Media Center on Mac OSX ... well ....
I have this idea of using MacMini as my primary media center machine for quite some time, but finally have everything set up properly now that I have all the gears I need. Among all, I have to say that the Apple wireless blue-tooth keyboard is a critical part of the equation. Being able to navigate the Mac environment reliably anywhere in my room using this keyboard is amazing. I just wish that they can release a version that also integrate the Apple Track-pad with it. Then it will be super.
The problem, though, is that the software part doesn't seem to work as great as I expected. I tried several Mac media center software and they all seem to have some problem one way or the other.
First thing first, they all have problem showing Chinese characters unless I do some sort of twist. For XMBC and Boxee, that means I have to open the application package, find the font set location, and replace the build in font with the Arial Unicode font provide by OSX. For Plex, it's slightly simpler. All I need is turning on the default font to unicode font in the preference menu. Sure the UI looks slightly fancier than the original, but at least I can see all the Chinese file names.
Then there's this strange hang up problem with Boxee. It seems like leaving Boxee running while the machine went into power saving mode will have some odd side effect, as the app will hang up. Still don't understand why the hack that can happen.
Then there's the Plex File Management problem. I can't delete a library section. In order to do it successfully, I have to delete the whole database, which is in "/Users/dkwan/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support". Also Plex is not good at handling non mainstream movie and TV show files since it will tried to pull metadata from the net and they will be all wrong.
On the other hand, Plex works so well with mainstream movie and TV content. I mapped them to the right folder and the experience was pretty awesome. I am going to try it again with music and see if I got the same good experience, which honestly I am a bit hesitate because of the bad experience I had before.
Maybe I should use the MacMini but run it on the Windows 7 OS and see if I got better experience.
The problem, though, is that the software part doesn't seem to work as great as I expected. I tried several Mac media center software and they all seem to have some problem one way or the other.
First thing first, they all have problem showing Chinese characters unless I do some sort of twist. For XMBC and Boxee, that means I have to open the application package, find the font set location, and replace the build in font with the Arial Unicode font provide by OSX. For Plex, it's slightly simpler. All I need is turning on the default font to unicode font in the preference menu. Sure the UI looks slightly fancier than the original, but at least I can see all the Chinese file names.
Then there's this strange hang up problem with Boxee. It seems like leaving Boxee running while the machine went into power saving mode will have some odd side effect, as the app will hang up. Still don't understand why the hack that can happen.
Then there's the Plex File Management problem. I can't delete a library section. In order to do it successfully, I have to delete the whole database, which is in "/Users/dkwan/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support". Also Plex is not good at handling non mainstream movie and TV show files since it will tried to pull metadata from the net and they will be all wrong.
On the other hand, Plex works so well with mainstream movie and TV content. I mapped them to the right folder and the experience was pretty awesome. I am going to try it again with music and see if I got the same good experience, which honestly I am a bit hesitate because of the bad experience I had before.
Maybe I should use the MacMini but run it on the Windows 7 OS and see if I got better experience.
posted by Deecay | 6:03 PM
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