Snippet: A Mac Media Server ☍

Shared on February 6, 2013

Shawn Blanc shares some steps to repurpose an old Mac as a media server and do some really interesting and useful things:

Repurposing an old Mac into a home media server is a great idea. A nerdy, tedious, somewhat overrated, great idea.

For years I was wanting to convert all my DVDs (where by “all” I mean a whopping 35) into digital versions which could be accessible via my Apple TV. I’m glad I never bit the bullet and bought a Mac mini, because about a month ago the video card on my wife’s MacBook Pro started going out. The screen shows random red lines and flickers — it’s just bad enough that she can’t use it on a daily basis, but still good enough that I could repurpose it into our new file and media server.

I’m currently using my G4 Mac mini as a media server (no longer connected to my TV) with an external hard drive for movies, and Printopia to share my printer with my iOS devices. I could do a lot more, but the G4 processor does limit some options from a software standpoint.

Snippets are posts that share a linked item with a bit of commentary.