Movies on external drive, USB or Firewire?

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I'm planning on getting a 2011 Mac mini when it comes out, and hook it up to the TV. For that, I'll put my DVD and Bluray collection on an external harddrive, and hook it up to the mini.

So my question is, is an USB disc good enough for MKV Bluray rips or do I need to go Firewire 4/800, to ensure no hickups?

 

[Hellhammer]

Even the highest quality Blu-Rays have bitrate of around 50Mb/s while USB can provide ~30MB/s (240Mb/s) so USB is fine

 

[simsaladimbamba]

USB will suffice with its 25 to 35 MB/s, as even .mkv rips don't have a bitrate that high. Normally HD movies using the H264 or another MPEG-4 codec use a bitrate between 5Mb/s (=0.625 MB/s) and 15Mb/s (= 1.875 MB/s).
Therefor you can play around 25 HD rips at the same time, but the CPU will **** up long before that.

 

[walterwhite]

USB can be throttled back, since it is processor dependent. Firewire by contrast has no effect on the processor, will not slow down other things you are working on and will have a sustained value... 800Mb/s is the top but depending on the Drive/fragmentation (weakest link(s)) you can get close to that.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Thanks guys. Sounds like I shouldn't waste extra money on Firewire800 then.

 

[bearcatrp]

It would be great if apple added esata or USB 3 to the 2011 mini. Would sell mine and upgrade in a heart beat. Currently use FireWire 800 for mine and a 2 disk external from OWC.

 

[Bye Bye Baby]

My drobo is FW800. USB is fine for streaming one film to one TV. However if I am serving two MKV (blue ray rips) and perhaps transferring a few files you will need the FW800.

USB is fine for single serve, FW if you want multipoint streaming.

 

[Hammie]

I have an Iomega 2TB drive connected to my Mac Mini via FW800. It may be overkill, but I would prefer the fastest connection for streaming media. Many times my kids are streaming something to their ATV2, my wife to the ATV1 in our media room and I am listening to music in my office.

 

[From A Buick 8]

Also vote for FireWire. Using one now to feed 2 ATV and an older Mac. and it works great.

 

[c.greene914]

I have an older mac mini (circa 2007) with a 2TB WD drive hooked up through USB. I can stream movies to two separate ATV2's simultaneously with no problem.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

My drobo is FW800. USB is fine for streaming one film to one TV. However if I am serving two MKV (blue ray rips) and perhaps transferring a few files you will need the FW800.

USB is fine for single serve, FW if you want multipoint streaming.

Well, at most it would be used to serve one TV with Bluray rips, and do 2 backups using TimeMachine.

I have an older mac mini (circa 2007) with a 2TB WD drive hooked up through USB. I can stream movies to two separate ATV2's simultaneously with no problem.

Point taken..

Although, FW800 isn't that more expensive these days..