The Mac Mini does not support Dolby/True HD audio. Why even get as a Media Center/HTPC when there's hardware that is much cheaper and more energy efficient that supports these HD audios?
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buying a Mac mini for media center
- Thread starter nunopinto
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I am in the same situation as the OP.. The mini would probably do a great job but I would need to buy an external soundcard since I have a 7.1 surround speaker setup.. AND I would need to hook up some external drives cause the mini's internal HD is too small. I don't need blueray or TV tuner.
I am considering to build a hackintosh for those reasons + it's much cheaper.
I already opened a topic to get some advice... but didn't get any answers so far... LINK
The alternative would be to buy a second hand mac mini..
Is there a way I could contact you term1nal? It seems I am looking for the same setup as you..
Like most people, I couldn't care less. The audio that it DOES support is plenty good.
It's a matter of who the audience is really. Anyone wanting a no-compromise HTPC will not want the mini for that reason you mention, plus the storage limitations.
On the other hand, many if not most, will find that the difference between standard Dolbly and the lossless codecs are not massive. And if you want a silent, attractive HTPC that fits seamlessly in your living rooom this remains the prime one to buy, at least in terms of out of the box purchases. It is possible to build an equally quiet and pretty PC, but none such available off the shelf.
So its not absolutes, just depends on your needs/priorities.
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there isn't a perfect HTPC that I can find.
Mac mini gives me plex as a front end which I like, and lets me use plex media server to manage my collection. The only obvious weaknesses are price (its expensive for just a media streamer) and lack of uncompressed HD audio.
other more dedicated media streamers support HD audio, but they have shocking front ends unless you faff about with creating thumbnails/art/UI etc like with YAMJ, which I could never get on with. These win on cost but lose on PITA rating. Maybe they're simpler to run and integrate into a family home than they used to be, I don't know
Another HTPC would be windows (unless it's a hackintosh) and I want to be able to access my files on the HTPC on my Macbook as well.. But there's no good way to share windows files with Mac... SMB sucks! Connections aren't stable.. I wish there was another way..
If you have enough money you can always buy a decent external USB soundcard to get good audio..
If you have enough money you can always buy a decent external USB soundcard to get good audio..
Nonsense advice is nonsense
If you do not need the ram, keep the cash in your pocket. A HTPC mac Mini doesn't use the ram. Saying more is better is simply without reason. ram only speeds it up if you utilize it and for mediaplayer purposes you won't.
I use a base-spec unibody mini (2.4GHz; 2GB RAM) as a media server for our home and in that capacity it performs flawlessly. The only reason I will be upgrading as soon as the Sandy Bridge mini's come out is for the time I will save encoding stuff in Handbrake with a Core i(x) processor over a C2D. If you aren't planning on doing any heavy encoding -- rather, merely playback --the base mini would be a fine choice.
I'm not sure this is correct. In my home I have a Mac Mini 2010 as HTPC, plus a desktop running Windows 2008 R2 server and two laptops on Windows 7. All the Windows machines are able to see the file shares that I have set up on the Mac Mini and on the Mac Mini I have shares available to the Windows machines.
Now it took some time and web searching to figure out how to set it up. But it does work well and its not kludgey at all.
So I wouldnt think this is really a problem at all.
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I bought my Mac Mini off ebay last December and havent looked back.
I downloaded Plex onto it, added the Hulu and Netflix plugins, put all my movies and TV shows into it and it works flawlessly. I put the DeFocus skin on it, and added some game emulators to work with my xbox controller...Now its really like a retro-gaming console, with movies, tv shows, pictures and music.
My goal was to make it user friendly for my wife...because if she can use it without my help, then I consider it a success. I hardly even get to use it anymore because she loves the setup so much, and she is by no means a tech person.
I downloaded Plex onto it, added the Hulu and Netflix plugins, put all my movies and TV shows into it and it works flawlessly. I put the DeFocus skin on it, and added some game emulators to work with my xbox controller...Now its really like a retro-gaming console, with movies, tv shows, pictures and music.
My goal was to make it user friendly for my wife...because if she can use it without my help, then I consider it a success. I hardly even get to use it anymore because she loves the setup so much, and she is by no means a tech person.
Why Mac Mini?
I have lived in the world of DOS, OS/2, Unix/Linux and Windows all the way back to 3.x and when Vista arrived I jumped ship and went to Mac. I own 3 Macs and this post is from my 2009 Mini. With that being said - here are my thoughts...
