[george.ferrari]

First off I would like to let everyone know that I am obviously new to this forum. After many many many google searches and about 2 hours researching, I found some answers to some questions but not fully.

So that's why I am here. And if this discussion has been talked about, then please don't bash me and just point me in the correct location. I would really appreciate it.

So i bought an ATV2 about a year or so ago, and I liked it in the beginning but as time went on i just stopped using it because it was just so slow. Always crashed. Movies "stuttered" and it was just pretty aggravating. I was getting pretty fed up and gave up on it. It currently sits in my room collecting dust.

BUT with the unfortunate death of my grandfather recently, I have acquired his older Mac Mini. It is a 2007 with CD2 1.83GHZ and 1GB of RAM. I thought this would be a perfect piece of equipment to replace my ATV2. I've done some researched and read that it streams perfectly and it doesn't and it works great and its slow as ****. I just want a logical answer. I don't want to upgrade the graphics card or anything. I just want to use it as a small HTPC.

Now, i really don't care about the surround sound and all the fancy stuff because it plugs into a 40" Sharp TV in a bedroom. I want to be able to come home from work, turn on the mac mini and watch a movie. It doesn't have to be 1080p, but I would like for it to play 720p with out any hiccups or anything. Obviously know I need a DVI to HDMI connector and a headphone to RCA.

Will this mac mini work? Will it do what I want it to do? I'm sure you have more questions for me as to the details and I'd be happy to reply quickly with some answers. But I don't have the unit yet and I hope to pick it up a few days after he's laid to rest. Is there any settings I should mess around with? XBMC version that will run better than others? Is there a "how to" link you can direct me to?

I really appreciate all of your help.

Thank you,

George

[wrxtasy]

Sorry to hear about your Grand Father, as we say in English cricket - hope he had a good innings !

About the Mac Mini.

There are minimum hardware requirements written in the Kodi Wiki somewhere that talk about 2.0Ghz minimum to run Gotham. However this Wiki is a bit out of date.

With the optimisations that have gone on under the hood in the Kodi code, I would think 1.83Ghz will still allow Kodi to run with 1080p / h264 decoding. I say this because I have a 2.0Ghz C2D 2007 Macbook with the same Intel GMA 950 graphics as your Mac Mini and it runs Kodi - decoding 720/1080p h264 video with CPU capacity to spare.

The one thing you will hear when playing 1080p video, is the Fans in the Mini ramp up which can get a bit annoying. Putting it behind a glass cabinet door you would not hear it. If you wanted to reduce fan noise you would have to go about sourcing a Broadcom BCM70015 Crystal HD card. This would replace the WIFI card internally and decode 720p and 1080p / h264 video, reducing the workload on the Mini's CPU/GPU and hence fans will be quieter.

Yes DVI to HDMI is needed as well as the Headphone to RCA. I take it you still have the little white Apple Remote ?

If you are thinking of upgrading OSX, I recommend not going past OSX Snow Leopard on this 2007 Machine. As its the most efficient OSX for the Hardware you have.

To install Kodi, download the App from here:

http://mirrors.kodi.tv/releases/osx/i386...x-i386.dmg

If it does not open in a seperate Window, double click the .dmg file. Then drag the Kodi.app to the Applications folder, right click the Kodi.app inside the Applications folder and select Open.

First thing you want to do, to be kind to the CPU is:
Kodi > System > Settings > Appearance > Show RSS feeds> disable

Further info about Installing and getting Kodi to autorun at startup is here:

http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Install_Kodi_for_Mac

Have fun.

W.

[george.ferrari]

Sorry to hear about your Grand Father, as we say in English cricket - hope he had a good innings !

About the Mac Mini.

There are minimum hardware requirements written in the Kodi Wiki somewhere that talk about 2.0Ghz minimum to run Gotham. However this Wiki is a bit out of date.

With the optimisations that have gone on under the hood in the Kodi code, I would think 1.83Ghz will still allow Kodi to run with 1080p / h264 decoding. I say this because I have a C2D 2007 Macbook with the same Intel GMA 950 graphics as your Mac Mini and it runs Kodi with CPU capacity to spare.

The one thing you will hear when playing 1080p video, is the Fans in the Mini ramp up which can get a bit annoying. Putting it behind a glass cabinet door you would not hear it. If you wanted to reduce fan noise you would have to go about sourcing a Broadcom BCM70015 Crystal HD card. This would replace the WIFI card internally and decode 720p and 1080p / h264 video, not using the Mini's CPU and hence fans will be quieter.

Yes DVI to HDMI is needed as well as the Headphone to RCA. I take it you still have the little White Apple Remote ?

