[Doc Savage]

Hi Ok so I've been lurking the forum for a while now and read loads of different threads but couldn't get a clear answer to my Question.

Taking my Actual Set-up into account what would be the best solution MINI wise to play mostly 1080p movies.


I currently have a 1080p samsung 51d550 3d plasma TV
Sony 5.1dts receiver with no HDMI inputs only spdiff

And the MINI I will buy Will stay with that set-up or something very similar if something breaks

I am currently ripping my Blu-ray movies using Makemkv (I am keeping all audio formats including DTS-HD for future set-up ;p but that's for another thread )

I would prefer not to encode the rips further (keeping all that beautiful bluray quality) and also the fact that it takes forever to do it on my macbook.

So What I could gather up till now from the different threads is that the new mini with the i5 2,3 ghz and intel3000 grafix has some issues with the VDA due to apple API secrecy so you have to run it on cpu alone and then from what I saw (tested it at a store actually on 10.7 lion fresh install) the CPU just went crazy and ran between 145 and 170 % (tried 4 different rips) movies played but kept dropping frames.

When enabling VDA cpu went down to 25 to 40 that would be awesome but there where so much artifact going on that it made it completely unwatchable.

I tried different setting on my Macbook since I have the same set as the mini but more RAM and the same thing happened than with the Mini

So should I Hope to see a solution for the VDA and go for the base 2011 MINI or....
Go with the mid range one because of the other video card (does the VDA even work on that one any issues with it)

There's also these that are also available refurbished from the apple store with warranty;

Originally released June 2010
2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB memory
Dual 500GB Serial ATA hard disk drives
HDMI port with support for up to 1920-by-1200 resolution
NVIDIA GeForce 320M with 256MB memory
Running snow leopard server

I know that there's no hope of future DTS-hd on these one, but neither my receiver nor the tv can take it so not really a issue. there used to be a issue after 10.6.4 update did it get resolved? Could it run lion fine with XBMC any issue with that set up

There's always the ebay road. I can find pretty much anything there but the used, no warranty, may throw couple of hundreds on something that bust in a couple of days/week, gives me cold feet.

So 3d play back not a issue (ps3 is there to handle that part its not that often for now so no actual need to rip the 3d's)
DTS-HD play back not needed for now because receiver will not play it

1080p (h264) standard MAKEMKV rip play back is the issue here I want it to be smooth and keep the CPU usage (heat etc premature use ) to a minimum.

Thanks a bunch in advance for all the different feedback that you guys can provide me.
P.S I hope came thru has clear as I think, English is not my first language did my best

[deang001]

Regarding the actual Mini - I can only go by my recent experience. I bought the latest 2.5GHz i5 / AMD Radeon HD 6630M model (standard) and have no issues playing anything at all including straight MakeMKV Blu Ray rips. Heat and noise are no issue.

Video would just be HDMI to HDMI from Mini to plasma.

With your Sony receiver, are you saying it only has digital coaxial (S/PDIF) inputs?

I'm no expert here, so someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think you may need the following to get audio out from your mini into your receiver if their are no optical toslink inputs -

1. Toslink to mini toslink Cable (mini toslink end into the mini)
2. Digital Fiber Optical (Toslink) to Digital Coaxial (S/PDIF) Converter (optical in / coax out)
3. Coaxial digital audio cable (coax out of converter then into your receiver)

You better read up about the Digital Fiber Optical (Toslink) to Digital Coaxial (S/PDIF) Converter, because I am sure some would be better than others.

Alternatively, if money permits, you could upgrade the amp to one of the base Denons or Yamaha receivers which have HDMI switching.

[Doc Savage]

Regarding the actual Mini - I can only go by my recent experience. I bought the latest 2.5GHz i5 / AMD Radeon HD 6630M model (standard) and have no issues playing anything at all including straight MakeMKV Blu Ray rips. Heat and noise are no issue.

Video would just be HDMI to HDMI from Mini to plasma.

With your Sony receiver, are you saying it only has digital coaxial (S/PDIF) inputs?

I'm no expert here, so someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think you may need the following to get audio out from your mini into your receiver if their are no toslink inputs -

1. Toslink to mini toslink Cable (mini toslink end into the mini)
2. Digital Fiber Optical (Toslink) to Digital Coaxial (S/PDIF) Converter
3. Coaxial digital audio cable

You better read up about the Digital Fiber Optical (Toslink) to Digital Coaxial (S/PDIF) Converter, because I am sure some would be better than others.

Alternatively, if money permits, you could upgrade the amp to one of the base Denons or Yamaha receivers which have HDMI switching.

Thanks for your reply. I didn't see it before but my receiver also has a regular optic in just above the coax one so that's covered

I Found a great deal this morning on the latest 2.5GHz i5 / AMD Radeon HD 6630M model (standard) so after talking to my beloved wife about taking the plunge whit the mini we decided to go for it. I just hooked it up half hour ago and it seem to go pretty smooth.. I'll play whit it and trow him a couple of curve ball just to see how he behaves but I think I may have a keeper there. Anyhow I will report here on this thread.

I Think we should build a thread whit all the in's and out's from the behaviors from the different minis whit the dharma or eden that could act as guide like the ones that Davilla made in the hardware section but for those wanting to use some mac stuff

From what I saw there's now stickies or threads for mac hardware in the hardware section of the forum shame really

[Doc Savage]

OK so I've been running the Mini for the last to week tried all sorts of different encodes on it SD/HD VC1 H264 so on and so forth the cpu usage almost never goes up over 20% the average I've seen seem to be just bellow 11% vda IS working nicely never had a single problem with it.

I've seen a couple of frames drops here and there but nothing that would bug out I mean 12 droped frames looking at H264 1080p movie running over 30mbps for almost its entire length its nothing so picture wise its a real threat nothing I tried choked him up thus far.
Couple of stutters when switching to 24hz but that fair.

The only problem I had was Caching every minute or so on some movie (over 30mbps) but hooking it up trough ethernet covered that!!!

My only issue thus far with the whole set up is Sound I cannot seem to be able to stream sound to my receiver in movies or music.....

I was able to get the menu clicks, but they have a huge lag and there the only sound coming to the receiver, everything work well trough hdmi to the tv do.

I would really like to be able to get it to work properly through optics has a new receiver is not in budget for a while

Ill keep working on that and report here.

Any input regarding my issues with this setup his welcomed

Has For keeping with thread TITLE:

I truly believe (IMO) that if you want to buy a brand new, on warranty machine, that the latest 2.5GHz i5 / AMD Radeon HD 6630M model (standard) his for now the best money can buy to run XBMC on (MINI wise that is) its been handling like a charm everything works (expect sound via optics for me) its sleek silent doesn't run hot cpu an gpu usage his low with a VQ and AQ at 99% running the biggest and heaviest files I could trow at him.

I do recommend it without any fear or doubts.

[Doc Savage]

Regarding my Audio problem never mind found the culprit......It was a bad cable. So the brand new 40$ monster optics cable goes back to the store and my old one goes back in action and everything works well. Sometimes you gotta listen to the WAF !!!!

Man I feel so stupid now....

So nothing to complain anymore