pictures are for you. The shipping box is a simple, unassuming box, that isn't much bigger than the product box, which is safely wedged in there with environmentally friendly cardboard corner supports. No huge pieces of styrofoam to wrestle out or packing peanuts to litter the floor.
Now the thing that makes the shipping box noteworthy is its efficient use of materials. There's just enough space for fall protection and not much more. By contrast, a certain PC manufacturer, who shall remain nameless, shipped a notebook in a box that was easily three times the size of this box in volume, and included a large box for the power supply and CDs which was largely empty and pretty much unnecessary if you ask me. I give Apple props for their packaging. The actual product box is even smaller and looks to be only somewhat larger than the MacBook itself. It gives the impression of being as big as it needs to be and no bigger.
Looking inside, the contents are arranged very compactly and neatly. A foam pad on the lid provides cushioning and holds the MacBook in place. The MacBook is wrapped in a thin sleeve to protect it from scratches, and it lies on top of a shallow molded plastic tray containing the power supply, extension cord, video adapter, Apple Remote, and package containing the software DVDs and manual. Apple had enough foresight to include a small paper tab underneath the MacBook to make it easy to lift it out of the box. Then they cut a tab in the software package sleeve so that you can pull on it to conveniently remove the package from its tray.
Another big difference from my experience with Windows computers is that all the Apple accessories are bound with re-usable plastic bands. This is a huge improvement over those twist ties that often tear up your fingers. On the whole, I think it's quite possible to toss every last bit of packaging into next week's recycle bin. At least I could if I weren't a fanatic about holding on to packaging just in case. It's not a fetish so much as OCD, but it has served me well on more than one occasion.
That pretty much concludes the Unboxing Fetish. For those of you who don't know what the MacBook looks like, here it is freshly opened along with the accessories in their bound state.
Next stop, powering it on.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
So why a Mac? Why now?
What you are about to read is actually the second iteration of the first post. The original version went into a long and involved back history of my computing experience, which really isn't all that interesting now that I've written it. So here's the quick and dirty: I was an Apple user a long time ago, then I became a power PC user because that's what all the companies I worked for use, and now I'm back in the fold having just ordered a new 13" MacBook. Be grateful, I just saved you from reading five pages of rambling to get to this point.
As the title asks: So why a Mac? Why now?
I currently have a Dell Inspiron XPS (1st Generation) notebook serving as my HTPC. I originally bought it as a mobile gaming platform, but over the years, that has become its secondary role by a large margin. It has a utility called the Dell Media Center, which works well for a majority of the files I want to watch, and it has an add-on remote control, which I can use to launch the application and navigate. With my relatively recent switch to HDTV, the XPS is having issues. Here they are in no particular order:
1) It's loud. I mean really loud. It's no surprise, really, considering it's running a desktop 3.4GHz Pentium-4 with HyperThreading as well as an ATI Radeon Pro 9800 Mobility. This means lots of heat load and lots of cooling required. Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the best idea in the world. Oh well.
2) Even with the remote control set to be able to wake the XPS and put it to sleep, the XPS never seems to fully go to sleep. The fans will still run, which makes me not really bother to put it to sleep since they'll run anyway. And even when I try to wake it up, it doesn't always do so, and when it does, I never see the screen anyway.
3) My TV only has HDMI inputs, which I didn't think would be a problem since it's the same standard as DVI only with a different connector and HDCP. Well for some reason (I suspect a shoddy DVI standard re: EDID and peripheral handshaking), the computer will randomly forget that the TV's there if I change the TV's input or power it off. This kind of ruins the whole integrated home theater experience. It works, but it's not a simple matter of turning everything on. Had I known this, I probably would have gotten a TV with a VGA and/or DVI input, since my previous TV had no problems over VGA.
4) This really isn't an XPS-specific issue, but it's one of the things kind of driving this change. Dell Media Center cannot handle Matroska video containers, which is a favorite container not only for high-definition video, but for videos with embedded subtitles. A lot of anime fan-subbers like to use the Matroska container, so it would be nice if I could view those files using only the remote rather than having to pull out the mouse and keyboard.
5) The XPS is now five years old, which is ancient in computer years. It would be nice to have something that might be able to handle some current games, realizing that it won't need to be a hard core gaming rig.
