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Preparing for a Mac Mini-base Media Center
- Thread starter Alan S
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Good luck having anything watchable at even a moderate bit rate if it's in h.264.
But is the above statement true for the new Mac Mini?
Try the following:
new 2009 Mac Mini
2.0 GH Intel Core 2 Duo
upgrade to 4 GB memory
install Perian and play a 1080p H.264 MKV using Perian in Front Row.
Does this play well?
To be honest I play these shows on my iMac 2.4 GHz (late 07). Yes, I'll admit there is some loading time in the beginning but it plays.
Ultimately though I was just putting it out there, as Plex is a free player and so there's no risk of cost on whatever option you choose. Though I did give Plex a shot and found it to be a little more complicated. Baby steps is all I can say.
But CaveMan has a pretty grueling setup as well as experience with this stuff and so I have no reason to doubt him, rather just saying what I use.
(My Mac Mini HTPC is a G4 so the MKV performance is abysmal).
Right now, Mac OS X does all its video decoding with the cpu, not the gpu. So, a current Mini and the previous generation Mini, both at 2 gHz will give roughly the same performance for video playback (perhaps a slight edge to the new Mini with its faster bus). Quicktime, and its surrogate Front Row, can have difficulty with highly compressed, high bit rate h.264 video at 1080p from my testing. If you download a 1080p trailer from Apple's web site and open it in Quicktime, you'll see it's a pretty low bit rate (around 9 mbps; Blu-rays are typically ~30 mbps). This results in easier decoding for the cpu, but blocking or dropped frames can be an issue on scenes where there's a lot of movement, panning or gradients. This is where Plex excels - its decoding algorithm (ffmpeg) is the best you can get for Macs.
Of course, one of the reasons Apple has gone with nVidia 9400m in the new Mini is for OpenCL in Snow Leopard (10.6), which should (according to Apple) make use of those other 16 processing cores on its gpu. If that occurs, then you will likely find the new Mini can handle just about anything you can throw at it, including variable frame rate, high bit rate Blu-ray rips.
I really am not one to get a boner over possible future Apple products. But dude, if the OpenCL and Grand Central technologies in 10.6 deliver the way that they are semi-hyped to then we'll never know what hit us. I really am excited about the prospect. But won't believe it 'til I see it.
Haven't anticipated something this much since the iPhone.
Warning: You will not be able to play iTunes HD content from a new mini to anything other than the 24" LED Cinema Display. Apple's crappy HDCP implementation only supports that monitor over the mini-DisplayPort connector.
If playing HD iTunes content on your TV is important to you, you will need an AppleTV or a pre-mini-DisplayPort Mac.
If playing HD iTunes content on your TV is important to you, you will need an AppleTV or a pre-mini-DisplayPort Mac.
Are you saying that using DVI to HDMI cable to a TV won't permit playback of iTunes HD movies? You've tried this?
I can switch my tv's input from my Mac Mini (connected via mini-dvi to dvi to hdmi to my Dell LCD TV) to cable tv no problem. However, when I switch the input from cable tv to mac mini it just flashes a black screen, a blue screen, then the desktop over and over again. I can only get the desktop to come up by switching back and forth between the cable and mac mini input one more time.
anyone else seen anything like this? it seems like it is just getting stuck or something, but it happens everytime.
same thing happens if you try and do picture in picture, where one of the pictures is the mac mini.
anyone else seen anything like this? it seems like it is just getting stuck or something, but it happens everytime.
same thing happens if you try and do picture in picture, where one of the pictures is the mac mini.
Yes, that's what I'm saying - on a mini-displayport equipped mac, you can only play iTunes HD movies on the internal screen (if there is one) or on the 24" LED Cinema Display. Apple does not support HDCP over DVI, just mini-DisplayPort on the Mac and HDMI only on the AppleTV.
No, I have not tried it personally - in fact, this situation is keeping me from buying a new Mac Mini.
Because of the way Macs do Overscan, make sure the video device you are outputting to has a way to adjust the overscan over whatever input you are using.
