Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Going the Mac mini Home theatre route

Cave Man said:
That really depends on the bit rate of the file. The 2 ghz GMA950 has trouble with some very high bit rate Blu-ray rips.
Click to expand...
I was more thinking of the average bit rate rips not being able to be played on lower processors.
Any computer's processor can be topped if you get a high enough bit rate :rolleyes:
 
geoffreak said:
I was more thinking of the average bit rate rips not being able to be played on lower processors.
Any computer's processor can be topped if you get a high enough bit rate :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

The 9400m Macs are better. My 1.83 MacBook Air plays Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Bourne Ultimatum, better than my 2 gHz mini, and those are among the highest bit rate movies you can get on Blu-ray.
 
Cave Man said:
The 9400m Macs are better. My 1.83 MacBook Air plays Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Bourne Ultimatum, better than my 2 gHz mini, and those are among the highest bit rate movies you can get on Blu-ray.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I upgraded my 1.83GHz to a 2.26GHz Mini for the extra power and the 9400m. Once SL comes and software like Plex starts to use OpenCL, I think we'll be able to play movies in Super Hi-Vision. :D
 
I am interested in using a mini as a pvr and tuner for off the air broadcasts (replace cable tv).

is the software interface easy enough that others can use it? that is very important to me.

I assume elgato is the tuner/pvr? Is the UI good?

How would plex help me?

I don't want to add complexity to the UI or I will get shot down and have to have the cable box.

I have an apple tv now, btw. great interface. wish I could have a tuner/pvr attached to that!
 
Sorry if this got asked before but is the lower end model mac mini currently offered good enough to serve as a media centre. I will mainly be using it to play movies and stream by using plex

I dont have too many HD movies.

I want to know what some good some good reasons are to drop an extra 200 on the higher end model.

Any advice would be much appreciatted!

Cheers,

Colin
 
meulemaster said:
Sorry if this got asked before but is the lower end model mac mini currently offered good enough to serve as a media centre. I will mainly be using it to play movies and stream by using plex

I dont have too many HD movies.

I want to know what some good some good reasons are to drop an extra 200 on the higher end model.

Any advice would be much appreciatted!

Cheers,

Colin
Click to expand...

You should be fine but until Plex is able to take advantage of the GPU at some point in the future, it'll always be possible for some HD encode to skip some frames. That doesn't mean it's likely, or that it happens a lot, or that should happen at all... but I spent the extra $200 just to know that I'm getting the best playback that I could get.
 
wartnig said:
hi, i have apple tv and a mac mini. I have now decided to sell the apple tv and use the funds to turn my mac mini into my home theatre system.
Has anyone else done this? Do ppl prefer the apple tv or mac mini?

I am hoping that i wont miss out on to many features by doing this.. i have read people struggling to get 5.1 audio from the mac mini.. aprt from that i think its a good move.

PS is frontrow the only application that can play itunes purchased movies?
Click to expand...

i have both. ATV is easy for the wife/family to use. macmini is what i have in the office - have the DROBO attached so it can share all the media to the ATV's located throughout the house.
 
I don't have an Apple TV to compare to but I just bought refurbished mini mac from computer geeks a few weeks ago

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=MB138LLA-3R

I actually bought 2 of them (one for my parents) and one of them came with 2gb of ram even though on the web site they only say 1gb.

They ran out of them but they may get some more.

It has been able to play everything that I have thrown at it including some 1080p movies.

The 1080p movies had a hard time playing with VLC but plex plays them great.
 
meulemaster said:
Sorry if this got asked before but is the lower end model mac mini currently offered good enough to serve as a media centre. I will mainly be using it to play movies and stream by using plex

I dont have too many HD movies.

I want to know what some good some good reasons are to drop an extra 200 on the higher end model.

Any advice would be much appreciatted!

Cheers,

Colin
Click to expand...

Yes, it is great.

Even the older 1.83ghz would be sufficient. I play video (some HD some not) while downloading media and burning cd/dvds simultaneously with no complications. Save the extra money and up the RAM & buy a dinovo edge keyboard (mac edition) ;)

I suppose the higher end model would be more useful for other things like video/photo editing?
 
It seems like there's no straight answer to this question. In my situation, I just want to play back content that I have put on the mac mini that would be connected to the TV. I'll use my other more powerful computers to download, convert, edit, etc. So, would a previous generation simply be able to play 720P or 1080p content back without any major difficulty? Take your pick of players, VLC, QT, Mplayer, etc.. Take your pick of formats, AVI, MKV, MP4, etc. Do you have to buy the latest model if you just want store and playback the content? Is there a general consensus or no? :confused:
 
As soon as a newer version of the Mini comes out - I'm all over this. By them I'm sure I will be ready to upgrade. :D
 
I've really been thinking about going this route also. I've been waiting and waiting for something to happen with the :apple:TV and it's just not happening.
I would really like to be able to watch Hulu and Netflix on the big screen.

How practical is using a Mini with a BT keyboard and Mouse and just leaving the Mini running 24/7 out of site?
Will Mini DisplayPort to HDMI work?
 
