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The Mac Mini As A HD HTPC

I have a macbook pro and was messing with playing 1080P HD MKV files...which is definately way eaiser on a PC. As software goes, i tried VLC, Quicktime with perian, OSX XBMC, and Mplayer OSX.

VLC - Seriously unstable. If you try messing with the timeline (to jump around) you can almost guarantee a crash. You have to let it just play for a bit and hope it doesnt crash. Can choose the dolby digital pass through (if you enabled it in system prferences), but if you are watching a movie with subtitles forget it. Mine were microscopic, tried changing sizes/fonts nothing helped. I've seen screenshots of other people that had gigantic overlapping subtitles).

MPlayer OSX - Couldn't figure out how to choose audio stream or subtitles on/off...and the audio was just static...so definately not a solution for my system.

Quicktime (perian) - Played back but kept dropping frames, didnt know about sitting and waiting a while when opening a movie...seems like a pain in the neck anyway, but i'll try that next time. Not sure about 5.1 pass through didnt get that far.

OSX XBMC - I find this app slick but confusing. Setting up the media / locations for your files was strange and its either not intuitive or i need more tmie with it. I've seen cool videos on youtube of people browsing their libraries, but for me i couldnt figure out how they are setting it up. On the good side, it played the 1080p MKV fine with no stuttering, perfectly sized subtitles and passed through the DTS audio...so it's currently the best app for my laptop.

Hope some of the info is usable for your mini.

As for the cable if its like my macbook you need a cable like this:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10229&cs_id=1022902&p_id=1557&seq=1&format=2
 
Cave Man said:
But how would you play a Blu-Ray movie with it?
Click to expand...

Caveman what do you mean with that question? Cant you use a program like Quicktime or something simular to play the Disk?

Are you saying that no-one has written a program to play Blu-Ray Disks?


thx
SL
 
Shen Long said:
Caveman what do you mean with that question? Cant you use a program like Quicktime or something simular to play the Disk?

Are you saying that no-one has written a program to play Blu-Ray Disks?


thx
SL
Click to expand...

No one has written a program to read Blu-Ray Disc for Mac yet but you can burn to BD using Toast
 
Cave Man said:
The only way to play BR or HD-DVD video discs on a Mac is to install Windows and run any of the apps capable of doing so (e.g., AnyDVD).
Click to expand...

Well that is disgusting. Aren't there any codecs you can install in OS X that will allow you to play Blu-Ray using Quicktime or something simular?
 
So what do i do now? i have just souped up my mac mini with all the upgrades & i cant even use it as a Blu-Ray player.

i was seriously contemplating purchasing the UJ-225-B Blue Ray dvd burner & player.

I recently purchased a kick ass 58" Plasma & was going to connect the mac-mini to it & use it as my HTPC.

I'm lost now :(
 
Has anyone tried crossover with Nero or Cyberlink? As they both play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, Just a thought
 
wildmilne said:
OSX XBMC - I find this app slick but confusing. Setting up the media / locations for your files was strange and its either not intuitive or i need more tmie with it. I've seen cool videos on youtube of people browsing their libraries, but for me i couldnt figure out how they are setting it up. On the good side, it played the 1080p MKV fine with no stuttering, perfectly sized subtitles and passed through the DTS audio...so it's currently the best app for my laptop.
Click to expand...

OSX XBMC has only been in development for a few months. But I think it is you best long term solution. The UI seems odd because it is based on the other versions, but it's worth the hassle to figure it out. Hopefully they will swing back to cleaning up the UI once the core functionally has hit their milestones. There was some talk on their site about this already.

Another advantage is that the performance target is based on running well on a 2Ghz Mini.
 
gtyper said:
The Mini is unable to display high quality (high bitrate) 1080p content consistently (you WILL drop frames).

It has everything to do with the GPU since the Mini's GPU shares the CPU Ram and whatnot. A simple X3100 would cause the standard c2d mini to play the content fine.

The reason Apple 1080p trailers play fine through the Mini is that they are relatively mediocre quality (you can often see blocking which is common on lower bitrate x264 encodes).

I've had the Mini choke on super high detail 720p encodes.

I've read about people opening up the Mini and dropping in more Ram and a 2.33 ... but still choke on 1080p due to the GPU sucking.
Click to expand...

