Wich Mac Mini Mid 2011 is best for 1080p playback ?

[tbayrgs]

Hey guys, im also thinking about purchasing a macmini only for Media Centers. I do know that any of the new mac minis are good enough for this purpose, but what about older models?

They´re still selling older models here quite cheaper than the new ones. Is this model good enough for 1080p video playback?

MC270BZA
Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo 2.4Ghz / 2GB / HD 320GB / DVD-RW / Bluetooth / HDMI / NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256MB

Absolutely...I'm using a Core2Duo 2.0 GHz with no problems.

 

[Berknip]

(...)

Source: I use the base model as my HTPC connected to a network 8TB NAS on my LAN which hosts/streams all my 1080p blu-ray encoded rips.

djrbx - would it be an imposition to ask how you rip 1080p blu-ray disks (hardware,software,process) - or point me in the right direction? I've got a LaCie Blu-Ray RW, as well as a large QNAP NAS but haven't found an efficient process for moving from physical Blu-Ray to stored rips.

 

[habe]

1080P at 60P is not the problem. Where you can run into issues is with 24p content if your TV accepts it. 24p (23.976hz) is not implemented correctly on Sandy Bridge processors and will result in an extra frame every 40 seconds causing a slight jutter. Some people notice it, others don't. I do.

Does the mini have 24p as an output selection for external monitors?

ATI handles 24p better. (although again, its not perfect either, just closer than intel).

habe

 

[tbayrgs]

djrbx - would it be an imposition to ask how you rip 1080p blu-ray disks (hardware,software,process) - or point me in the right direction? I've got a LaCie Blu-Ray RW, as well as a large QNAP NAS but haven't found an efficient process for moving from physical Blu-Ray to stored rips.

Download MakeMKV from here and go here in the forums to get the activation key that makes the software free while it's in beta.

Insert you blu ray into your drive, launch MakeMKV, click open disk to have the software analyze/decrypt the disk. Select whatever titles you wish to rip--unfortunately they are only identified numerically so unless you have a blu-ray player in the house, no way of knowing what each title is. I'm only interested in the feature film so I generally only select the largest multi-chapter title. Click the drop down arrow for any titles you select to select/deselect the specific audio and subtitle tracks you wish to rip. Once you're done with this, click on the Save Selected Titles icon (green arrow pointing down to HDD) and let her go.

After the rip is complete, you'll have an .mkv file that is fully playable in VLC or any number of other media programs (PLEX--my personal favorite, XMBC, etc), assuming your Mini is only a couple years old at most. If you need something of a more manageable file size or playable on the Apple TV or iDevices without jail breaking them, you can encode the .mkv using Handbrake. The Apple TV preset will create an encode that is playable on iPhone 4 or most recent gen iPod Touch, any iPad, and any Apple TV. If you only use Apple TV 2, stick with that preset--will work with all previous mentioned devices except the Apple TV 1 and generally yields a even better result.

 

[Berknip]

Download MakeMKV from hereand go here in the forums to get the activation key that makes the software free while it's in beta.

Insert you blu ray into your drive, launch MakeMKV, click open disk to have the software analyze/decrypt the disk. Select whatever titles you wish to rip--unfortunately they are only identified numerically so unless you have a blu-ray player in the house, no way of knowing what each title is. I'm only interested in the feature film so I generally only select the largest multi-chapter title. Click the drop down arrow for any titles you select to select/deselect the specific audio and subtitle tracks you wish to rip. Once you're done with this, click on the Save Selected Titles icon (green arrow pointing down to HDD) and let her go.

After the rip is complete, you'll have an .mkv file that is fully playable in VLC or any number of other media programs (PLEX--my personal favorite, XMBC, etc), assuming your Mini is only a couple years old at most. If you need something of a more manageable file size or playable on the Apple TV or iDevices without jail breaking them, you can encode the .mkv using Handbrake. The Apple TV preset will create an encode that is playable on iPhone 4 or most recent gen iPod Touch, any iPad, and any Apple TV. If you only use Apple TV 2, stick with that preset--will work with all previous mentioned devices except the Apple TV 1 and generally yields a even better result.

Excellent tbayrgs - I will be giving this a go this weekend! Thank you.