For the first part of this post, see: An Alternative to AppleTV or Giving up TV for TED, Part 1 of 2

Step 3: Control Your Mac from Your Couch

Remote controlling the Mac took me the longest time to get right.

Yes, you can try your luck with a wireless mouse and keyboard, but it doesn't make for a laid-back, on-the-couch experience.

Definitely avoid the Targus Wireless Presenter. It's probably fine for a 20-minute slide-show but not your main media remote.

To do this right, you'll need a Media Center application and a remote of some kind.

We're a Mac household. Two Macbooks, a MacMini and an iPhone/iTouch each.

We purchased the mini a couple of years ago to replace a shared PC that died. But with our laptops being more powerful and far more portable, it wasn't doing much but collecting dust.

That all changed when we connected it to our living room TV.

Now we have a TV downloading, DVD and MP3 playing, photo viewing, file serving wonder machine, all for free if you have an older computer kicking around. This article will focus on the Intel Mac Mini, but any less than ancient computer will work with some modifications.