How Do I get Plex software and what is there to the setup, I have a 2009 Mini 2.0Ghz, with 4GB ram and internal 320GB HD with TB's of external space.

What do I need to get it all working?
 
Need Advice--Best Connection Setup?

I could use some help/advice from any Mac Mini home theater experts. Sorry if it's a bit long winded but I wanted to try and include all relevant details.

Here's my current setup:

Macbook (early 2008) 2.2 GHz C2D with 4 GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM connected by USB to 1 TB WD My Book Studio via Time Capsule (newest version with dual band) kept in the Office. My media library is kept on the External HD. I have a 40 GB :apple:TV in the bedroom--all media is presently streamed wirelessly from the External connected to the Time Capsule/Macbook which is obviously alway on.

I just sprung for a refurb of the latest 2.0 GHz Mac Mini (should arrive in a couple days) that will be used in the living room. I'll be installing 4 GB of Crucial RAM but will leave the stock 120 GB HD as I plan on keeping the media on an External--will also likely be moving the media to a 4 TB WD My Book Studio II that will be set up RAID 1 (mirrored).

My initial plan was to just connect the Mini to my network and leave everything else as is but after thinking about it, made more sense to keep the iTunes library on the Mini since it would be easier to leave it on instead of the Macbook. If I go this route, a couple of questions:

1) I can either connect the Mini to my network wirelessly or wired via a 4 port SlingLink Turbo that's already in place. As I'm not sure of the data transfer rate of the SlingLink, which would yield better performance?

2) Should I keep the External connected to the Time Capsule or move it to the Mini and connect it directly via firewire? I'm guessing the latter would yield better playback of video on the Mini since it wouldn't be streamed but would it adversely affect streaming on the :apple:TV in the bedroom?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
tbayrgs said:
I could use some help/advice from any Mac Mini home theater experts. Sorry if it's a bit long winded but I wanted to try and include all relevant details.

Here's my current setup:

Macbook (early 2008) 2.2 GHz C2D with 4 GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM connected by USB to 1 TB WD My Book Studio via Time Capsule (newest version with dual band) kept in the Office. My media library is kept on the External HD. I have a 40 GB :apple:TV in the bedroom--all media is presently streamed wirelessly from the External connected to the Time Capsule/Macbook which is obviously alway on.

I just sprung for a refurb of the latest 2.0 GHz Mac Mini (should arrive in a couple days) that will be used in the living room. I'll be installing 4 GB of Crucial RAM but will leave the stock 120 GB HD as I plan on keeping the media on an External--will also likely be moving the media to a 4 TB WD My Book Studio II that will be set up RAID 1 (mirrored).

My initial plan was to just connect the Mini to my network and leave everything else as is but after thinking about it, made more sense to keep the iTunes library on the Mini since it would be easier to leave it on instead of the Macbook. If I go this route, a couple of questions:

1) I can either connect the Mini to my network wirelessly or wired via a 4 port SlingLink Turbo that's already in place. As I'm not sure of the data transfer rate of the SlingLink, which would yield better performance?

2) Should I keep the External connected to the Time Capsule or move it to the Mini and connect it directly via firewire? I'm guessing the latter would yield better playback of video on the Mini since it wouldn't be streamed but would it adversely affect streaming on the :apple:TV in the bedroom?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
Click to expand...

Great choice!

#1 My Mini is connected to wifi. Works great, wired would just allow for faster downloads.

#2 Connect directly to the mini. The setup you have now is EXACTLY what I had and I didn't like relying on the network to watch a movie. It's simpler to connect directly to the Mini and I've had less issues. I've since gone from an external drive to a Drobo (GREAT!) The new setup works so well I want to go on tour and spread the word to all Apple TV users :D
 
I'm using a 1.83 ghz dual core Mini with 2GB RAM, running PLEX and its amazing. Hooked up to my 42 inch HDTV and have no issues at all. Hands down beats the Apple TV simply because of all the other apps you can run, for ripping, encoding and downloading, etc. If it wasn't for sports I'd cancel my satellite and use only this.

Getting the eyeTV soon for local chanel DVR.
 
My 1.66 core duo Mini does just fine with both recording, using Handbrake, and watching movies on my 24 inch LCD. I have 2 gigs of ram and 500 gig external firewire 400 HD. I have hybrid Eyetv dongle and software that works just fine. I see no need to upgrade.
 
jessica. said:
Given the Mini's upgrade cycle you'll be waiting a very long time.
Click to expand...

That is the very reason I pulled the trigger. The Internet is great for research, but it is very easy to fall into the watch and wait game.

I'm slowly trying to condition myself to enjoy my purchases I have, instead of always trying to search for the next best thing.

The first step is acceptance. :D
 
The mini for me is the second step in that direction. The MB Air was one I turned my nose to and suddenly it's nearly my favorite machine. The mini, similar to the air was not powerful enough and yet I am watching movies on it, streaming media from the internet and the likes. I love my mini.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back