I recently have gotten into video, such as downloading .mkv files from Vuze, and .mov and .avi files from various other places. Now that I will be purchasing a Mac mini I hope to watch movies from the iTunes Store. One of the things I hated about my Power Mac G4 500 is that it's slow processor could only play about 45 percent of the videos I had. The rest of the videos I tried either the audio and video would either out of sync, just sputter along, or refuse to play at all. Will the 2.0Ghz processor of the new Mac minis be sufficient for video, or do I need to go with the 2.26 Ghz processor offered in the "build-to-order" option?
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Playing video on the Mac mini?
- Thread starter ginopiazza49
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I have last years mac mini with the 2.0 C2D and three gigs of rams and it plays video without any problems. I have played everything from Lost on Hulu in HD to the HD movie trailers from the apple store in Plex without any problems. I am going to venture a guess that the new model with the much better GPU will do even better
I am in the same boat as you. I have a 2.4 MB w/ 4 gigs and it handles everything fine. I wanted a mini for an htpc but was worried the lesser spec'd machine wouldn't handle it as well. I searched the forums here and at a home theater site and found that the prior 1.8 processor did well. I feel confident that the bump to 2.0 and the help of nvidia graphics should tackle the job just fine.
I have a 1.66 core duo and it will do some 1080p. It stutters on .mkv and h264. 720p has never been an issue. I have no doubt that the new ones will be just fine.
Hmm.. I think our definitions of "fine" are not the same. I have the 2GHz C2D 3GB ram and it really peters out at true 1080P. Are you watching it scaled down maybe? A monitor that's not 1080 or above would not be true 1080P.
My mini plays 1080P on a 1080P Sony TV, but the frame rate drops to almost 10fps in very detailed scenes.
I'd guess though that even the base NEW mini will handle 1080P without a hitch. It finally has a real graphics card. That was the only thing holding it back.
Time to visit the Apple store, download the BBC HD trailer of Japan and give it a test drive.
Any new mac mini will play video fine. Make sure your monitor is good though. The video card helps put just a little, but the card might not do any good with a 10 year old monitor.
some possible misinformation on here
it depends on what you are using to play the media
i.e. front row, vlc, or plex
plex is the best in my opinion but at this time only is really impacted by the processor
the video card is nice but unless the player can use it to accelerate the playing of the file its not going to do much
the big change will most likely come in snow leopard as it will allow utilization of the graphics cores in the nvidia cheap side by side with the coreduo
it depends on what you are using to play the media
i.e. front row, vlc, or plex
plex is the best in my opinion but at this time only is really impacted by the processor
the video card is nice but unless the player can use it to accelerate the playing of the file its not going to do much
the big change will most likely come in snow leopard as it will allow utilization of the graphics cores in the nvidia cheap side by side with the coreduo
1.83 Core Duos struggle mightily
My 1.83Ghz Core Duo Mini with 1GB RAM will not play 1080 mkv files fine. It struggles badly, definitely not watchable. I've tried it with Plex, Quicktime, and VLC. I was tempted to install Windows and try them with CoreAVC but never got around to it.
This would be more disappointing to me if I had faster internet, but I don't, so in an effort to save time/bandwidth/ratio I try and only deal with 720p movies. They play fine.
I'm banking on the new Mini being able to play the 1080p mkvs because I am probably going to get one and pass on my older Mini.
My 1.83Ghz Core Duo Mini with 1GB RAM will not play 1080 mkv files fine. It struggles badly, definitely not watchable. I've tried it with Plex, Quicktime, and VLC. I was tempted to install Windows and try them with CoreAVC but never got around to it.
This would be more disappointing to me if I had faster internet, but I don't, so in an effort to save time/bandwidth/ratio I try and only deal with 720p movies. They play fine.
I'm banking on the new Mini being able to play the 1080p mkvs because I am probably going to get one and pass on my older Mini.
Hmm.. I think our definitions of "fine" are not the same. I have the 2GHz C2D 3GB ram and it really peters out at true 1080P. Are you watching it scaled down maybe? A monitor that's not 1080 or above would not be true 1080P.
My mini plays 1080P on a 1080P Sony TV, but the frame rate drops to almost 10fps in very detailed scenes.
I'd guess though that even the base NEW mini will handle 1080P without a hitch. It finally has a real graphics card. That was the only thing holding it back.
Time to visit the Apple store, download the BBC HD trailer of Japan and give it a test drive.
Initially, I based my comment on my Mac mini's ability to play 1080p trailers from Apple's site on my monitor (which has a native resolution of 1920x1200). After reading your reply, I decided to download some 1080p mkv content and give it a shot.
As has been noted, attempting to play 1080p mkvs in VLC will result in some stuttering. However, if I use XBMC the videos play fast and without any hiccups. I didn't try QuickTime or Plex (Plex only works with Leopard, my mini is running Tiger).
Give XBMC and/or Plex a try. You may be pleasantly surprised.