With these thoughts in mind, a good friend of mine recommended the Mac Mini -- small form factor, whisper quiet, DVD drive, and 2.0GHz Core2Duo processor. The only drawback was the craptacular Intel GMA950 integrated graphics, which was questionable even just for regular video use. Then Apple released the aluminum MacBooks with the nVidia 9400m chipset. I immediately thought that if they upgraded the Mini with that chipset, I would have my ideal hardware setup. Unfortunately, MacWorld Expo came and went without such an announcement, so I started looking at what would be involved with building a small form factor PC.
There were all sorts of options, including AMD's excellent 790GX chipset with the integrated Radeon HD300 graphics and Intel's G45 chipset with its integrated X4500HD graphics. Unfortunately, the cost of parts for what I wanted usually ended up around $600-700 before taxes and shipping, and that doesn't include an OS or a remote control. I just couldn't see going down this path, when there was evidence in Mac's Leopard OS that indicated the Mini would be receiving the nVidia chipset at some point in the future.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an article stating that Apple had updated the White MacBook with the same nVidia 9400m chipset that its aluminum sibling received last year, and its price would remain the same. So here's the MacBook with virtually identical specs to the Mac Mini I was eyeballing, only it had that key ingredient for which I was waiting. Sure, the MSRP is $200 more, but it has a screen and keyboard, and it's portable. Well worth the cost differential. Sure, the footprint is a bit larger (6.5"x6.5" vs 12.75"x8.92") but it's still smaller than the XPS and quite a bit shorter. Most importantly, it's also very quiet. Plus, it has provisions for Apple's Remote, so the IR port is integrated and not an extra dongle, and the OS is designed to work with it.
Now that the hardware issues were addressed, I turned to the software side of the equation. One of the more popular media viewers (after QuickTime, of course) for the Mac seems to be VideoLAN's VLC Media Player. This app seems to be the best Mac counterpart to Windows Media Player Classic. The best part is that VLC actually now supports the Apple Remote. For a more integrated solution, there's also the XBMC Project (XBox Media Center) which provides a media center interface for the Mac based on the XBox. I even found a site which details how to set up a Harmony 880 universal programmable remote to control it using Remote Buddy and logical Apple Remotes. The sheer customizability available through a combination of the OS and third party apps is amazing. I'm fairly confident at this point that I can configure the MacBook to be fully controllable as I need it using only the Harmony 880 remote.
As for the the video handshaking issue, even if the MacBook also forgets that the TV is there, the Apple Remote can fully put the MacBook to sleep (powered off) and wake it. This means I only need to set up the Harmony 880 to turn on the TV first before waking the MacBook, which should then re-initiate the handshake when it wakes up. Worst case scenario, it behaves the same as the XPS, but with all the other features, it's still an overall improvement.
And that, my friends, is how I came back to Apple.
Knowing that I was considering this purchase, one of my online gaming buddies said I should ping one of our other gaming cohorts, as she is an Apple employee. So on Monday, I talked to her, and she graciously allowed me to take advantage of her Friends and Family Employee Purchase discount on a brand new White MacBook. The only upgrades I made were a 250GB drive, which I thought was a good $/GB compromise, a mini-DVI to DVI adapter, the Apple Remote, and iWork '09 because it was $30 off.
I plan to update this blog with my experience as a Windows Power User in Apple Land, so if this wall-o'-text hasn't scared you off, please come back and join in the journey.
As the title asks: So why a Mac? Why now?
I currently have a Dell Inspiron XPS (1st Generation) notebook serving as my HTPC. I originally bought it as a mobile gaming platform, but over the years, that has become its secondary role by a large margin. It has a utility called the Dell Media Center, which works well for a majority of the files I want to watch, and it has an add-on remote control, which I can use to launch the application and navigate. With my relatively recent switch to HDTV, the XPS is having issues. Here they are in no particular order:
1) It's loud. I mean really loud. It's no surprise, really, considering it's running a desktop 3.4GHz Pentium-4 with HyperThreading as well as an ATI Radeon Pro 9800 Mobility. This means lots of heat load and lots of cooling required. Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the best idea in the world. Oh well.
2) Even with the remote control set to be able to wake the XPS and put it to sleep, the XPS never seems to fully go to sleep. The fans will still run, which makes me not really bother to put it to sleep since they'll run anyway. And even when I try to wake it up, it doesn't always do so, and when it does, I never see the screen anyway.
