Intel Mac Mini for Home Entertainment

[GimmeSlack12]

I gotta say, it sounds like an option. Suppose you torrent movies and TV shows. In a sense (for me) I could have it replace cable TV. And I can imagine how I would implement it too. So what is the problem with that?

If it is $700 more or less (Duo Core), and I have it for 5 months, that would take care of the cost of Cable TV ($60/month x 5 months = $300), and not having or buying a DVD player would be another $150-200.
That's nearly $500. So is that worth it?

So in the end it would pay for itself. Use the TV as a monitor? I'm not sure about that, but a small 15" LCD could be cheap to setup with it. I think in this sense it could be pretty cool.

And after an amount of time without Cable, if it isn't working out, you'd have saved a bit of money. I think it is all a realistic approach.

 

[MRU]

Yes & No.

For SD stuff the machine will handle it no problem.

However as apple are seemingly making the new mac's to be the central hub of a digital universe (streaming music & video etc...) and looking at the mini's DVI & VGA specs it seems they've maxed out at the perfect 1920x1080 resolution.. Ideal for HDTV..... BUT

As this is ideal for HDTV, I'm concerned that the GPU wont be able to handle 1080i/p and playback maybe jerky, making it a bit moribund.

I have 2 G4 mac mini's and have the cash in my pocket to splurge if the whim takes me, and I was willing to purchase an intel mac mini, but integrated graphics concern me, and the 120gb drive max is still not enough for a digital center, especially for HD downloads etc....

I imagine because of the amount of distain from the Mac community and trust me most buyers of mac's are existing mac users, Apple will make a REV B by the end of summer, beginning of autumn, with a X1300 GPU soldered onto the motherboard with 64/128mb dedicated ram.

I also hope they integrate a TV tuner into the mini, they could add a small legacy port (similar to mini-vga/dvi on some models) and charge you for an apdater so you can capture TV directly and view it in frontrow. The charge for the apadter would more than cover the cost of a capture card grafted onto the motherboard....

I'd hope for a bigger HD, but the size of the mini is the limiting factor. Hopefully this can be worked out...

But if those 2 things can be worked out, then the new mini would sit under my TV in a flash.....

Without those the digital hub / entertainment center seems a bit pointless to me....

 

[GimmeSlack12]

I hadn't quite understood the issue with the graphics card initially, but now reading that there is no VRAM, and that the graphics will leach off of the system RAM is a primitive technology. The hard drive as well is waaay too small. In this sense I might as well just use my iBook one day for this task (media center) and get myself a nice new Mac when money is available.

MacRumorUser, how do you use your current Mini's?

 

[liketom]

Front Row has a cool new feature for sharing media from other mac's , this is how i intend to create my Mac Media Center

720p is going to be no problem

 

[redAPPLE]

what if i rip my dvds, could i play them off front row?

 

[GimmeSlack12]

That is what Front Row does, play DVD's, doesn't matter the source of the DVD's.

But a bigger HD, and I'd still be willing to give the Mini Duo some definite credit. I mean it has got to be a lot faster than the G4 Mini (on paper at least it seems that way).

 

[jsw]

As this is ideal for HDTV, I'm concerned that the GPU wont be able to handle 1080i/p and playback maybe jerky, making it a bit moribund.

Well, some of the posts elsewhere in these forums do indicate that 1080i/p works fine on the duo, but not on the solo. Just an FYI... hope it doesn't end up costing you $800.

 

[Eidorian]

I hadn't quite understood the issue with the graphics card initially, but now reading that there is no VRAM, and that the graphics will leach off of the system RAM is a primitive technology. The hard drive as well is waaay too small. In this sense I might as well just use my iBook one day for this task (media center) and get myself a nice new Mac when money is available.

MacRumorUser, how do you use your current Mini's?

The Intel GMA 950 graphics card isn't primitive. It's just not a complete card on its own. It has its own GPU but it has to share system RAM and can't handle Transform & Lighting for 3D games.

 

[jsw]

That is what Front Row does, play DVD's, doesn't matter the source of the DVD's.

Did this just change? Because, last rev. of FR, it didn't play VIDEO_TS folders.

Edit: just checked. FR does not play VIDEO_TS folders. You'd need to rip MP4's w/Handbrake or something similar.