Login at Kodi Home

Yalla-One · 2010-12-25, 19:52

Hi,

All the threads I found relating to AppleTV vs MacMini appear to be at least a year old, and from what I can see XMBC has made some impressive advancements performancewise in version 10.

Do these performance enhancements mean that a 1st-gen AppleTV with an upgraded videocard is now sufficient to play 1080p from an NFS-mount over Gigabit ethernet, or is a MacMini still recommended? My concern with the MacMini is noise. Ideally I'd like to have a dead quiet Mac Mini run my home entertainment...

Any insight most welcome before I purchase :-)

feikenberg · 2010-12-25, 20:04

ATV with the CrystalHD card and OS X handles 720 just fine, however it tends to stutter with 1080p files. With a Linux install, most 1080p files are watchable.

I just switched to a Mac Mini and I am very happy with it. Completely quiet, much more flexible than ATV, no problems at all with HD playback (with OS X 10.6.3), and you could use it as a fileserver.

Only problem with XBMC and the Mac Mini: if you use iTunes for your music and iPhoto for your pictures, there is really no good solution for it in XBMC.

Yalla-One · 2010-12-25, 20:39

Thanks for the quick reply!

feikenberg Wrote:I just switched to a Mac Mini and I am very happy with it. Completely quiet, much more flexible than ATV, no problems at all with HD playback (with OS X 10.6.3), and you could use it as a fileserver.

That's all I needed to know - Mac Mini it is then - the "completely quiet" part won me over.
Won't be using it as a fileserver though. Have a 16TB QNAP-NAS in the basement and consider ripping out the harddrive replacing it with a super-small SSD for quietness and speed and having it feed everything from the NAS in the basement.

-y1

**.:B:.** · 2010-12-26, 01:17

Not sure how you'd 'upgrade' the video card of the AppleTV Wink

. It's soldered on.

defiler · 2010-12-26, 14:38

.:B:. Wrote:Not sure how you'd 'upgrade' the video card of the AppleTV . It's soldered on.

I think he means switching out the WLAN card for a CrystalHD.

My ATV is 99% there. The Mac Mini (I believe) just works - no issues at all. But the Mac Mini is 4x the cost (or more). That's the clincher for me!

pmcd · 2010-12-27, 03:34

defiler Wrote:I think he means switching out the WLAN card for a CrystalHD.

My ATV is 99% there. The Mac Mini (I believe) just works - no issues at all. But the Mac Mini is 4x the cost (or more). That's the clincher for me!

I have both. My mid 2010 Mac Mini server is running 10.6.5 (client) and there seems to be some issues with the hardware drivers for the nvidia video for some files ( my eyetv archives). Other than that, it is great and silent. I still really like the ATV-1G with the CHD card. There is something about it even though the Mini is way better ( am not talking price).

philip