3) My TV only has HDMI inputs, which I didn't think would be a problem since it's the same standard as DVI only with a different connector and HDCP. Well for some reason (I suspect a shoddy DVI standard re: EDID and peripheral handshaking), the computer will randomly forget that the TV's there if I change the TV's input or power it off. This kind of ruins the whole integrated home theater experience. It works, but it's not a simple matter of turning everything on. Had I known this, I probably would have gotten a TV with a VGA and/or DVI input, since my previous TV had no problems over VGA.
4) This really isn't an XPS-specific issue, but it's one of the things kind of driving this change. Dell Media Center cannot handle Matroska video containers, which is a favorite container not only for high-definition video, but for videos with embedded subtitles. A lot of anime fan-subbers like to use the Matroska container, so it would be nice if I could view those files using only the remote rather than having to pull out the mouse and keyboard.
5) The XPS is now five years old, which is ancient in computer years. It would be nice to have something that might be able to handle some current games, realizing that it won't need to be a hard core gaming rig.
With these thoughts in mind, a good friend of mine recommended the Mac Mini -- small form factor, whisper quiet, DVD drive, and 2.0GHz Core2Duo processor. The only drawback was the craptacular Intel GMA950 integrated graphics, which was questionable even just for regular video use. Then Apple released the aluminum MacBooks with the nVidia 9400m chipset. I immediately thought that if they upgraded the Mini with that chipset, I would have my ideal hardware setup. Unfortunately, MacWorld Expo came and went without such an announcement, so I started looking at what would be involved with building a small form factor PC.
There were all sorts of options, including AMD's excellent 790GX chipset with the integrated Radeon HD300 graphics and Intel's G45 chipset with its integrated X4500HD graphics. Unfortunately, the cost of parts for what I wanted usually ended up around $600-700 before taxes and shipping, and that doesn't include an OS or a remote control. I just couldn't see going down this path, when there was evidence in Mac's Leopard OS that indicated the Mini would be receiving the nVidia chipset at some point in the future.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an article stating that Apple had updated the White MacBook with the same nVidia 9400m chipset that its aluminum sibling received last year, and its price would remain the same. So here's the MacBook with virtually identical specs to the Mac Mini I was eyeballing, only it had that key ingredient for which I was waiting. Sure, the MSRP is $200 more, but it has a screen and keyboard, and it's portable. Well worth the cost differential. Sure, the footprint is a bit larger (6.5"x6.5" vs 12.75"x8.92") but it's still smaller than the XPS and quite a bit shorter. Most importantly, it's also very quiet. Plus, it has provisions for Apple's Remote, so the IR port is integrated and not an extra dongle, and the OS is designed to work with it.
Now that the hardware issues were addressed, I turned to the software side of the equation. One of the more popular media viewers (after QuickTime, of course) for the Mac seems to be VideoLAN's VLC Media Player. This app seems to be the best Mac counterpart to Windows Media Player Classic. The best part is that VLC actually now supports the Apple Remote. For a more integrated solution, there's also the XBMC Project (XBox Media Center) which provides a media center interface for the Mac based on the XBox. I even found a site which details how to set up a Harmony 880 universal programmable remote to control it using Remote Buddy and logical Apple Remotes. The sheer customizability available through a combination of the OS and third party apps is amazing. I'm fairly confident at this point that I can configure the MacBook to be fully controllable as I need it using only the Harmony 880 remote.
As for the the video handshaking issue, even if the MacBook also forgets that the TV is there, the Apple Remote can fully put the MacBook to sleep (powered off) and wake it. This means I only need to set up the Harmony 880 to turn on the TV first before waking the MacBook, which should then re-initiate the handshake when it wakes up. Worst case scenario, it behaves the same as the XPS, but with all the other features, it's still an overall improvement.
And that, my friends, is how I came back to Apple.
Knowing that I was considering this purchase, one of my online gaming buddies said I should ping one of our other gaming cohorts, as she is an Apple employee. So on Monday, I talked to her, and she graciously allowed me to take advantage of her Friends and Family Employee Purchase discount on a brand new White MacBook. The only upgrades I made were a 250GB drive, which I thought was a good $/GB compromise, a mini-DVI to DVI adapter, the Apple Remote, and iWork '09 because it was $30 off.
I plan to update this blog with my experience as a Windows Power User in Apple Land, so if this wall-o'-text hasn't scared you off, please come back and join in the journey.
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