Mac Mini for HTPC

Scythe

Scythe

Scythe

Soldato
Joined
23 Jun 2005
Posts
5,455
Hi, I'm thinking of getting a Mac Mini for use as a media center/daily pc. Currently the family pc has a Socket A Athlon, 1gb ddr1 etc. So its quite old. However I want a change and a pc in my room. At £400 this seems a great idea to run alongside my xbox360 on my HDTV (26" Hanns G, bought from OCUK).

Is the Mac Mini worth it and is the performance on a hdtv at 1080i/p any good?
 
How much media do you have? The HD is a bit lacking and you may need to factor in an external drive into the pricing. Cost aside, the Mac Mini sounds like it will meet your needs. It will have no problem driving that screen you mentioned.
 
At the moment, my iTunes library has about 7.5gb. My current pc has a 80gb hard drive and can struggle to fill it up, mostly its just games i cant be bothered to uninstall and stuff. 80gb is plenty for me I should think.
 
Windows drivers

Hi I use a mini as HTPC, 2GB Ram 1.66Ghz cpu. Its great - but - after doing a lot of research I concluded that the OSX drivers for the integrated intel GMA950 graphics are not good for hidef playback. I could not get any 1080p material to play and even some 720p struggled. However, when I used bootcamp to install Windows XP on the mini, the situation changed. Using windows and Zoomplayer the mini can play back 720p and 1080i perfectly. It also 'sometimes' plays 1080p well (depends on bitrate, it always plays back but the result may feel like its at the wrong 'speed'). Another great benefit of zoomplayer on Windows is that you can jump to any point in a hidef movie - try doing this with VLC a few times and watch it crash! :)

Please note - I have a 720p TV so my testing of 1080 material on the mini in Windows XP has not been extensive (half dozen or so videos).
 
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Update -

Just tried a 1080p Apple trailer on the MacBook and it played okay, dropped the odd frame so not flawless but certainly watchable.

I know the HD videos are somewhat CPU limited but the 1.6 should handle 720p fine.

Is that a Core Solo or a Core Duo you're using?
 
I won't be using HD material. It will be used for DVDs, music and daily usage e.g internet etc. Will it matter because of the high resolution for playing dvds? Also is the overall performance usable at this resolution?
 
Scythe said:
I won't be using HD material. It will be used for DVDs, music and daily usage e.g internet etc. Will it matter because of the high resolution for playing dvds? Also is the overall performance usable at this resolution?
Click to expand...

DVDs shouldn't tax the Mini that much as they only run at a resolution of 576p :)

You'll be fine if your just using standard definition.
 
Yeah, but at the moment, I want to keep the standard spec and the size is ideal for me. Although, if I do run out of space, I'll either be running my current 80gb (5400rpm same as Mini's) drive in a USB enclosure or through a NAS.
 
my gf just got the latest C2D mini, 1.83Ghz 1GB ram etc.

Connected to her 40" Samsung 1080p TV via HDMI and I can tell you its sweet! With VLC you get deinterlaced DVD playback, and it surfs the web and watches downloaded episodes and the lot.

Its great coz its small and unobtrusive, whilst being silent all the time. Don't think I've seen a windows HTPC that's that silent at that price.
 
Glad you enjoy it onering.. care to post pics?

I'm considering a small mini for the same reason (HTPC) on my 46" LCD :)
 
onering said:
my gf just got the latest C2D mini, 1.83Ghz 1GB ram etc.

Connected to her 40" Samsung 1080p TV via HDMI and I can tell you its sweet! With VLC you get deinterlaced DVD playback, and it surfs the web and watches downloaded episodes and the lot.

Its great coz its small and unobtrusive, whilst being silent all the time. Don't think I've seen a windows HTPC that's that silent at that price.
Click to expand...

Ahh thanks :) This is exactly what I want it for :)
 
onering said:
my gf just got the latest C2D mini, 1.83Ghz 1GB ram etc.

Connected to her 40" Samsung 1080p TV via HDMI and I can tell you its sweet! With VLC you get deinterlaced DVD playback, and it surfs the web and watches downloaded episodes and the lot.

Its great coz its small and unobtrusive, whilst being silent all the time. Don't think I've seen a windows HTPC that's that silent at that price.
Click to expand...

Very nice, you may have sold me into getting a mini for use as a HTPC.

But I have no money :(
 
onering said:
my gf just got the latest C2D mini, 1.83Ghz 1GB ram etc.

Connected to her 40" Samsung 1080p TV via HDMI and I can tell you its sweet! With VLC you get deinterlaced DVD playback, and it surfs the web and watches downloaded episodes and the lot.

Its great coz its small and unobtrusive, whilst being silent all the time. Don't think I've seen a windows HTPC that's that silent at that price.
Click to expand...

You get de-interlaced playback with the Apple DVD Player app too. :)
 
I was looking at getting a new Mini for the same reason, was hoping to use OSX with frontrow (so i can use the remote nicely, and have all the fade in/out effects with frontrow...) and wondered what codecs will work? For example, can i watch an xVid AVI in Frontrow out of the box/is there an OSX xVid codec i would need to install/can i not watch it with Frontrow fullstop?

Thanks.
 
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