Is Mini good enough for TV

[iGrant]

The Mini can play the majority of Blu-ray rips at 1080p with DD or DTS with Plex just fine, so long as they've had decryption and HDCP removed. Don't know about the Windows side as I only use it to rip 'em.

The only thing I could see preventing the playback would be the integrated graphics card, but even then I not sure it would be a problem. I sure there is someone that can tell the answer.

-iGrant

 

[Bidi]

Yeah, i saw a benchmark-list for notebook graphic devices and the x1250 which I acutally used until a few weeks ago was about twice as fast as the GMA950 and my x1250 only made earlier BDs as for example the BBC Planet Earth. The BD of "Death Planet" or "I am legend" made a 100% cpu usage and a lot of stutters and artefacts. So useless. I upgraded the htpc to a HD4650 and now there is only 2% of cpu usage with those BDs. The C2D 2GHz of the mini is almost the same range. But I saw a few times already that mac hardware compared to similar windows pc´s could bring a lot more power.
I am a bit unsure. Maybe I really should wait until january and hope for the upgrade...

 

[iGrant]

Yeah, i saw a benchmark-list for notebook graphic devices and the x1250 which I acutally used until a few weeks ago was about twice as fast as the GMA950 and my x1250 only made earlier BDs as for example the BBC Planet Earth. The BD of "Death Planet" or "I am legend" made a 100% cpu usage and a lot of stutters and artefacts. So useless. I upgraded the htpc to a HD4650 and now there is only 2% of cpu usage with those BDs. The C2D 2GHz of the mini is almost the same range. But I saw a few times already that mac hardware compared to similar windows pc´s could bring a lot more power.
I am a bit unsure. Maybe I really should wait until january and hope for the upgrade...

Yeah that is probably not a bad idea. everything I record I export to iPod High Quality which is not HD, but I don't have an HD TV so I really don't care, and the Mac Mini is more than powerful enough to handle the load.

When it comes time to upgrade, I am seriously looking at either getting a Mac Pro or maybe even a Xserve. I am constantly worried I push the limits on my Mac Mini with what I tend to do all at once, especially with the Virtual Machines I tend to run through Virtual Box.

Complete side note, if you want to try Virtual Machines, I would highly recommend VirtualBox, is open source and free and they have a Mac binary so all you have to do is install it. I used and bought Parallels and VMWare Fusion and they work good, but I got really sick and tired of having to pay for upgrades . . .

OK back on the topic at hand. Yeah waiting till January is probably a good idea, I would be surprised if Apple didn't incorporate a graphics system like they do now in the new Macbooks and Macbook Pros. If so they should be able to handle the 1080p without any issues.

-iGrant

 

[Bidi]

Yeah, will be best idea. So I will wait and see, what Apple will probably bring in January.