Testing Mac Mini with diNovo Edge and Full HD

Testing Mac Mini with diNovo Edge and Full HD
Originally uploaded by FransBadger.

One of my souvenirs from Tokyo was a Mac Mini (one of these new Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz models) — my first mac ever. I plugged it in to my Full HD tv in the living room, and to get away of the wires, used Logitech diNovo Edge bluetooth keyboard to interface with it. I must admit I am pretty happy with the combo, even if (with the Netherlands trip and all) I’ve not got so much time to test it in action. It also takes time to troubleshoot the system and hack into it, as a newbie mac user. For example, it appears that when you use DVI-to-HDMI cable to connect Mac Mini, instead of true Full HD (1080p), you get interlaced video (1080i). 1080p is not available in the display menus, and even trying out SwitchResX has not solved this for me so far (see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5504980). Also, diNovo Edge is great keyboard with lithium-ion rechargeable battery and built-in touch plate to emulate mouse, but it is not officially a Macintosh-compatible device. Almost all of its keys and functions will run just fine in any case. The Front Row media center interface is simple enough, and runs fine (as I finally got it loading, needed to use keyboard shortcut rather than the remote for that, though). Thus, it appears that even if mac is sweet and easy, there is also learning curve and some tweaking required if you really want to experience it in full HTPC glory.

Author: frans

Professor of Information Studies and Interactive Media, esp. Digital Culture and Game Studies in the Tampere University, Finland. Occasional photographer and gardener. View all posts by frans