[Siftah]

Hello,

This is my first post on the forum although I've been using XBMC on an Xbox for a couple of years now.

I'd like to upgrade my aging Xbox to something which is HD capable, especially now more and more rips are appearing in HD - the hardware I'd like to use is either an AppleTV or a Mac Mini, obviously the AppleTV's aren't fast enough for true HD, so the Mac Mini is the next best option.

Does anyone know whether the (rumoured) upcoming atom based Mac Minis would be fast enough?

Does XBMC make use of multi-threaded decoding or would the dual core nature of these new machines not be any good?

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/01/15/inte...-in-march/

Cheers,
John

[Geeba]

You will probably scrap through to 720p with an Atom based machine... 1080 is a no no.

[^tWiSt^]

I don't believe in that rumor....

....probably Apple is looking to use NVIDIA's Ion platform not in the new macmini but in a new ATV3.

[A Milton]

probably Apple is looking to use NVIDIA's Ion platform not in the new macmini but in a new ATV3.

Sounds kind of likely. I really hope that's the case.

Mac Mini has almost always had the same basic parts that the MacBook has. And as the current Mac Mini is targeted at switchers I don't think that Apple would want a newcomers first impression of Mac to be a slow Atom based computer.

But the current Mini hasn't been updated in forever, so a slow Mini is what a switcher would get right now.

Apple works in mysterious ways, so one never knows

[davilla]

I don't believe in that rumor....

....probably Apple is looking to use NVIDIA's Ion platform not in the new macmini but in a new ATV3.

Not to replace the MacMini but AppleTV is a good maybe. The dual-core atom 330 can do 720p HD content. It's a little more than a factor of 2 faster than the current AppleTV pentium-m and that's currently close to handling all 720p content. Need another 25-30 percent cpu which I'm looking for

[smartins]

I really hope it does... I've just received a Popcorn Hour to be able to play 720p (the ATV + XBMC unfortunately doesn't handle any of the 720p files I have) and I must say that the interface is so so much worse and slow than the XBMC that I'm probably going to return the PCH, so I'll be in the market for something small that can play 720p on the XBMC.

[XBMC4Ever]

Potentially people are assuming that opportunities to easily access, hack and install apps like XBMC will exist in a next generation ATV ? Do not count your chickens until they hatch ...

[tyche]

I really hope it does... I've just received a Popcorn Hour to be able to play 720p (the ATV + XBMC unfortunately doesn't handle any of the 720p files I have) and I must say that the interface is so so much worse and slow than the XBMC that I'm probably going to return the PCH, so I'll be in the market for something small that can play 720p on the XBMC.

try http://www.treasure-cove.net/moviejukebox.htm although I still chose xbmc over a nmt device and don't regret it one bit.

[Neil]

The rumor of Apple using the Atom in the Mini doesn't make any sense to me. When has anybody ever replaced a CPU with a much slower one? It makes much more sense in the aTV. Also, the Ion can do 1080p with no problems according to Nvidia. I wouldn't be surprised if the next aTV comes running Snow Leopard, making it easier to take advantage of the GPU.

[paul]

The rumor of Apple using the Atom in the Mini doesn't make any sense to me. When has anybody ever replaced a CPU with a much slower one? It makes much more sense in the aTV. Also, the Ion can do 1080p with no problems according to Nvidia. I wouldn't be surprised if the next aTV comes running Snow Leopard, making it easier to take advantage of the GPU.

I have been told the intel atom based mac mini will be released and will be capable of playing 1080p when? ask steve jobs

[Chugalug]

My current 2ghz mac mini plays 1080p Bluray rips with no problems.