[tcroak]

How does the Mac Mini handle HD video out of the box (720p and 1080p) with XBMC installed.

I'm thinking about getting one and using that as my new media 'server' that I'll connect to my Amp/TV. Also, is there much difference between the 2.4Ghz standard and the 2.66 GHz snow leopard server (besides the software obviously)?

Would it be worth paying the extra $300 for more HDD space, memory, and faster CPU?

Thanks in advance!

[jmarshall]

1. Yes - with the use of VDA video acceleration.
2. I doubt there'll be much difference between 2.4 and 2.66 given that the GPU is doing most of the heavy lifting during video decode.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[davilla]

How does the Mac Mini handle HD video out of the box (720p and 1080p) with XBMC installed.

I'm thinking about getting one and using that as my new media 'server' that I'll connect to my Amp/TV. Also, is there much difference between the 2.4Ghz standard and the 2.66 GHz snow leopard server (besides the software obviously)?

Would it be worth paying the extra $300 for more HDD space, memory, and faster CPU?

Thanks in advance!

Stick with 10.6.3 and you will be fine. Just an FYI, I did hear that the dual disk server version does not include an IR controller. Best to verify this if you do choose the server dual disk version.

[tcroak]

I see that the graphics memory is shared with the main memory.... so.... if I get more main memory (8Gb), will XBMC allocate that to processing the video I'm playing?

[jmarshall]

1GB is enough. 2GB plenty. Anymore is complete overkill and will offer no advantage whatsoever to XBMC.