With code-name iTV around the corner, why wait for it when you can build a fantastic media center around your current Mac right now? Perhaps you’ve even got a spare one that can find a permanent home next to your TV and stereo.

The Mac. It all starts with the computer of choice — whether it’s a desktop or laptop notebook; PowerPC or Intel — you can build a great media center with any. Just be sure to have at least a 1GHz G4 processor, 512MB of RAM or better.

The TV. If you have an HDTV and the Mac has DVI video, you can check what type of input the TV has to take advantage of the high-def. If the TV has also a DVI connection, a regular DVI cable will suffice. And if the TV has an HDMI connection, you could get a DVI-to-HDMI cable (cheap ones are at around $30). If you just have a regular TV for the setup, get the corresponding Apple Video Adaptor for your Mac’s video connection.

The Sound System. Whether you’re going to connect the Mac’s audio to an independent sound system or the TV, a regular Y-audio cable should do the job. If you have a newer Mac, maybe you could even use the optical audio connection with your system.

Remote Control. If you’re going to stick with Front Row, the Apple Remote may be more than enough for some people — but you might also want to take a look at a piece of software called Sofa Control, which allows you to control the whole Mac with just the remote (even though it may not be so easy). Or perhaps you could get a stylish wireless keyboard and mouse to display on your coffee table (like Apple’s Bluetooth Keyboard and Mighty Mouse). If you want to take it a step further, you could look for a wireless keyboard with a built-in touch pad — like this one (although I’ve yet to find one that officially supports the Mac, but I’m sure someone is bound to find a solution for this).

The Software. I’ve already mentioned Sofa Control, but another worthy app is Media Central which single-handedly beats Front Row with its features (but its major drawback is that it doesn’t support any content bought from iTunes!). And let’s not forget the plugins that ought to make QuickTime more friendly with most video formats (and thereby, Front Row): Flip4Mac WMV Component, DivX, and Perian. Also be sure to get Democracy if you’re planning on watching TV — I’ll explain later. And if your Mac comes without Front Row installed, you may want to check out Front Row Enabler.

Tweaks. Apple has allowed for Front Row to automatically detect any videos within the Movies folder in your Home. So you can keep your entire video collection there, catalogued in folders if you wish, and they’ll appear on Front Row. Even if a video collection’s not there, you can easily make it detectable by Front Row just by creating an alias of that video or video-containing folder, and drop it into the Movies folder.

TV Shows. If your Mac has a DVR attached, just make sure it saves the videos into the Movies folder as suggested above. But no DVR? No problem! Jesse Newland has a great tutorial on how to use Democracy and TVRss to automatically deliver great shows in some easy steps. And since Democracy automatically saves everything to the Movies folder, Front Row is ready to go.

Results. I have a great media center on-the-go with my MacBook Pro. It’s only hooked up to the TV when needed — and I get to take it with me during vacations! Now if only every hotel had HDTVs, I wouldn’t have to use the low-quality composite connections…

How’s your pre-iTV media center experience so far?

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[tags]Apple,Mac,Hardware,Software,Entertainment,Media Center[/tags]