My living room setup consists of a Samsung 37″ TV, Sky+, wii, Logitech z5500 speakers and a Mac Mini running Windows 7 Media Center.
At the weekend the Mac stopped playing DVDs and it caused some domestic upset on the premise that it is all too complicated. I had set everything up to be as straight-forward as possible though.
I have to admit that too much stuff pops-up trying to update far too often. I also hate the stack of remote controls. The lack of a simple eject button on the Mac is also a bit conversation point in our house. The old DVD player would regularly lock up and overheat. Switching back to dedicated appliances is no guarantee of success.
But how to make it simpler? Would one remote be intuitive enough? Do I write out the instructions on how to do common tasks? Do one of you readers have any suggestions or ideas? I look at this kit from the perspective of somebody who is reasonably technical but there must be an easier way up do all this without losing the functionality (iplayer in the living room for example)….
Oh and the reason the Mac didn’t play the DVd was quite simple muck in the drive resolved with a head cleaning disc.
