Old Mac Mini to be media server...worth it ?

[Jenheta]

Hi all,

I am not into the media server world so excuse my ingenuity.

After many, many years, I finally bought a new TV. So this is the
first time I am interested in watching digital content
off my iMac G4 2GHz. I thought that Apple TV could be
the obvious solution but it feels crippled in many ways when compared
to a Mac Mini. My neighbor has a well maintained Mac mini (1.25ghz 1gb)
which I could get for a few bucks (it is too slow for him now).

Are there any issues (other than the lack of remote control) to use
an old Mac Mini to act as a media hub to my TV ?

Thanks,

J.

 

[Tilpots]

If you're using it just for iTunes music, it'll work great. But if it's for HD video files, I'm not too sure that's your best bet. For HD most would recommend at the very least 1.83Ghz with 2GB RAM. I have the latest Mini (2.26Ghz and 2GB) and it works fantastically.

 

[Jenheta]

Thanks !
This is definitely an issue then. I got a bunch of movies off iTunes
past year and definitely I would like to stream them somehow.
Well, here it goes my idea of saving an old Mac Mini from its
fate...

J

 

[Tilpots]

There's plenty of newer ones that "need saving."

 

[fpnc]

I use a 1.5GHz G4 Mac mini as my iTunes streaming server to my Apple TV and it works well except that it doesn't support the wake from sleep option that Apple added to the Apple TV in the v3.x software update. To use the wake from sleep option you need an Intel Mac that is running Snow Leopard. When I say "wake from sleep" I'm talking about the ability of the Apple TV (or Airport Extreme/Express) to wake a sleeping Mac when it needs access to said Mac. If you don't have this option and the Mac is sleeping then the Apple TV will suffer an error (can't access iTunes...) when it tries to access media on the Mac.

As for HD content, I can stream 720p, HD content from the Mac mini to the Apple TV but the Mac mini itself can't play anything better than SD.