mini as a movie player?

[tb9999]

I am thinking of purchasing a Mac mini to use for the typical desktop stuff (email, web, etc). I'd like to also use it along with a 22" Samsung LCD for watching movies on DVD (not ripping from DVD - just watching).

I am new to the Mac world. I have been supporting Windows and Unix stuff for years and recently started supporting some iMac and MacBook users. I noticed in watching a DVD on a 24" iMac that the video image wasn't so great when in full screen mode.

Is the mini a good choice for this? I know that it has the integrated video adapter. I am not looking to do any HD or video editing or anything like that. Just watch a movie and get as good of a picture as I would on a standard definition TV.

Any advice? Thanks.

 

[mustang_dvs]

I am thinking of purchasing a Mac mini to use for the typical desktop stuff (email, web, etc). I'd like to also use it along with a 22" Samsung LCD for watching movies on DVD (not ripping from DVD - just watching).

I am new to the Mac world. I have been supporting Windows and Unix stuff for years and recently started supporting some iMac and MacBook users. I noticed in watching a DVD on a 24" iMac that the video image wasn't so great when in full screen mode.

Is the mini a good choice for this? I know that it has the integrated video adapter. I am not looking to do any HD or video editing or anything like that. Just watch a movie and get as good of a picture as I would on a standard definition TV.

Any advice? Thanks.

The reason that the DVD didn't look all that great on the iMac was that the screen has a native resolution that is 2-3 times that of the DVD, so the video scaling exaggerates the artifacts.

I have a 1.66GHz CD Mini that serves as an internal file/DNS server (10.4 Server) and a SD/HD TiFaux (with an EyeTV 200 and an EyeTV 500). It's directly connected to a Sharp Aquos 37D7U 37" HDTV. The picture looks perfect, when it's set to the display's native resolution.

 

[Jimmdean]

With Tiger I'd have to say no - the DVD Player software just isn't all that good. Supposedly it's better in Leopard though...

 

[C-vez]

I am thinking of purchasing a Mac mini to use for the typical desktop stuff (email, web, etc). I'd like to also use it along with a 22" Samsung LCD for watching movies on DVD (not ripping from DVD - just watching).

I am new to the Mac world. I have been supporting Windows and Unix stuff for years and recently started supporting some iMac and MacBook users. I noticed in watching a DVD on a 24" iMac that the video image wasn't so great when in full screen mode.

Is the mini a good choice for this? I know that it has the integrated video adapter. I am not looking to do any HD or video editing or anything like that. Just watch a movie and get as good of a picture as I would on a standard definition TV.

Any advice? Thanks.

I have my mini set up as a dvr with a Mig. TVmicro. With leopard, I now use it as a video jukebox, streaming movies and music to it from my iMac CD2 20in. My girlfriend loves it. EyeTV is great dvr software. I recommend at least 2g of memory with TVmicro as the mini is the encoder. Works great.
I would not recommend using it as a dvd player unless you have leopard.

Mac Mini CS1 with 2g memory
TVmicro
Leopard w/New Front Row(Apple TV GUI).

 

[ScifiterX]

Indeed it Leopard's new DVD player does seem to be upconverting a bit.

 

[OdduWon]

does the integrated graphics effect video playback quality

 

[Jimmdean]

does the integrated graphics effect video playback quality

No, not for DVD.