Not a single word of that post is true.

I watch 1080i and 720p video on my Mac mini every day, and on the rare occasion when I play something 1080p on it (almost nothing is, currently), it also plays just fine.

The GPU on the mini is pretty much NEVER the problem when it comes to media file playback. It's not a good chipset for 3D gaming (although it handles City of Heroes okay when I dual-boot to Windows), but it's more than up to the task of passing along an HD signal.

Where you run into trouble is the CPU (not the GPU) making sense of poorly-encoded media.

But here's the thing. I have a massive 119" projection screen, and I find that plain ol' 480p anamorphic DVDs look FABULOUS on it. Anybody singing the praises of 1080p is just shoveling hype at you, especially if you're just watching on a typical living-room TV set at a comfortable distance.
 
Tara Davis said:
Not a single word of that post is true.

I watch 1080i and 720p video on my Mac mini every day, and on the rare occasion when I play something 1080p on it (almost nothing is, currently), it also plays just fine.

The GPU on the mini is pretty much NEVER the problem when it comes to media file playback. It's not a good chipset for 3D gaming (although it handles City of Heroes okay when I dual-boot to Windows), but it's more than up to the task of passing along an HD signal.

Where you run into trouble is the CPU (not the GPU) making sense of poorly-encoded media.

But here's the thing. I have a massive 119" projection screen, and I find that plain ol' 480p anamorphic DVDs look FABULOUS on it. Anybody singing the praises of 1080p is just shoveling hype at you, especially if you're just watching on a typical living-room TV set at a comfortable distance.
Click to expand...

I recently played the 2 HD sample files on my mac mini....

Grassrootz said:
I am in the same boat as the OP Could someone out there who already owns a mini try playing one of the following sample MKV files?

My understanding is VLC player should play them.

I found some short sample clip mkv files you can test at your convenience. They should include dolby digital 5.1 track as well.


Shootemup 720p sample: http://rapidshare.com/files/80194809/s-shootemup-sample.mkv
Live Free or Die Hard 1080p sample: http://rapidshare.com/files/101784196/live.free.or.die.hard.2007.1080p.bluray.dts.x264.sample-hv.mkv
Click to expand...

ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT THE MAC MINI KICKS ASS!!!!

GPU has almost nothing to do with playback quality when it comes to video etc. GPU is only needed for 3D *****.

For anyone out there wanting a kewl looking HTPC (Windows/Mac) then get yourself a mac mini. It does everything you want it to & more.

I have been reading up on these forums & others & after personally testing everything out for myself i found that it is a great unit. All it needs is a Blu-Ray player/recorder. Panasonic (Matsushita) make them & i think at a fairly affordable price (US$530 on eBay USA) - Model UJ-225.

I am currently running it on a Dell 27" LCD which is FULL HD 1920x1200 @ 32Bit, however it will be soon migrating into the living room which houses a 58" Samsung FULL HD Plasma screen. If you want a HTPC then this is the one to go for hands down!!!!
 
Shen Long said:
I have been reading up on these forums & others & after personally testing everything out for myself i found that it is a great unit. All it needs is a Blu-Ray player/recorder. Panasonic (Matsushita) make them & i think at a fairly affordable price (US$530 on eBay USA) - Model UJ-225.

I am currently running it on a Dell 27" LCD which is FULL HD 1920x1200 @ 32Bit, however it will be soon migrating into the living room which houses a 58" Samsung FULL HD Plasma screen. If you want a HTPC then this is the one to go for hands down!!!!
Click to expand...

I'm doing similar with my Mini hooked up to a 52" Samsung (F96) LCD in the lounge. Picture quality is amazing and it doubles as my 'home server' which controls lighting, runs downloads, and provides web-based secure access into my home network.

One question - has anyone actually tried installing a blue-ray drive? And if so how did it perform?

Just wondering as on my PS3 (which is huge compared to a Mini and therefore has loads of internal space) the fans run at full blast when playing a film on blue-ray. I'd hate to think what would happen to a Mini with the relative lack of ventilation!

Also does Leopard include any drivers for that hardware?
 
Shen Long said:
GPU has almost nothing to do with playback quality when it comes to video etc. GPU is only needed for 3D *****.
Click to expand...

