From top, an Apple SuperDrive, the 2014 Mac mini, and an 8TB OWC miniStack driveDVD Converter (DVD Ripper) is your best partner to convert DVDs to most popular video formats on Mac OS X. More details about code signing and distribution with App Center can be found in App Center's macOS code signing documentation. App file can be installed on a device corresponding to the provisioning profile used when signing. If the build is signed correctly, the. App file is a Mac application archive file, which contains the Mac app.The old 21.5-inch iMac becomes a FaceTime “videophone” for Grandma. An old MacBook becomes a school laptop for one of the kids. Available as web-based software, mobile app or downloadable desktop software for Windows.Old Macs never die, they just get reused. Just enter movie titles or scan the barcodes and let our software download all details and cover images. The idea for this has been described at my blog.Catalog your DVD & Blu-ray collection. The script called osxappvers finds the product name, the complete product version and build version in a InstallOS X.app package, in a Install macOS.app package or in a mounted CD/DVD image called Mac OS X Install and prints the info out like the macOS /usr/bin/swvers does for an installed macOS product.NOTE: Several of these alternatives provide third-party add-ons that allow free streaming of paid video content. Others that you may wish to consider include Emby, Kodi, Stremio, and Universal Media Server. Why Plex? It’s the most popular media server app for macOS. In this article, we’re using a Mac mini as the hardware and Plex as the application to organize the media. What’s a Media Server?Wikipedia defines a media server as follows:A media server is a computer appliance or an application software that stores digital media (video, audio or images) and makes it available over a network.Media servers range from servers that provide video on demand to smaller personal computers or NAS (Network Attached Storage) for the home. Read along to see how we were able to transform a 2014 Mac mini into a home media server.Have you made a large investment in music CDs and movies or TV shows on DVD or Blu-Ray? Don’t buy that again in a streaming format – use that investment by copying the physical media content to your server.With fast internet service and purchased physical media, a media server running Plex offers the best of both worlds. With a local media server, there’s no delay or concern about bandwidth. That could make streaming movies, TV shows, and music almost impossible. You might be living in an area with very slow Internet service. Why Not Just Use an Apple TV?Why build a media server when an Apple TV can provide just about every type of media you’d want? There are a few good reasons:
App Build Dvd Mac OS XThe minimum operating system requirement is macOS 10.9 Mavericks, so even an early 2009 Mac mini can fit the bill.Where can you find a used Mac mini? OWC often has pre-owned minis available. We chose one with the ability to run modern versions of macOS (10.15 Catalina and 11 Big Sur in particular).You don’t need a new operating system to turn a Mac mini into a media server. For the purpose of this article, we looked no further than the OWC website to find a Mac mini. There’s another very compelling reason to use a Mac mini – older models are inexpensive. Click To Tweet Why a Mac mini?Why use a Mac mini instead of a Mac with a built-in screen? You probably have a large-screen TV to watch your content on, and the mini can use that as a “monitor”. Stream online content and make use of the media you've already bought and paid for. ![]() ![]() Aren’t you glad you have that 8TB miniStack attached to your media server?Your vintage Mac mini might have a built-in optical (CD/DVD) drive. You need to manually add your personal content to the server. It can’t take music from your Apple Music account or even “see” your iCloud Drive. Webhooks for connecting your server to your home automation systemEverything has been pretty straightforward up to this point, right? Well, Plex can’t grab your photos from the Photos Library, which is one big file. Live TV & DVR (add a tuner and antenna to record free over-the-air broadcasts) Rather than using multiple apps to view different media types, you can do it all in one place. Add photosOne feature of Plex is that you can use it as a “one-stop-shopping” point for all of your media. Most of these drives have better specifications and lower price points than Apple’s SuperDrive. OWC has many external and internal drives that work with the Mac mini. Adobe premiere elements for mac os xShortly after the images are copied to the folders, they appear in the Plex Photos timeline (see screenshot below).You may have issues ripping copy-protected DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. After selecting the folder as the place to export to, we let the Mac copy the images.Plex Server automatically and regularly scans folders designated as libraries. Instead, we used File > Export > Export Unmodified Original for Photos. For this example, we didn’t create any folders to assign photos to a particular genre or event. Next, we selected the images we wanted to move to Plex. The source? The Mac’s Photos library.We created a “Vacation Photos” folder on the miniStack and selected it as our library location. It also seems to do a better job of ripping video at a higher resolution. MacX DVD Ripper Pro ($29.95) is a commercial app that is often able to do the job when HandBrake cannot. Making a personal backup of a disc you own is legal in most countries.If HandBrake can’t rip a disc because of copy protection schemes, another app might help. Phile Audio gathers the track info, album genre, and year of the release. One of the few remaining Mac apps is Phile Audio ($7.99, App Store link).Phile Audio ripping a music CD to the Music folder on the miniStackThis screenshot shows Phile Audio copying music from a CD and saving it to the Music folder on the miniStack. Several dubious open-source apps exist, but they usually won’t run on a Mac running a newer version of macOS.CD ripping apps were quite common before most people decided to start purchasing their music digitally. If you’re using Apple Music to store your tunes, you also have an issue – those music files are copy-protected. It wants individual music files, not one big file. Add musicYou can rip CDs into Apple Music, but that won’t help you with Plex. Whatever storage drive you use, be sure to purchase a second one for backup purposes.To automate backups, use a proven backup utility like Carbon Copy Cloner ($39.99). A good idea is to make an exact copy of your storage drive. It’s especially important with a huge media library you’ve spent a lot of time digitizing from the original discs. Back Up The Content on your Media ServerReaders of The Rocket Yard know that we tend to emphasize the importance of having a good backup. Download the art, then drag and drop it to the Phile Audio user interface to add the album cover. Wikipedia is a great source of album covers. It’s available in Thunderbolt 2 and 3 versions, has four drive slots, and supports fast SSD drives. A good example of RAID storage is the OWC ThunderBay 4 Mini (see image below). The array can withstand the loss of one or more drives without losing data. RAID uses a number of drives in a redundant array. The RAID alternativeOne other way to guarantee the safety of your media is to use a RAID array as your primary storage. Want to listen to music? Just use Apple Music, or the Podcasts app if you want to listen to or watch podcasts. Want to watch TV or movies? Use the Mac TV app. A Plex alternativeAs an alternative to using Plex, you can use the various Apple apps on your Mac mini instead. This is a powerful and easy way to control Plex without the need for a full keyboard and pointing device. Set up a RAID 5 array with four drives, and any one of the drives can fail without data loss.The Plex dashboard as displayed on an iPhone running Screens as a remote controlIn the screenshot above, you can see the Screens toolbar at the bottom of the Plex screen. Plex is a good all-in-one solution, or you can use the built-in Mac apps to organize and view your media. You won’t have all your media in one app, but can still control the Mac mini with our Screens solution.A Mac mini makes a wonderful media server, regardless of how you set it up. For YouTube or Vimeo videos, Safari (or your other favorite browser) is a great portal.This allows you to have a Mac dedicated to media, hooked up to your big screen 24/7.
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