Having had to rebuild my Mac Mini Media Centre recently, I’ve had a chance to review how I built it originally and pin-down a nice, working config. I connect it to my Logitech z5500 speakers with an optical cable and my Samsung 37″ TV with a mini-display to HDMI cable) So here is the detail:
1. Boot from Windows 7 DVD and use the whole disk.
2. Install the nVidia 15.35_nforce_win7_32bit chipset drivers
3. Install the nVidia 285.26-notebook-win7 graphics drivers for the 9400M (8.17.11.9555 dated 13/11/2009)
4. Install the Bootcamp drivers and run Apple Update
Network drivers will now be:
Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter (5.10.38.26 dated 22/10/2008)
NVIDIA nForce 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet (67.8.6.0 dated 08/07/2008)
5. Run Windows Update for a few hours until everything is updated. Don’t take anything optional.
6. Install the latest High Definition Audio Codec drivers from Realtek (6.0.1.6602 dated 27/03/2012). Use the Audio manager to default to Digital output. Don’t worry that it only sees two speakers. That is normal.
7. Start Media Center. Run Setup and choose SP/Dif and 5.1 Surround. (May as well set up the folder locations whilst you are here, especially if you have DVD movies ripped into VIDEO_TS folders on your NAS)
8. Download and install AnyDVD. Turn off the notifications.
9. Chuck in a DTS-capable DVD (Jurassic Park III), make sure you choose DTS under sound options or language. Listen to the rear speakers to make sure they are working. Adjust the levels on the z5500 as needed.
10. Chuck in a THX-enabled Dolby DVD (Empire Strikes Back) and test that one too
11. Install your anti-virus tool of choice and do a full scan.
12. Take a Backup. System, System Protection, Create.
Optional Steps:
– Install TunerFreeMCE
– Install Keymapper (and map the teletext remote button to ^+`)
– Install CDEject (and make the hot key combination CTRL SHIFT `)
– Maybe put a little sticker on the remote….