If you are thinking of upgrading OSX, I recommend not going past OSX Snow Leopard on this 2007 Machine. As its the most efficient OSX for the Hardware you have.

To install Kodi, download the App from here:

http://mirrors.kodi.tv/releases/osx/i386...x-i386.dmg

If it does not open in a seperate Window, double click the .dmg file. Then drag the Kodi.app to the Applications folder, right click the Kodi.app inside the Applications folder and select Open.

First thing you want to do, to be kind to the CPU is:
Kodi > System > Settings > Appearance > Show RSS feeds> disable

Further info about Installing and getting Kodi to autorun at startup is here:

http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Install_Kodi_for_Mac

Have fun.

W.

Awesome. Thank you so much! What is OpenELEC that I'm reading about? is it necessary?

[wrxtasy]

OpenElec is a slimmed down version of Linux that runs Kodi and Kodi only, thats pretty much all its designed to do.

http://openelec.tv/home/what-is-openelec

You can run it from a USB stick with the Mac Mini but it will be slower than just installing the Kodi.app on OSX, due to speed limitations with usb2.

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/HOW-TO...ab=Mac_OSX

Keep it simple and just install the Kodi.app and you can then configure (using the Wiki I previously showed) Kodi to autorun whenever the Mac Mini is turned on and control it all with the white Apple Remote.

[george.ferrari]

And I don't mind buying the graphics card. It's cheap. And I could install it myself. BUT I am so confused as to how to install the drivers for it to work with the mini. Can you post a link where i can get step by step instructions for complete stupid morons on how to install the drivers? sorry to be such a pain.

[george.ferrari]

OpenElec is a slimmed down version of Linux that runs Kodi and Kodi only, thats pretty much all its designed to do.

http://openelec.tv/home/what-is-openelec

You can run it from a USB stick with the Mac Mini but it will be slower than just installing the Kodi.app on OSX, due to speed limitations with usb2.

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/HOW-TO...ab=Mac_OSX

Keep it simple and just install the Kodi.app and you can then configure (using the Wiki I previously showed) Kodi to autorun whenever the Mac Mini is turned on and control it all with the white Apple Remote.

And I don't mind buying the graphics card. It's cheap. And I could install it myself. BUT I am so confused as to how to install the drivers for it to work with the mini. Can you post a link where i can get step by step instructions for complete stupid morons on how to install the drivers? sorry to be such a pain.

[wrxtasy]

Its all a learning process.....

Firstly you have to make sure the Mini is running a 32-bit OSX. The last OSX for that is 10.6.8 aka Snow Leopard.
This is because the Crystal HD drivers are 32-bit.

Download this file:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2764...-3.6.0.zip

The file needs to be saved to the Mac Minis desktop and unzipped.

Then you follow these instructions (copy and paste into the OSX Terminal.app):

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/3...ntry226634

To navigate to the correct folder in Step #2 (hint - copy and paste):

Code:

cd ~/Desktop/crystalhd-for-osx-3.6.0

Step #3 instructions amended as well:

Code:

sudo cp -r ./BroadcomCrystalHD.kext /System/Library/Extensions

Lastly if your installing a CHD card you will a need a custom compile of Kodi with CHD support put back in.
Here is one I prepared earlier:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2764...HD.app.zip

---

This will help too.
Replacing the Airport card for a CHD one:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Mo...ement/1112

W.

[george.ferrari]

Its all a learning process.....

Firstly you have to make sure the Mini is running a 32-bit OSX. The last OSX for that is 10.6.8 aka Snow Leopard.
This is because the Crystal HD drivers are 32-bit.

Download this file:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2764...-3.6.0.zip

The file needs to be saved to the Mac Minis desktop and unzipped.

Then you follow these instructions (copy and paste into the OSX Terminal.app):

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/3...ntry226634

To navigate to the correct folder in Step #2 (hint - copy and paste):

Code:

cd ~/Desktop/crystalhd-for-osx-3.6.0

Step #3 instructions amended as well:

Code:

sudo cp -r ./BroadcomCrystalHD.kext /System/Library/Extensions

Lastly if your installing a CHD card you will a need a custom compile of Kodi with CHD support put back in.
Here is one I prepared earlier:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2764...HD.app.zip

---

This will help too.
Replacing the Airport card for a CHD one:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+Mo...ement/1112

W.

OMG this is amazing. I will let you know how everything goes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Thank you very much!

Im going to install more ram while i have the unit open. I minus well.

Thanks again!

[Fadorme]

I thought perhaps this is a good place to brag about my Mac Mini 2007...

I think I have pimped it as much as it can be. Here's how I've frankensteined it.

