[Chipskip]

I have been running XBMC on my aTv for a while and love it. Now my mother is buying my dad a Mac Mini for Christmas. I will be required to set it up as their HTPC while I am home. They are both windows users and know nothing about OS X. Also, they live on a sailboat and will be turning it off and on as they go out.

So, I am looking for suggestions on how to configure the Mac Mini best for them and not require hours of phone support from me in the future.

How-to setup XBMC to auto launch when machine starts up?

Best config settings? (I think they want to be 1080p)(I am getting the mini-to-hdmi adapter for them)

Anything else you can suggest to streamline their experience is greatly appreciated. I did go back about 20 pages in this forum and look at the Wiki/FAQ for ideas but there seemed to be very little, at least not compiled into one spot.

[pecinko]

How-to setup XBMC to auto launch when machine starts up?

System preferences / accounts / login items?

[oconnellc]

Add the xbmc app to the doc and the click on it and choose the 'start on startup' option.

[Chipskip]

Thank You

Any other suggestions? Keep them coming!

[lehite]

To get it to launch at startup the best way is to do it in System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items.

Just add XBMC to that list. Once that is ready, go into XBMC and make sure that it opens in full screen mode (so they don't have to do it manually).

Scan all of the media to the libraries and be sure to hide the main menu items that they wont need (Programs, maybe Pictures or Weather, etc). If it's a new Mini it should be able to output 1080p without any trouble, though it will use quite a bit of processing power.

Finally, make sure that they know how to use XBMC

If all else fails, install Windows on the Mini and have them do it all from there.

Hope this helps!