A bit tired of waiting for an AppleTv upgrade - thinking about alternatives

[NJuul]

One issue with a Mac Mini though, is that it can never support HD audio (as far as I know, at least). It is maybe not a deal-breaker for most, but you should at least take it into consideration before building a home theater around it.

 

[Chris Rogers]

So I take it that the combination of a mini and plex is the way to go for the most powerful media center setting aside the complexity of use.... is this right?

It's not complex at all. It's so easy a caveman can do it.

 

[srexy]

So I take it that the combination of a mini and plex is the way to go for the most powerful media center setting aside the complexity of use.... is this right?

It's not even that hard. The only downside to the Mac Mini is the lack of BD support but that looks as if it might be resolved soon. Regardless it's by far the best solution for a HTPC right now. I had the tv for 2 yrs before finally taking the plunge - the support for all formats and the seamless integration of the IMDB and TVDB scraping is worth its weight in gold. Once you throw in the iPhoto & iTunes integration, 3rd party apps such as Hulu, Vimeo, Joost then you can see that the additional "computing" power isn't going to waste. The fact that I can have Handbrake running intermittently + backup routines, Firewire support and the occasional browse is the icing on the cake.

Mac Mini + Plex - nuff said.

 

[eidimon]

I also found this device, that seems to do pretty much what i need, and it's price is pretty low as well (120 euros with a 80211n antenna) :

http://www.xtreamer.net/

I think should there not be an TV update (which would probably be my first choice), i could get this instead of the new popcornhour (350 euros without the wireless card)...

 

[jakerules133]

mac mini with plex > apple tv > popcorn hour > western digital tv


That's the general consensus on the forums I think.

I'm only talking about quality, not price or anything.

 

[OddyOh]

ps3 and mac can play nice together

Before you get rid of your PS3, try out PS3 Media Server (if you haven't already)...it's well worth the free price of admission, as it's the only Mac friendly streaming software to support transcoding, which allows your PS3 to play many more media formats on the fly.

http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

But grab the latest Mac beta versions from their forum. Hope it works for you.

Myself, I'm also waiting to see what Apple does with the AppleTV in September, since it's currently pretty useless in Canada (we don't have nearly enough content for it). Plus I'm a blu-ray fan anyway.

 

[eidimon]

Before you get rid of your PS3, try out PS3 Media Server (if you haven't already)...it's well worth the free price of admission, as it's the only Mac friendly streaming software to support transcoding, which allows your PS3 to play many more media formats on the fly.

http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

But grab the latest Mac beta versions from their forum. Hope it works for you.

This is what i use for the moment.
Works fine with avi's, but the result wasn't that good with 720 or even more 1080p mkv files.
I don't know whether it was my iMac, the wireless network i use (probably not enough bandwidth, as if i remember well the ps3 has a 80211g adapter and not a n one), but playback of these files didn't work.
And this also means that the iMac has to work with a full load transcoding the file, which probably means i can't do many more things at the same time...

 

[grazzyman]

I recently bought a mac mini to use with Plex...amazing! It is by far the best solution I have seen yet and the IMDB/TV Show scraping is great.

No joke, I have reduced my sky subscription to the bare minimum because now 95% of all my viewing is using the mini+plex.

The mini also played 1080p mkv fine with 1GB ram but I upgraded to 4GB for about £40 because I found that the menu's worked a bit slicker.

I'm just waiting for a Spotify plug-in for Plex...now that would be good.