It was a mid 2007 Mini with a T7200 2.0Ghz processor. I changed it for a 7600 2,33Ghz for about 60$. Geek bench results make it an equivalent of the Mac Mini Late 2009 with 2138 dual core results.
I replaced the internal CD drive with a hard drive caddy and plugged in a 60GB SSD. On which I have installed Kodi and the OS.
I changed the original internal 80GB hard drive for a 250Gig hard drive which I had lying around in my geek cupboard.
Installed 4Gigs of RAM although only 3 are used (it's better than 2 and it allows for full speed access.)
And I have replaced the Airport card with a CrystalHD card.
The media drive is a 2TB firewire drive.

It runs OS X 10.7.5 in 32bit mode.

And besides running Kodi (thanks to Wrxtasy with a CHD ! ), it's also an AirPrint server, a cTivo AppleScript managed recorder/encoder, and a VLC Streamer server (These don't run concurrently but run well on their own - They're on a schedule ).
And all of my home's wiring and switching is on Gigabit Ethernet.

And incidentally it now plays 1080p video flawlessly.

I didn't do this to save money obviously. All in all I guess it set me back 150$ or so ...or maybe 200$ ...who counts when you're having fun !

[george.ferrari]

That's pretty awesome. Still waiting to get my hands on my Mini.

This maybe an answered question but do any of u guys know if there is a way I can watch TV through the mini? For instance I have cablevision with a set top box that has a cable card. (The card that slides into the box) and I obviously don't mind having the box but it would be a heck of a lot more convenient if I could do everything through the mini. And maybe "rent" the card and return the box. I guess I'm looking for a TV tuner that will accept my cable card that works with Mac. Now I know your going to tell me that I can stream TV on Kodi but I feel that it gets very confusing with setting up channels and I believe the quality just isn't good. Any ideas? Links?

Thanks guys.

[wrxtasy]

Ha Ha good stuff, glad it all worked out.

Tip:
On the 2007 Mac Mini's the Internal HDD SATA 1 - max bus speed is 150 MB/s
The Optical drive UltraATA max bus speed is 100 MB/s

If it is possible to swap the Optical and HDD bus connections around you will get a wee bit more speed out of the SSD.

---

I particularly like re-purposing old hardware for server purposes, my 2007 Crystalbuntu ATV1 also runs a custom compile of Kodi + CHD and a TVHeadend Server that streams TV to Kodi clients around the house.

Fadorme, one little test.
When playing video can you hit the "o" key and see if chd-h264 is displayed in the codec info ?
How loud are your fans ?

W.

[Fadorme]

Ha Ha good stuff, glad it all worked out.
Should be a speedy beast with the SSD.

I particularly like re-purposing old hardware for server purposes, my 2007 Crystalbuntu ATV1 also runs a custom compile of CHD - Kodi and a TVHeadend Server that streams to Kodi clients around the house.

Fadorme, one little test.
When playing video can you hit the "o" key and see if chd-h264 is displayed in the codec info ?
How loud are your fans ?

W.

Yes, cud-h264 is displayed.
When playing two different mp4 1080p movies, I see a CPU load between 25% to 36%. CPU temperature between 64° and 73° and cpu fan between 2960 and 3350.
I was very thorough and meticulous in my application of Arctic Silver...
I can hear the fan is running but that's it.

When it's converting a Tivo program or playing a movie through VLC Streamer it's another story though... But these things happen mostly at night when there's no one in the living room.

[wrxtasy]

Thanks for the feedback, because I have not yet pulled the Crystal HD card from my ATV to plug into my old 2007 Macbook and test that 32 bit OSX Kodi + CHD custom compile.

I will do a OSX Kodi + CHD 14.2 build when it reaches a stable release and also a Kodi 15.0 + CHD aka Isengard, if I get time.

I'm currently running Kodi 15.0Alpha2 + CHD on my ATV1 and it works well. Its a bit of a speed boost over Kodi 14.x too.

[george.ferrari]

Hey guys, just finished my mac mini with the hd card and ram upgrade and it runs great.

Just wanted to thank you for all your help and support.

Do you recommend settings i should change in kodi to make it run smoother and faster? (not that it doesn't already) just wanted your opinion.

[wrxtasy]

Excellent.

Probably the biggest one is turning RSS feeds off, found in Settings > Appearance > Skin > Show RSS news feeds

You can also try Settings > Video > Playback > Sync Playback to Display > Enable. And see if you can get 24p (23.976fps) video to play properly.
A 24p capable TV is of course required. Kodi may or may not signal it to Autoswitch refresh rates.

You can then press the "O" key whilst video is playing to see if you get continual frame drops and skips to determine if perfect video sync works on the 2007 Mac Mini with the CHD card installed.

I would be interested in this sort of specific feedback with Kodi and a CHD card when playing 1080p video please.