G4 Macmini and Mpg4

[mcdseven]

Hi Folks,

Long time reader first time poster. I need some help and I hope some kind folk here can offer me the best advice. I recently bought a factory sealed five year old macmini 1.42ghz, it was a real bargain buy that I could not resist.

I would like to set it up as multimedia centre connected to a Philips HDTV 42'' where I can use front row to watch movies, look at photos etc. I will update the OS to 10.5.8.

Now my question is that I will be using Handbrake on an Intel 24'' iMac using Snow Leopard to rip movies into Mpg 4 to watch in iTunes. Can someone please advise what is the best setting to use bearing in mind that the mpg4 movies will be viewed on the Macmini. What setting do I use? what screen resolution do I pick? is or has anyone have a similar set that they can offer me tips and tricks? I have been googling for hours and I am getting nowhere!!!

Thanks for any advice offered.

McD

 

[Hellhammer]

E.g. AppleTV presetting should be fine. If iPhone can play it, then your Mac Mini should be able to play it too

 

[mcdseven]

E.g. AppleTV presetting should be fine. If iPhone can play it, then your Mac Mini should be able to play it too

Thanks Hellhammer,

I appreciate the speed response. So if I choose this setting will the quality be good? I don't mind file size as I have plenty of storage. thanks

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks Hellhammer,

I appreciate the speed response. So if I choose this setting will the quality be good? I don't mind file size as I have plenty of storage. thanks

If you are ripping a DVD, then the quality is never good But yeah, AppleTV preset should provide a decent quality for HTPC use, since that is what AppleTV is meant for.

 

[Cave Man]

The Apple TV preset uses h.264 (MPEG4 part 10), which is computationally intensive. I don't know if your Mini will be able to decode fast enough, even for DVDs, so YMMV. You can choose the Apple TV preset, then disable h.264 prior to encoding (MPEG4 part 2) and that will probably work just fine. Those files will be substantially larger then h.264 files, though.

 

[Consultant]

SD movies ripped in MP4 should play fine. Try one of the Apple TV presets.

G4, due to the age, does not do HD.

Rip one and try it out. However, G4 will probably take many hours to encode a movie.

 

[spacepower7]

SD movies ripped in MP4 should play fine. Try one of the Apple TV presets.

G4, due to the age, does not do HD.

Rip one and try it out. However, G4 will probably take many hours to encode a movie.

Saw a 720p AppleTV preset M4V playback crap out on an iBook G4. SD video might work though.

I have an old G4 Dual Processor 1.25Ghz :
1 Movie DVD usually took 9-12hours

 

[mcdseven]

SD movies ripped in MP4 should play fine. Try one of the Apple TV presets.

G4, due to the age, does not do HD.

Rip one and try it out. However, G4 will probably take many hours to encode a movie.

Saw a 720p AppleTV preset M4V playback crap out on an iBook G4. SD video might work though.

I have an old G4 Dual Processor 1.25Ghz :
1 Movie DVD usually took 9-12hours

hi folks,

thanks for replying, bear in mind I will be using an Intel iMac to rip the files and then playing them on the macmini g4. Just wanted to give the macmini the best fighting chance in been able to play the files without struggling. Also I dont mind if the files are huge as I have a large 1.5 tb WD external drive. So I will give one of the Apple TV presets a whirl and hopfully I'll get the right one.

If I where to download a movie from iTunes what would be the best option? Sorry about the novice style questions this is all new to me.

 

[mcdseven]

The Apple TV preset uses h.264 (MPEG4 part 10), which is computationally intensive. I don't know if your Mini will be able to decode fast enough, even for DVDs, so YMMV. You can choose the Apple TV preset, then disable h.264 prior to encoding (MPEG4 part 2) and that will probably work just fine. Those files will be substantially larger then h.264 files, though.

Thanks Caveman, as I mentioned above I'll be using an Intel iMac to decode the movies, just want to decode them using the most efficient setting for the mini.