ATV vs Mac Mini: Features and Performance
#16
I've been going back and forth between a mac mini and an HP slimline pc. I know it's cheaper to build your own, but I can get the slimline with a bluray drive, a E7200 C2D 2.5ghz processor, 3gb ram, nvidia 9500gs video w/ hdmi for about $660 after HP $400 off $999+.

I take it this system would stream and play HD video (mkv) better than a mac mini. Or are there issues with the nvidia and ati drivers that make the video not as good even thought the hardware has more horsepowerHuh??

Kevin
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#17
kkj1961 Wrote:I've been going back and forth between a mac mini and an HP slimline pc. I know it's cheaper to build your own, but I can get the slimline with a bluray drive, a E7200 C2D 2.5ghz processor, 3gb ram, nvidia 9500gs video w/ hdmi for about $660 after HP $400 off $999+.

I take it this system would stream and play HD video (mkv) better than a mac mini. Or are there issues with the nvidia and ati drivers that make the video not as good even thought the hardware has more horsepowerHuh??

Should be fine unless something is badly configured.
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#18
But a Mac Mini should stream HD content just fine too right? I only run 1080i but even if I got a 1080p tv... the mini should still be able to stream that fairly well right?

Also davilla, was my conclusions right in my last response post to you?
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#19
mrt2 Wrote:But a Mac Mini should stream HD content just fine too right? I only run 1080i but even if I got a 1080p tv... the mini should still be able to stream that fairly well right?

Also davilla, was my conclusions right in my last response post to you?

First let's get the terminology correct. "Mac Mini should stream HD content just fine too right?". Streaming HD content to me says piping it over a network connection to some other device. That's streaming. 10/100BaseT is fine as the highest bit-rates are in the 30-40 Mbit rates. I suspect you don't really mean network streaming.

The computer has to decode the video content then pass it to the GPU for scaling and display. So video content is the swing point.

HD content is composed of several things. The resolution of the content (720p, 1080p), the encoder used (mpeg2, mp4, h246), the encoder profile and the encoder bit-rate. A 1080p encoded with h.246, high profile, high bit-rate will not play on a standard MacMini. It will choke. How much HD content falls into that range, not much except for test samples.

Remember, display resolution does not matter, everyone repeat after me, display resolution does not matter. The GPU takes care of that so 720p, 1080i (yuck), or 1080p displace, CPU does not matter if the GPU is handling the scaling and display.
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#20
davilla Wrote:First let's get the terminology correct. "Mac Mini should stream HD content just fine too right?". Streaming HD content to me says piping it over a network connection to some other device. That's streaming. 10/100BaseT is fine as the highest bit-rates are in the 30-40 Mbit rates. I suspect you don't really mean network streaming.

The computer has to decode the video content then pass it to the GPU for scaling and display. So video content is the swing point.

HD content is composed of several things. The resolution of the content (720p, 1080p), the encoder used (mpeg2, mp4, h246), the encoder profile and the encoder bit-rate. A 1080p encoded with h.246, high profile, high bit-rate will not play on a standard MacMini. It will choke. How much HD content falls into that range, not much except for test samples.

Remember, display resolution does not matter, everyone repeat after me, display resolution does not matter. The GPU takes care of that so 720p, 1080i (yuck), or 1080p displace, CPU does not matter if the GPU is handling the scaling and display.

Ok I'll be more specific, sorry. When I say stream... I mean it will be streaming from my Mac Pro, to my Mac Mini on a direct wireless N connection between the two (no router in between). At some point I do expect to have it hard wired (Mac Mini connected to my router via cable with the content still originating from my Mac Pro). And when I say HD content I'm referring to 'typical' scene Television/Movie release standards. I'm just making sure the Mac Mini can handle that. I know in the instance of wireless streaming that the bottleneck will probably be the wireless speed and not the Mini.

If the Mac Mini can handle the more graphically intensive skins and affects/animations smoothly without being laggy and it can also Handle HD content then I'm probably going to purchase one of those.
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#21
mrt2 Wrote:I'm just making sure the Mac Mini can handle that. I know in the instance of wireless streaming that the bottleneck will probably be the wireless speed and not the Mini.

Ahh, much better, the MacMini will have no problem substaining 802.11/n wireless speed provided the wireless network is not compromised by the typical wireless pitfalls.
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#22
hey mrt2. I'm in the same boat. Asking myself all the same questions as you. Apple Tv don't waste your time with this for what you want. I have a imac and trying to get it to work as more powerful than mini. Have mini at work and brought it home for testing too. The imac with sharing displays between mac and my HT projector (720p) is finicky. the mac mini performs amazingly well in my opinion. Audio is straight passthrough dts to my amp which does all the work. If you download/obtain 720p source then really gpu doesn't have much to do in terms of intensive tasks. The cpu does all that. I don't want to ever go back to pc. I hear you there. Stick with mac it "just works". Programs like xbmc make it damn good as a media centre pc. I notice a significant improvement when playing mkv files straight through without re-encoding on mac mini - vs what I was doing - which was convert mkv to wmv and play through xbox 360. I'm afraid too about the new model of mac mini. Really it is outdated but still great for media centre pc. I'm trying to pick up used mac mini but they are going for insane money on ebay. Hope this helps.
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#23
Yeah I played around with it on a Mac Mini last night and it pretty much worked like a charm so I think I'm going to get a Mini and use that as my HTPC. Either that or a low cost Vista box *shudders*. Laugh
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#24
mrt2 Wrote:Yeah I played around with it on a Mac Mini last night and it pretty much worked like a charm so I think I'm going to get a Mini and use that as my HTPC. Either that or a low cost Vista box *shudders*. Laugh

Should be able to do a Shuttle XPC based machine to run Linux and XBMC for say $600 or less IMO. Use one of their barebones, some cheap but decent Gskill memory, a 45nm C2D capable of being overclocked to 3ghz (or an E8400), a DVD drive, a small HDD (maybe even a SATA laptop drive), an NVIDIA 8500 fanless or maybe a low end 9x NVIDIA, and some sort of MCE based remote. It will be small, it will look good, it should be quiet, and it should run cool.Cool that WILL play anything thrown at it in my experience. Oh, get a Shuttle XPC that has a digital out too.

My next attempt will be an aTV for SD and 720P MKV files - we'll see how it goes. OS went toes up and I'm having to image a friend's. If I didn't already have it I'd just build the aforementioned XPC and call it a day...
Openelec Gotham, MCE remote(s), Intel i3 NUC, DVDs fed from unRAID cataloged by DVD Profiler. HD-DVD encoded with Handbrake to x.264. Yamaha receiver(s)
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ATV vs Mac Mini: Features and Performance0