That's not quite true. Most GPUs these days aide in h.264 decoding. This is a VERY intense process and the current Minis strain very hard to do the job with just the CPU. Fortunately the CPU is usually up to the task, but for high profile and/or very high bit-rate files it can't keep up. The result is the occasional frame drop. You may not even see the drop since it keeps everything in sync well enough in most cases, but for the A/V enthusiasts it's still a problem.

A better GPU would address this problem and relieve some of the strain from the CPU

The perception that the Mini is too slow came about a year ago when BD discs were first being ripped. One of the leading contributors to this feeling was that the decoder software at the time was not optimized for dual core CPU's. Since the players have gotten better, it's less of an issue.

In the end, I agree, the Mini is fast enough for 1080p in almost all cases.
 
mac mini: now or wait new version

Hello everyone,

I'm going to buy a Plasma Panasonic Full HD 50inch in a few weeks and I was wondering If I should buy the mac mini now and add some memory (is it maximum 2x 1GB) or wait because there is a rumor that a new version should be available in june 08 ?

Thanks in advance.

cheers!
 
Rise, thread, rise!

I'm thinking of replacing my AppleTV in my bedroom with my old Mini and using my AppleTV in my HT (it's wired for component, not VGA or HDMI).

I have an old stock Mini:

1.66 Core Duo, 512 Megs RAM

It seems to be playing the iTunes HD purchases just fine! :confused:

I thought that the specs for playing 720p iTunes vids were the 1.83 Core Duo.

Also, it seems like it's loading more slowly over WiFi compared to the AppleTV - anyone know why? (I use streaming).

Would it be worth cracking open to upgrade the memory?

Thanks!
 
gkarris said:
Rise, thread, rise!

I'm thinking of replacing my AppleTV in my bedroom with my old Mini and using my AppleTV in my HT (it's wired for component, not VGA or HDMI).

I have an old stock Mini:

1.66 Core Duo, 512 Megs RAM

It seems to be playing the iTunes HD purchases just fine! :confused:

I thought that the specs for playing 720p iTunes vids were the 1.83 Core Duo.

Also, it seems like it's loading more slowly over WiFi compared to the AppleTV - anyone know why? (I use streaming).

Would it be worth cracking open to upgrade the memory?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Definitely and if you have a 4200RPM drive, chuck it and buy at least a 5400RPM one. The WiFi is probably because its g whereas the AppleTV is n. Checkout Plex, the XBMC for OSX replacement.
 
flopticalcube said:
Definitely and if you have a 4200RPM drive, chuck it and buy at least a 5400RPM one. The WiFi is probably because its g whereas the AppleTV is n.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

The stock drive in the Intels is 5400RPM. AFA WiFi - I have only a g WAP. I guess it could be with iTune's/Front Row's overhead compared to AppleTV?

flopticalcube said:
Checkout Plex, the XBMC for OSX replacement.
Click to expand...

Oooooh, you bad, bad, boy.... :eek:

:p

Will a 7200 rpm make a difference in streaming?
 
flopticalcube said:
Definitely and if you have a 4200RPM drive, chuck it and buy at least a 5400RPM one. The WiFi is probably because its g whereas the AppleTV is n.
Click to expand...
I cracked it open - and without a scratch! Looked online and people are saying to use a Pizza Cutter instead of a Putty Knife... :eek:

The upgrade from 512 Megs to 2 Gigs is like night and day!!!

flopticalcube said:
Checkout Plex, the XBMC for OSX replacement.
Click to expand...

Downloaded and installed...

OMG

Hulu?
Netflix?
YouTube?
Access to my Tivo Box downstairs?

:eek:

Any way of putting Plex on an AppleTV?

Maybe Apple should just buy them.... :eek:
 
gkarris said:
Rise, thread, rise!

I'm thinking of replacing my AppleTV in my bedroom with my old Mini and using my AppleTV in my HT (it's wired for component, not VGA or HDMI).

I have an old stock Mini:

1.66 Core Duo, 512 Megs RAM

It seems to be playing the iTunes HD purchases just fine! :confused:

I thought that the specs for playing 720p iTunes vids were the 1.83 Core Duo.

...
Click to expand...

I found this article on HD playback using Mini's - great article!

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...c-mini-core-h264hd-playback-capabilities.html
 
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