AppleTV + Eye TV + Mac Mini + 2 HDTVs

HI guys. currently setting up my home entertainment systems in my new house. currently i have this setup in my living room:

2011 Mac Mini
HDTV Cable Box
HD DVD
Xbox 360
LG surround
51" HDTV

I want to be able to stream content from both my Mac Mini and my cable box to my other TV in my upstairs living room. So i was thinking of adding these:

Eyetv (to connect the cable box to my mac mini)
AppleTV connected to the bedroom hdtv (to wirelessly stream my mac mini content to the other tv)

Is this possible? has anyone done this?

Some questions that come to mind with this setup:
1.) Will i actually be able to see my mac mini's desktop via the AppleTV? or will it just act like a player to play the content? Meaning, can i actually browse the internet, launch apps etc from my bedroom TV? I think i can still control the mac mini with my wireless keyboard and trackpad, but not really sure if i can see all content if it's streamed to apple tv

2.) With this setup, will i be able to control the cable box (change channels, etc.) from upstairs using the wireless keyboard and mouse?

3.) any issues i should look out for?

The reason i want to do this is to avoid getting a 2nd cable box for my upstairs TV. installation of the box is actually cheaper, but in the long run i will be paying more because it's like having a 2nd subscription. would be nice to access my computer files from upstairs as well.


thanks!

Hello and welcome,

I found Eye TV a bit too finicky and it meant the source box and TV had to be on the channel that I wanted to watch which didn't go down too well with 'her indoors' so I got a multi-room subscription and second box...but it costs as you know.

You seem to want to connect the Eye TV to your mac mini and I'm not sure why?

I'd keep things clean if I were you and just use it for the cable box and 2 x HDTV setup, the idea is that you use a secondary cable box remote in the bedroom and switch the source box channels by the active infra-red link which if I remember is hard wired by co-ax between the two TV's UHF inputs.

An Apple TV connected to your bedroom tv would mirror your mini's display via Airplay provided that you have a version 2 or 3 and a Mac Mini mid 2011 or newer with Mountain Lion OSX. Provided your wireless mouse and keyboard are within range then you would be remotely controlling the Mac mini as if your were in front of the source equipment.

Incidentally is your LG surround an all-in-one set up or is it a separate Audio Visual Receiver?

MDA505 said:

Eyetv (to connect the cable box to my mac mini)

Click to expand...

This is really going to depend on the outputs you have from your cable box.

AppleTV connected to the bedroom hdtv (to wirelessly stream my mac mini content to the other tv)

Click to expand...

AppleTV will stream your iTunes content from your Mac Mini

Some questions that come to mind with this setup:
1.) Will i actually be able to see my mac mini's desktop via the AppleTV?
can i actually browse the internet, launch apps etc from my bedroom TV?

Click to expand...

No and no. Not via AppleTV

2.) With this setup, will i be able to control the cable box (change channels, etc.) from upstairs using the wireless keyboard and mouse?

Click to expand...

Again, this depends on which connections you have out of your cable box and which version of EyeTV you get

mrplow said:

No and no. Not via AppleTV

t

Click to expand...

Not with you mrplow, I thought that that was the point of Airplay Mirroring unless we are talking about different things?

Conceded .... Provided it's a mid-2011 MacMini or later

But even then it's a pretty 'clunky' solution. Though, to be fair, I'm yet to come up with a better one . . . .

I just found EyeTV to be pretty unstable when pushed.

I'm thinking maybe HDMI over Ethernet maybe the best way to get HD quality output from the cable box to the tv

No worries..agreed it's clunky. I don't like Eye TV for that reason as well, the bits have been in the "man drawer" for years since I got multi room .

So would you split the HDMI from between the cable box and the downstairs TV and take a Standard or Hi Speed with Ethernet HDMI from the splitter to a home plug ? I'm not familiar with them...is there a HDMI version or can you split HDMI to Ethernet in the same box?

pendlewitch said:

No worries..agreed it's clunky. I don't like Eye TV for that reason as well, the bits have been in the "man drawer" for years since I got multi room .

So would you split the HDMI from between the cable box and the downstairs TV and take a Standard or Hi Speed with Ethernet HDMI from the splitter to a home plug ? I'm not familiar with them...is there a HDMI version or can you split HDMI to Ethernet in the same box?

Click to expand...

Actually tried this already, used an hdmi splitter then sent it to the two screens via ethernet. Cable box worked fine with this setup, but had problems when i tried it with the mac mini. Had some flickering on the bedroom tv and i couldn't quite find a permanent solution to it. I'm thinking that this is because of either two things-- some sort of gen loss when the signal is sent through ethernet or beacuse the computer doesn't adjust well with two different screens. This is why i thought of doing the apple tv + eyetv setup, so i can send both cable and mac mini hdmi signals to the two screens. Maybe i should just pay for the **** 2nd cable box!

MDA505 said:

Maybe i should just pay for the **** 2nd cable box!

Click to expand...

Ha ha..which is what I did. My guess is that you may have an issue with scan, resolution, or refresh rate between the two on the ethernet possibly because of the cable size.