This is what i don't get.
It could be it's not actually transcoding. Your sony may support the formats used natively. In that case not much power is required. If it were transcoding 4k your macbook would get loud and hot. Just look at the now playing section of PMS on your macbook as the movie is playing on your tv and it will tell you.
It’s not interesting, it’s bad advice. i5 is the sweet spot for performance value.
Mac OS has only been effective with GCD which is SL so less than ten years. Why not? Because multithreaded programming is hard to write, hard to explain and hard to debug.
These are generally worker threads that are in a wait state for the duration of the IO to complete. These generally are not cpu bound.
Unless a threaded job is cpu bound then you won’t get much utility from more cores. Even on single core systems you generally found GUI apps running the GUI on their own thread to be very responsive with other cpu bound jobs due to time slicing by the OS.
Activity Monitor is meaningless without context of job scheduler state for threads.
Plex is an app for streaming content over your home network (internet is also possible but lets remain onto the home network) from your server (Mac, PC, NAS) to a client (TV, ATV4K, iPad).
Plex and iTunes are just different libraries. I don't use iTunes for movies though so i'm no expert on that but indeed Plex should replace iTunes and streams directly to the ATV4K Plex app
Plex is for all your local content. Give it a shot, it's free so why not? I don't bother with iTunes.
You don't bother with conversions with Plex. It can play anything as it can transcode whatever is not supported natively by the client. This is where a powerful CPU comes in. If transcoding is needed. This allows you to play content on any platform anywhere and it will work. I primarily use Plex on the ATV4k. Sometimes I use infuse. And sometimes I stream to my shield or oppo.
it is horsepower, why corner yourself to only look at going after your min requirements? Getting an i7 over the i5 will cost you 2 months of a cable bill. i7 future proofs your machine and offers you better resale, don't be cheap with the CPU - if we were talking about a huge spike in cost, like RAM, that was upgradeable, sure - be conservative. Like getting a 4 cylinder Mustang, why bother. The i7 was the easiest decision for this Mac. if you are looking for a low end web browser, look somewhere else.
Really, what are you talking about? Anything less than an i7 is stooping to "minimum requirements"? The i5 is a 6 core that is one of the fastest CPU's Apple currently offers in their entire lineup. For a lot of people here, $200 is a lot of money. And so your conclusion is that if you just want a computer for general home use, but aren't willing to spend the money on the top-of-the-line i7, you shouldn't buy a Mac. Yeah, got it.
My iMac lasted 9 years - these machines are built to last unlike PC's. Future proofing a computer is the dumbest way to spend money? Says who? That advice is ridiculous. If you buy a computer and don't consider the future of computing power, especially on machines that can get you 5-9 years, well - that makes zero sense.Really, what are you talking about? Anything less than an i7 is stooping to "minimum requirements"? The i5 is a 6 core that is one of the fastest CPU's Apple currently offers in their entire lineup. For a lot of people here, $200 is a lot of money. And so your conclusion is that if you just want a computer for general home use, but aren't willing to spend the money on the top-of-the-line i7, you shouldn't buy a Mac. Yeah, got it.
BTW, just a little advice for everyone else - one of the dumbest ways to spend your money is buying computer upgrades you don't need for the sake of "future proofing" and "resale value".
Oh please! I have an 11 year old PC which is still going strong. There's nothing special about Macs that make them more reliable than PCs.
That is just wrong - PC’s get so buggy and loaded down with crappy “free” software and invaded by every bug - and that doesn’t include bad Microsoft OS upgrades - I use PC’s as well - I have both. You are an anomaly at 11 years, not the norm.
