Mac Mini vs. AppleTV for Hulu at home

[Maxington]

I currently have an extra bluetooth keyboard and mouse and want to add either a Mac Mini or AppleTV to my TV setup in the front room. I mostly watch Hulu on the TV via a laptop, but want something a little more permanent.

I am running Boxee on my iMac in my office which is something I would run with the Mac Mini.


My question is should I spend the extra money for the mini or just get an Apple TV and install Boxee on it?

 

[iGrant]

I currently have an extra bluetooth keyboard and mouse and want to add either a Mac Mini or AppleTV to my TV setup in the front room. I mostly watch Hulu on the TV via a laptop, but want something a little more permanent.

I am running Boxee on my iMac in my office which is something I would run with the Mac Mini.


My question is should I spend the extra money for the mini or just get an Apple TV and install Boxee on it?

I would recommend an Mac Mini because you don't have to "hack" it to run hulu as you would have to on an AppleTV.

If you screw up the hack on your AppleTV, especially the recovery partition and don't make backups, it can be fixed but you had better be comfortable with Linux and plan a solid 6 ~ 8 if you know what you are doing.

I screwed up the partitions on my AppleTV and it was not fun to fix. I thought about running an AppleTV for everything I do, but in the end I decided just to use an Mac Mini. Here is what I do with my Mac Mini (I got this from another thread in this forum):

I have a similar setup, I have two EyeTV tuners attached to my Mac Mini,the EyeTV 200 and EyeTV 500, one for recording OTA DTV which I love, and the second is for converting all the home movies of me when I was a kid to digital for my parents. I'm trying to get everything off of VHS and 8mm tapes that my parents have, and put them all on DVD.

I have thought of upgrading to newer EyeTV tuners, but the firewire models just work so well for me, that I don't think I will anytime soon. I do this all on a Mac Mini with an external hard drive, and external DVD Burner attached. I have all my USB and Firewire slots filled, and I daisy chain the firewire. The Intel Mac Mini is a beast of a computer.

I also use my Mac Mini to share my printer to everyone in the house and as a Network drive for our photos and everything so they are all in one spot to make backups easier.

-iGrant85

Hope this helps, here is the link to the thread:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/607496/

-iGrant85

 

[Maxington]

Thanks for the info. Yes, after looking at the choices it seems obvious that Mac Mini is better for my needs. It also sucks they haven't released a new one in a while.

 

[iGrant]

Thanks for the info. Yes, after looking at the choices it seems obvious that Mac Mini is better for my needs. It also sucks they haven't released a new one in a while.

Get one used. I wouldn't bother buying a new one. You can save a good ton of money by getting one used. I would search eBay (Check the sellers feedback and only pay through paypal) and I if you have enough post I would check the marketplace here but stuff goes fast here. Craigslist is hit or miss.

-iGrant

 

[drichards]

Apple TV is being closed out by Sam's Club. I got one for $104 and a west coast guy saw them at $109. A Mac Mini is more capable no doubt, but the TV is really pretty sweet, especially at over $100 off.

 

[iGrant]

Apple TV is being closed out by Sam's Club. I got one for $104 and a west coast guy saw them at $109. A Mac Mini is more capable no doubt, but the TV is really pretty sweet, especially at over $100 off.

Yeah thats pretty good but still you plan on doing any "hack/modifying" on an AppleTV, you really need to be comfortable not only with unix/linux. However for 104 at Sam's it really might be worth it to get one at that price .

-iGrant

 

[descartes]

Apple TV is being closed out by Sam's Club. I got one for $104 and a west coast guy saw them at $109. A Mac Mini is more capable no doubt, but the TV is really pretty sweet, especially at over $100 off.

that is a great price. might pick up another if I can find one so cheap.

 

[drichards]

Yeah thats pretty good but still you plan on doing any "hack/modifying" on an AppleTV, you really need to be comfortable not only with unix/linux. However for 104 at Sam's it really might be worth it to get one at that price .

-iGrant

AwkwardTV.org has all the hard work done before I'll even plug it in. SSH isn't that daunting, when I get to it I'll likely use rbrowser for the file moving and just use terminal for the long commands and restarts.

that is a great price. might pick up another if I can find one so cheap.

I would have picked up ten at that price if they had them, but there was only one at my local Sam's.

I kind of wish I had a Tiger retail disc so I could use it as a regular mac, but I'll keep looking for a G4 iMac to replace my kitchen computer, a tired five year old windows laptop that can't keep up with youtube anymore.

 

[Maxington]

Apple TV is being closed out by Sam's Club. I got one for $104 and a west coast guy saw them at $109. A Mac Mini is more capable no doubt, but the TV is really pretty sweet, especially at over $100 off.

That is a nice price for the aTV but the used Mac Mini may offer more benefits in the long run.

 

[iGrant]

That is a nice price for the aTV but the used Mac Mini may offer more benefits in the long run.

Agreed even with considering getting an AppleTV for 100 bucks, the Mac Mini has too much room for growth and that just out ways the cost.

NOW if you only have 100 bucks . . . AppleTV looking really good!!!

-iGrant

 

[Capt Crunch]

Get one used. I wouldn't bother buying a new one. You can save a good ton of money by getting one used. I would search eBay (Check the sellers feedback and only pay through paypal) and I if you have enough post I would check the marketplace here but stuff goes fast here. Craigslist is hit or miss.

-iGrant

Where is this marketplace you speak of?

 

[iGrant]

Where is this marketplace you speak of?

You have to have at least I believe 250 post before you can view the marketplace.

-iGrant

 

[Capt Crunch]

You have to have at least I believe 250 post before you can view the marketplace.

-iGrant

250? That will take forever...