mac mini - how good for hi def ?

TALON1973

TALON1973

TALON1973

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llanelli , south wales
toying wit the idea of a mac mini or a media centre....

is a mac mini any good for hd and for use wit a dell 2408 ?

or am i better off just getting the sameprice media centre ?
 
ye should be able to, if your near a apple shop may be you could just pop in and have a go, just an idea, tho one thing to think about what will the front end be like
 
I've had mixed results with mine... although it is only a 1.6GHz Core Duo which I've just upgraded to 2GB. I'm tempted to upgrade the CPU but that's a bit expensive, and I'm worried about the increased heat re increased fan noise.

It plays 720p absolutely fine, and some 1080i stuff works great too, but not all 1080i. I've tried watching some stuff that just stutters every 30 seconds or so. Not sure if it's just the file I'm trying to watch or that the machine is struggling.

However, it does look incredibly sexy underneath my TV - much better than any other media centre case I've seen. The sleek design, absolute lack of noise when it's running and the minimalist size of the box all helped enormously with the Wife Acceptance Factor.

If you do get the Mac Mini, I can also recommend the KeySonic bluetooth keyboard with in-built mouse. Works great straight outta the box :) Here's a link to it... http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-001-KE&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=&name=Keysonic%20Wireless%20Keyboard/Touchpad%20ACK-540RF
 
Last edited:
GarethDW said:
I've had mixed results with mine... although it is only a 1.6GHz Core Duo which I've just upgraded to 2GB. I'm tempted to upgrade the CPU but that's a bit expensive, and I'm worried about the increased heat re increased fan noise.

It plays 720p absolutely fine, and some 1080i stuff works great too, but not all 1080i. I've tried watching some stuff that just stutters every 30 seconds or so. Not sure if it's just the file I'm trying to watch or that the machine is struggling.

However, it does look incredibly sexy underneath my TV - much better than any other media centre case I've seen. The sleek design, absolute lack of noise when it's running and the minimalist size of the box all helped enormously with the Wife Acceptance Factor.

If you do get the Mac Mini, I can also recommend the KeySonic bluetooth keyboard with in-built mouse. Works great straight outta the box :) Here's a link to it... http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-001-KE&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=&name=Keysonic%20Wireless%20Keyboard/Touchpad%20ACK-540RF
Click to expand...

What are you playing it with? Perian and VLC are both pretty naff for HD stuff, OSXBMC/Flex plays everything I've thrown at it without any issues at all.
 
Beepcake said:
What are you playing it with? Perian and VLC are both pretty naff for HD stuff, OSXBMC/Flex plays everything I've thrown at it without any issues at all.
Click to expand...
Ahhh. Yeah I was using VLC. I'll definitely check out OSXBMC. What's Flex? Don't think I've heard of that before. Cheers :)
 
I used a 1.83ghz macmini for 2 years as a media centre. Played all 720p files fine. And both 720p and 1080p trailers from the Apple trailers site. All with 1gb of RAM. Only got rid of it because I got a macbookpro which is the same as a macmini when hooked up to a LCD TV.


rp2000
 
Cool - sounds promising that my machine should be up for it. My telly only has 1080i, so not worried about 1080p for the moment. I'm sure I'll have updated the Mac Mini before I upgrade the telly ;)

Were you using a tv capture card too, rp2000? If so, which one were you using? I saw that a few people here have used Elgato. I was going to get one of these to hook up to my Sky digibox, but I saw it doesn't work under Linux. I believe the Plextor ConvertX works with both OS X and Linux, so maybe I should get one of these.

At the moment, I'm still undecided as to whether to stick with OS X or run Myth TV under Linux. I'm more comfortable with Linux than OS X, but I'm slowly getting used to OS X and starting to actually like it. SO maybe I should stick with OS X after all. Gah, I'm naff at making decisions.
 
GarethDW said:
Were you using a tv capture card too, rp2000? If so, which one were you using? I saw that a few people here have used Elgato. I was going to get one of these to hook up to my Sky digibox, but I saw it doesn't work under Linux. I believe the Plextor ConvertX works with both OS X and Linux, so maybe I should get one of these.
Click to expand...

No, just normal Front Row stuff (DVDs, Movies/TV Shows, Music).


rp2000
 
To the guy thinking of upgrading his processor, Im running a 2.33GHz Core2Duo (T7600g)
In my macmini. It gets toasty if Im encoding video but then I just turn the fan up. You have to remember that mobile processors have much higher tolerances than desktop procs do. It hits 80 Degrees and the mac mini doesnt even put the fan up to 5500rpm it just has it at 2500 and it hold steady. (thats whilst encoding) However I force it up to 3500 to keep it below 70 degrees when encoding.

Hope that helps.
 
yeah, plex sorry. You'd think I'd get it right seeing as I look at it pretty much every day :-). They just renamed OSXBMC just to confuse people, it's not a separate app. It used to be pretty clunky but it's really quite slick now as a complete frontrow replacement.
 
I was gonna go down the mac mini + plex route, but now since there was no announcement today regarding hardware updates, im gonna go the linux + xbmc route on a custom built rig.
The Mini struggles with some 1080p content, and if i'm gonna be spending £500 it has to play ALL HD content.
 
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