Yes you can use the Mac Mini as a media center but the results will vary depending on what you wish to serve up. I don't believe you gave enough detail for anyone to give you really a good solid answer.
If you plan to play files that are 720p or 1080p with typical "DVD" audio you are fine. If you plan to use HD Audio of any sort expect some quirks. There are a few front ends that work very nice. I have used PLEX and XBMC continuously and still do for play at my desk.
For my large screen tv (50" Kuro Plasma) I ended up getting a less fancy media center unit called a Dune 3 player. I am not promoting this product but can say it does play far better as it has the "sigma" chipset which is lacking in PC/Mac computers. This chipset sets it apart and I can live with the Dune's primitive front screen because the movies play as good as any Blu Ray player.
However, I have set up for friends both PLEX and XBMC Mac Minis and other and they are quite happy given their audio receiver are older models that don't handle HD Audio. As some have pointed out it is the simplicity that they love and the great screens.
Many prefer PLEX to XBMC but I believe the "database" that the PLEX folks rave about for their offering is sophomoric. If one has to leave the media center of sorts to fiddle with the database facet as a separate entity then it is self defeating. XBMC on the other hand, seems not to always be preset for best playback in their Mac version of the software.
I have all my discs now in file format and my Dune plays them all great while the Mac Mini on just a few files has some quirks in playback.
When the 2011 Mac Mini comes out and XBMC can better exploit the Mac hardware, then we may see myself and other return to Mac Mini as the slickest Media player around.
Good luck. (..and yes I am sure many will disagree with me)
- Phrehdd
I have lived in the world of DOS, OS/2, Unix/Linux and Windows all the way back to 3.x and when Vista arrived I jumped ship and went to Mac. I own 3 Macs and this post is from my 2009 Mini. With that being said - here are my thoughts...
Yes you can use the Mac Mini as a media center but the results will vary depending on what you wish to serve up. I don't believe you gave enough detail for anyone to give you really a good solid answer.
If you plan to play files that are 720p or 1080p with typical "DVD" audio you are fine. If you plan to use HD Audio of any sort expect some quirks. There are a few front ends that work very nice. I have used PLEX and XBMC continuously and still do for play at my desk.
For my large screen tv (50" Kuro Plasma) I ended up getting a less fancy media center unit called a Dune 3 player. I am not promoting this product but can say it does play far better as it has the "sigma" chipset which is lacking in PC/Mac computers. This chipset sets it apart and I can live with the Dune's primitive front screen because the movies play as good as any Blu Ray player.
However, I have set up for friends both PLEX and XBMC Mac Minis and other and they are quite happy given their audio receiver are older models that don't handle HD Audio. As some have pointed out it is the simplicity that they love and the great screens.
Many prefer PLEX to XBMC but I believe the "database" that the PLEX folks rave about for their offering is sophomoric. If one has to leave the media center of sorts to fiddle with the database facet as a separate entity then it is self defeating. XBMC on the other hand, seems not to always be preset for best playback in their Mac version of the software.
I have all my discs now in file format and my Dune plays them all great while the Mac Mini on just a few files has some quirks in playback.
When the 2011 Mac Mini comes out and XBMC can better exploit the Mac hardware, then we may see myself and other return to Mac Mini as the slickest Media player around.
Good luck. (..and yes I am sure many will disagree with me)
- Phrehdd
While all that is true- it is horses for courses argument. Is the current Mac Mini adequate for what you want to use it for?
Doubtless, the new mac mini will be better. Even if the Intel integrated graphics card blows chunks.
Leave specs alone and go for what will give you value- wait for a price drop on the current mac mini.
It is great as a HTPC- I have been using mine for a while now and it is awesome.
I believe I may be one who disagrees. I am simply not sure what you mean by not handling HD audio? I have a new Onkyo 609 reciever that handles HD audio. I have various files encoded with the HD audio.
Now I am not sure that Plex decodes it- but I have no audio issues with the Mac mini HTPC and Plex.
From what I gather, doesn't XBMC and Plex use the core of those HD audio streams only to pass through? Unless something has changed you only get Dolby and DTS core from Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master respectively. This is assuming you are running OSX. Thus, audio is passed but not HD.
I would be very happy to find out things have changed and I am incorrect.