How good are Mac Minis for viewing Itunes stuff on my TV?

WatchTower · 22 Jun 2011 at 10:19

I'm sure Mac Minis will be refeshed sometime soon so I'll wait it out a bit. How good are they for simply watching my HD video purchases from itunes on my TV and browsing the net? and for what you get do you feel they're over priced? I have a 2011 MBP for more demanding stuff.

VaderDSL · 22 Jun 2011 at 10:57

They'll cope fine, however an Apple TV may be better? Not sure about the HD content though, I'm pretty sure the Apple TV does 720p, and the HD stuff from itunes is 720p, so for £100 it might be better to grab an Apple TV?

Then you can buy an ipad with the change and use airplay

daz.wallace · 22 Jun 2011 at 12:38

VaderDSL said:
They'll cope fine, however an Apple TV may be better? Not sure about the HD content though, I'm pretty sure the Apple TV does 720p, and the HD stuff from itunes is 720p, so for £100 it might be better to grab an Apple TV?

Then you can buy an ipad with the change and use airplay

apple tv does 720p, jailbreak it and put xbmc on

Use the ipad for browsing the net as well as Airplay :cool:

WatchTower · 22 Jun 2011 at 19:53

So I can stream all my vids and music from my MBP to an Apple TV. Can they communicate with NAS drives too?

Deku · 22 Jun 2011 at 20:12

Seriously, save your money and get this.

PardonTheWait · 22 Jun 2011 at 20:19

The mini would be fantastic for it, but especially if it's iTunes stuff, grab an ATV2.

The other ones like the WD definitely have their advantages but if you're in a Mac household and are quite appley in how your content is encoded and whatnot, the ATV is a really nice clean solution.

Deku · 22 Jun 2011 at 20:23

I don't know how people can recommend Apple TV with a straight face.

PardonTheWait · 22 Jun 2011 at 21:04

Deku said:
I don't know how people can recommend Apple TV with a straight face.

Because people are tired of products that promise the world but in reality end up being clunky and crap to use, despite playing a million formats.

If you're a Mac person and your content is either iTunes friendly already, or you don't have any problem making it so, the Apple TV is fantastic.

If you're more inclined towards tinkering with stuff and messing about, then some other media player might well suit you better, but the Apple TV 2 is a good bit of kit.

Nice with XBMC on too.

Most of the others are **** ugly as well

GJ02 · 22 Jun 2011 at 21:08

Deku said:
I don't know how people can recommend Apple TV with a straight face.

this too, bought one today, its going right back tomorrow
stick to macs and iphones apple

PardonTheWait said:
Because people are tired of products that promise the world but in reality end up being clunky and crap to use, despite playing a million formats.

i would be happy if my atv2 worked like its supposed too, and i was shocked and i mean SHOCKED, to find i needed to buy an HDMI cable to get the atv2 to work out of the box,

PardonTheWait · 22 Jun 2011 at 21:37

GJ02 said:
i would be happy if my atv2 worked like its supposed too, and i was shocked and i mean SHOCKED, to find i needed to buy an HDMI cable to get the atv2 to work out of the box,

How were you surprised that any piece of of AV equipment didn't come with an HDMI lead?

99% don't

Are you going to return a printer because there's no USB cable?

Deku · 22 Jun 2011 at 22:02

PardonTheWait said:
Because people are tired of products that promise the world but in reality end up being clunky and crap to use, despite playing a million formats.

If you're a Mac person and your content is either iTunes friendly already, or you don't have any problem making it so, the Apple TV is fantastic.

If you're more inclined towards tinkering with stuff and messing about, then some other media player might well suit you better, but the Apple TV 2 is a good bit of kit.

Nice with XBMC on too.

Most of the others are **** ugly as well

Ugly? It's a TV Box, it sits on a shelf, that's a really silly comment.

People don't buy these sort of products cos they look attractive.

Don't get me wrong, I love apple products but Apple TV just isn't very good for the money.

PardonTheWait · 22 Jun 2011 at 22:07

Deku said:
People don't buy these sort of products cos they look attractive.

Don't be naive, of course they do.

Deku said:
Don't get me wrong, I love apple products but Apple TV just isn't very good for the money.

It's not right for everyone, but for a user who wants specifically to watch iTunes content, from iTunes?

What would he want with a device that can't play that content? Like the one you suggested?

lamboman · 22 Jun 2011 at 22:19

Apple TV for sure. Let alone being your best choice, it's probably your only choice (not a bad thing). Cheap as chips, does what it says on the tin. Yes, it's simple and only really works well when combined with iTunes content, but that's the point...

Somnambulist · 22 Jun 2011 at 22:32

I like my Apple TV. It didn't cost a lot, it's easy to push things from either my Mini or iPhone (and eventually iPad) and just using it to browse certain things on YouTube or Apple Trailers with the Remote app is nice. Jailbreaking is easy an gives you some extra features too!