[gerard143]

Curious what thoughts are on the new Mac mini and if this might make a capable media server.

update- here is some more info on what i'd like to do that i took from a post below:

"Here is what i'd like to accomplish at some point.   I want to build a movie collection database that I can pull up on my TV's.  Have rokus, apple tvs and fire sticks at the tv locations.   So i was figuring I could use emby  for the client server model (I just don't like plex's interface).   Kodi might be too difficult without the client/server architecture.  
Due to the fact it'll take a bit of time to rip this collection I feel a multi drive external raid setup with the mac mini is probably best in case I have a single drive failure i'll be ok.  I spec'd my order out with the fastest processor they offer so I am hoping it will do ok at transcoding in a timely fashion. 

So I was just curious what thoughts were from those more experienced.  Would loading emby on the mac mini and using it as the server to dish out my movie database to all the viewing locations be a pretty good way to go?  4k viewing would be ideal but I really don't need to get too crazy.  I just wanna make it so I can easily pull them all up via a netflix like interface.  This is really all i want to accomplish.  If you guys feel there is a better way I can go that route.   I am just hoping since I have a large investment in the mac mini that this might be a good option."

[Klojum]

a capable media server.

I'm not sure what your expectations are for a "media server". Kodi itself is multimedia client application, which does a bit of UPnP/DLNA sharing on the side via scraped video and/or music sources. Other than that, it has no file serving capabilities.

[jools5000]

It might be small but tops out at 2TB storage which Apple is asking $1,400 extra for alone

Its unlikely any of the internals like storage, RAM etc will be upgradable

In the end you will be paying the Apple tax for a mediocre device in a small pretty case.  If you want a small drive, I would look at the Intel NUCs

[pyrodex]

It might be small but tops out at 2TB storage which Apple is asking $1,400 extra for alone

Its unlikely any of the internals like storage, RAM etc will be upgradable

In the end you will be paying the Apple tax for a mediocre device in a small pretty case.  If you want a small drive, I would look at the Intel NUCs

 Yes but with 4 USB-C ports you can add a large amount of external storage.

[gerard143]

I agree the apple "tax" is ridiculous but my iMac shit the bed.   The ram is upgradeable the storage is not. 


Anyways, I picked one up with 1tb of storage.   I have a second 1tb ssd in my iMac that i'll be tearing out.   So that'll give me 2tb to use for my computing needs.  The movie storage i think i'll need a better option.

Here is what i'd like to accomplish at some point.   I want to build a movie collection database that I can pull up on my TV's.  Have rokus, apple tvs and fire sticks at the tv locations.   So i was figuring I could use emby  for the client server model (I just don't like plex's interface).   Kodi might be too difficult without the client/server architecture.  
Due to the fact it'll take a bit of time to rip this collection I feel a multi drive external raid setup with the mac mini is probably best in case I have a single drive failure i'll be ok.  I spec'd my order out with the fastest processor they offer so I am hoping it will do ok at transcoding in a timely fashion.  For a bit i'll be running 32gb of ram until prices drop then i'll go with 64gb. 

So I was just curious what thoughts were from those more experienced.  Would loading emby on the mac mini and using it as the server to dish out my movie database to all the viewing locations be a pretty good way to go?  4k viewing would be ideal but I really don't need to get too crazy.  I just wanna make it so I can easily pull them all up via a netflix like interface.  This is really all i want to accomplish. If you guys feel there is a better way I can go that route.   I am just hoping since I have a large investment in the mac mini that this might be a good option.

[noggin]

Its unlikely any of the internals like storage, RAM etc will be upgradable

RAM is SODIMMs - they mentioned it at the Keynote. This means it will be upgradeable.

[jools5000]

Fair enough...  I was waiting for the Ifixit teardown.  The last gen had the RAM soldered so was expecting the same, but if Apple decides to make it upgradable thats good with me!

[wrxtasy]

Curious what thoughts are on the new Mac mini and if this might make a capable media server.

In the end you will be paying the Apple tax for a mediocre device in a small pretty case.  If you want a small drive, I would look at the Intel NUCs

Agreed.

Unless you are going to be running much needed OSX only Apps, on a Mac Mini....
Then even the latest specced Intel NUC (click), full kitted out would be far better bang for the buck - even if you have to use Windoze... or the free (Linux) Ubuntu 18.x OS and the Emby Server for Linux software.

With the money saved...
Gigabit Ethernet hook that up to a Synology 4 bay NAS (click) and you are good to go.

And this is coming from me who is a BIG Apple fan !

[noggin]

Yep - Mac Mini's main draws are 4 x Thunderbolt 3 ports (very good for attaching fast storage and broadcast IO gear) and the 10GbE network option - plus Mac software.  

None of these make it a compelling solution for Kodi.

[ars92]

The amount of money spent for that.... Could be spent on a badass unraid nas which can run libreelec VM and even mac OS on it no issues...

[gerard143]

Lol I know peeps. Apples stuff is get stupid pricy. My iMac shit the bed though and the current one is too outdated so I went for a mini. I want OS X and I like running windows thru parallels and having both options. I don’t wanna build a hackintosh. So I went with the mini.

Anyways it looks like some of these Nas devices have processors and ram in them and I see Emby is available on some Nas devices. So I assume I could just run the server straight off a NAS like Qnap, etc?

[wrxtasy]

Hint: you do not need an expensive NUC or Mac Mini if you have viewing clients that are powerful enough to play everything natively.

All you need is a basic NAS, then take your pick of relatively cheap (insert powerful media players here). Hell the powerful Apple TV 4K hardly misses a beat no matter what you throw at it.

And now just this week when you look at a $49.99 FireTV Stick 4K being able to playback 4K HDR Bluray Rips, you can easily see media tech is getting a lot more powerful as the years roll on.

[smellin]

Would a 2018 Mini be good (albeit overpowered) as a Kodi client?
What would be the best Kodi for it (under windows, a bootable kodi OS, etc.)?

(I’ve lost any hope for OSX kodi to get back to being any good or supporting hevc, atmos, etc., that’s why I’m asking about alternatives)

This is the first Mini with hdmi 2.0 btw.

[wrxtasy]

A modern Mac should be able to support hardware decoding of HEVC with it's modern desktop Intel chipset.
However OSX / macOS has never supported 24p or Frame Rate matching (unless something has very recently changed), or passthrough audio for that matter which is needed for Atmos.

Windows has no such problems, which is why a cheaper NUC is a better alternative, which also has the flexibility of running LibreELEC Kodi.

[noggin]

Would a 2018 Mini be good (albeit overpowered) as a Kodi client?
What would be the best Kodi for it (under windows, a bootable kodi OS, etc.)?

(I’ve lost any hope for OSX kodi to get back to being any good or supporting hevc, atmos, etc., that’s why I’m asking about alternatives)

This is the first Mini with hdmi 2.0 btw.

For HDR (assuming the HDMI 2.0 output supports it) and Netflix UHD support with 23.976p output Windows is likely to be the only option?