If you don't, you'll be stuck with the OS X choices of a thick black band all the way around the image, or cutting off 10% of the picture on all sides which includes the dock and menu bar.
Everyone says SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX can fix these...but I sure as hell couldn't make it work and couldn't find a single thread of anyone who had successfully made it work. My TV didn't support adjustable overscan, my next one will.
If you don't, you'll be stuck with the OS X choices of a thick black band all the way around the image, or cutting off 10% of the picture on all sides which includes the dock and menu bar.
Everyone says SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX can fix these...but I sure as hell couldn't make it work and couldn't find a single thread of anyone who had successfully made it work. My TV didn't support adjustable overscan, my next one will.
Those links will still work. The new minis come with a mini dvi - dvi adapter. Not quite as elegant solution as when my old mini had a full DVI plug but in my case it fine because I already had the HDMI-DVI cable connected to the TV as I was just swapping an old mini for the new version. However, we should be seeing mini displayport to HDMI cables soon (if not out already)
do you have a source for this? If true, that's a crippling restriction on the new mini.
I would really recommend trying plex for the mac (os x only xbmc port). It works extremely well for a home theater app. I am using it to access my itunes music, photos, stream from my mythtv backend, access hulu, nbc, etc.
http://plexapp.com
- James
This link shows a mini-displayport to hdmi connector for $14.95.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=5311&seq=1&format=2
Estimated time of arrival: Mar. 27, 2009.
Is this a solved issue?
So, the expected improvement in the short-run is:
From: DDR2 667 MHz bus with the 2007 Mac Mini
To: DDR3 with 1066 MHz memory bus with the 2009 Mac Mini.
That is still a 60% increase in speed even before accounting for the nVidia chip set.
I'd still like to know if anyone has actually done 1080p with the new Mac Mini.
Once you up-grade the Mac Mini to OS-X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) it should be able to take full advantage of the nVidia chip set and then the sky is the limit, if I read this correctly.
Well, you might see a 10% to 15% increase in performance.
If Apple isn't yanking our chains (which they have in the past).
I seriously will not be able to take it if they are!!!! Arghhhh, why do I care so much about this??!?!?!
they've delayed that multiple times, but we'll see what happens on the 27th
so far the status quo has been to push it back again the day before
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/ar...-hd-movies-dont-play-on-my-monitor-solutions/
Apple hasn't updated its iTunes terms or FAQ yet.
It's been pretty well known that Apple ACD's haven't had HDCP until this new 24" model. Dells have had HDCP for some time and the Monoprice miniDP to HDMI adapter will almost certainly be HDCP compliant (possibly why it has been delayed). So the enabling of HDCP will only be a big deal for people connecting to Apple ACDs.
No. The big deal is that Apple only sends HDCP over miniDisplayPort signalling on macs. An HDCP-compliant DVI display (or HDMI display connected via DVI-HDMI cable) won't work on a mac for watching HDCP-protected content like iTunes HD programming.
This is a very interesting point. I didn't even now about HDCP when starting this thread. Here is a question, which might seem dumb, but I need to ask.
Are all HDTV monitors (like the Samsung LCD HDTV) HDCP compliant?
Does an HDMI connection on the HDTV monitor automatically imply it uses HDCP?
Do I need to be asking more questions than just "what types of connectors do you have?" when looking at HDTVs?
WTF?!?
And to think I was just about to pull the trigger on buying a new mini.
The reality is that this just pushes people toward pirating. Whether it's lack of support by Netflix, limited selection at iTunes, or DRM that prevents you from even using what you buy, the fact is that sometimes it's just easier to pirate stuff.
My nearly 2 yr old Sammy had some issues with compliance (not only mfg out there, BTW). I ended up switching over to Component for my AppleTV. Since that time they may have worked the kinks out and I should probably check to see if there's a firmware. Other than that, I can't tell you how happy I am with it.
On a semi-related topic -- has any tried the Sans Digital 4 or 8-bay enclosure with streaming? I've been looking at getting one of these to hang off my mini (or future NAS) for quite some time. Just trying to get my mess of hard drives organized and in one place.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111047