[krijeck]

Hello!

As you can see in my Signature I have an old ZOTAC MAGHD-ND01 running @2GHz (over clocked) on an Intel Atom. Now as the performance of that device is good but not good enough I plan (already since longer time) to buy a new HTPC box/computer ...

I woud like to buy an Apple Mac Mini as I like the design, the performance and I am an Apple fan. My question now is do you guys recommend that device for usage with XBMC or should I prefer to built one of eskros poofyhairguy builds? I think if I try to reach the performance of the latest Mac Minis (cheapest Mac mini with 2.5GHz dual-Core Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM 500 GB-HDD, Intel HD Graphics 4000 and OS X Mountain Lion) I would also spend as much money as the Apple charges!

What I would like to achieve is to play of course HD1080 content, use nice skins, probably play some nice games (starting with Advanced Launcher) and to stream several online streams. So nothing really difficult.

I like the design and did not find any HTPC case which would come close to that. The case I did like the most was one of the http://www.streacom.com series the FC5 OD FANLESS CHASSIS but the price just for that is pretty high and what I found out about mounting motherboard and so on (especially the heat sinks) did not sound very promising.

Maybe someone had already the same thoughts. Any disadvantages because of OSX (like it actually)? any recommendations?
Any other advantaes/disadvantages or ideas?

thanks in advance,
/krijeck

[ozkhan1]

No bit streaming on Mac OS X but if that's not an issue you are good to go.

I use a 2011 model with frodo myself

[krijeck]

No bit streaming on Mac OS X but if that's not an issue you are good to go.

I use a 2011 model with frodo myself

OK, thanks. Bit streaming would not be the problem for me. Any other disadvantages which I should take into consideration?
/krijeck

[Danioj]

I am in a similar situation to the OP. I have just had to Google Bitstream to ascertain if that is going to be an issue for me. As I read I see it has to do with Audio. I confess however to being a little confused still if this limitation of OSX/Mac Mini is going to impact me, so I thought I would give my setup for people to hopefully comment if they have the time.

The setup I am contemplating is:

Mac Mini (My machine is currently a HP ProBook 6550b) running:

XBMC v12.0 RC3 - final eventually, obviously once released.
NPVR
SabNZB
CouchPotato
Sick Beard
1 USB TV Tuner
4 x 4TB WD Mybook essentials (On Mac Mini - USB3)
Playon (to access netflix, hulu, amazon VOD etc)

Yamaha 7.1 receiver
HDMI connection
Pioneer 1080p Plasma

Gigabit ethernet and 300Mbs Wireless (Playon only)

Goal: play encoded 1080p video (~15GB per mkv) from the USB drives or the old NV+ NAS - to be used as backup eventually)


Going with a Mac Mini - are there any limitations people can see that I will encounter?


Thank you! =:-)

[krijeck]

good to see anotherone thinking of this issue as well!
As I am currently testing out the XBMC Frodo RC3 on my MacBook Pro the only limitation so far I see is gaming. There are less games and emulators available for that platform and it seems that Advanced Launcher Plugin also does not support OSX fully.
Audio Bit streaming as second issue.
/krijeck

[ozkhan1]

No bit streaming on Mac OS X but if that's not an issue you are good to go.

I use a 2011 model with frodo myself

OK, thanks. Bit streaming would not be the problem for me. Any other disadvantages which I should take into consideration?
/krijeck

I was not entirely happy with the Mac OS on my mini for other reasons and installed windows 7 with bootcamp
I still have the option to use the Mac OS if I want to though. For what you will be using it for, I really don't see any show stoppers and it should work out great.

---

I am in a similar situation to the OP. I have just had to Google Bitstream to ascertain if that is going to be an issue for me. As I read I see it has to do with Audio. I confess however to being a little confused still if this limitation of OSX/Mac Mini is going to impact me, so I thought I would give my setup for people to hopefully comment if they have the time.

The setup I am contemplating is:

Mac Mini (My machine is currently a HP ProBook 6550b) running:

XBMC v12.0 RC3 - final eventually, obviously once released.
NPVR
SabNZB
CouchPotato
Sick Beard
1 USB TV Tuner
4 x 4TB WD Mybook essentials (On Mac Mini - USB3)
Playon (to access netflix, hulu, amazon VOD etc)

Yamaha 7.1 receiver
HDMI connection
Pioneer 1080p Plasma

Gigabit ethernet and 300Mbs Wireless (Playon only)

Goal: play encoded 1080p video (~15GB per mkv) from the USB drives or the old NV+ NAS - to be used as backup eventually)


Going with a Mac Mini - are there any limitations people can see that I will encounter?


Thank you! =:-)

I am not entirely clear on what you are trying to accomplish here with playon. Will it be running on the mini to stream to other devices? If so, you should be ok.

Npvr backed will not run on Mac OS. With mac, you have limited dvr options. Eyetv or mythtv are two that I can think if.

Now if you are running npvr back end on a different machine and using mac just as front end, you should be ok.

[Danioj]

I use playon for delivering my media to other unpnp devices (such as sony tv with limited codec support) and game consoles around the house. I also use it for delivering my local XBMC install with access to netflix, amazon vod, hulu and soccer streams. I can use another machine to install the pvr back-end.

Does this change anything?

[ozkhan1]

Don't think it does. Playon just runs in the background

[Angelscry]

As I am currently testing out the XBMC Frodo RC3 on my MacBook Pro the only limitation so far I see is gaming. There are less games and emulators available for that platform and it seems that Advanced Launcher Plugin also does not support OSX fully.

Advanced Launcher could support OSX. But to have support, you first need to have users and feedback from this platform .

[krijeck]

As I am currently testing out the XBMC Frodo RC3 on my MacBook Pro the only limitation so far I see is gaming. There are less games and emulators available for that platform and it seems that Advanced Launcher Plugin also does not support OSX fully.

Advanced Launcher could support OSX. But to have support, you first need to have users and feedback from this platform .

youre right. This was not meant to be a critic. just what I found out. Actually love the Advanced Launcher Plugin and the work you did!!!

[Angelscry]

No problem. In fact would be happy to have more OSX users feedback...