Anyone use a Mac Mini as a HTPC?

jester77

As the title says! How do you find it in terms of ease of use and functionality?

I'm tempted to try this out. It's a nice neat box and would look good under the TV.

At the moment I have a large PC that I built as a HTPC/Gaming rig but I'm doing little gaming at the moment. Not sure whether to stick with MCE or go with Front Row. Just want something that is easy to use with little configuration so that would rule out Linux for me. I find MCE is good while it works but I've never been able to get clear DVD playback with it (using NVIDIA decoder), usually a little ghosting on the top of the screen. Always end up using Media Payer Classic which defeats the whole purpose of MCE!!

RE*AC*TOR

The one probelm of course is a tv card. I'd imagine it would have to be external, which is generally inferior to PCI types.

Mind you if your only going to be using it for watching dvds / divx and browsing the next - then I'd say it would be great.

8T8

Never noticed any problems with ghosting myself and the NVIDIA Purevideo decoder which is what I assume your using unless its the discontinued NV-DVD your using. Are you using the latest version of Purevideo 1.02-196 along with the 81.98 WinXP MCE drivers or 84.21 WinXP drivers .

You could use another software decoder like one from Intervideo (WinDVD) or Cyberlink (PowerDVD) or Sonic (CinePlayer) those are MCE compliant decoders.

As for the hardware yeah a Mac Mini would work fine though everything added on would have to be USB external just make sure you get the right amount of RAM from the start as upgrading those can be a major pain in the ass.

As for Frontrow vs MCE from what I've seen of Frontrow its not really a competitor to MCE it's really just a shell content viewer for various applications on the system and doesn't appear to be as seamless as MCE, it also lacks PVR capabilities. Still if you only want to watch stuff it should be okay.

Of course thanks to Apples boot camp you can now run MCE on the Mac Mini which means you get the best of both.

zAbbo

How many USB ports on a mac mini though, i've a sneaking supsicion its low like 2 or something

crowej

why not get a mac mini and put mce onto it, apple just released something that will allow xp (mce) run on there machines.


best of both worlds

Gilgamesh

was thinking of doing that with my Mac Mini, which is up for sale at the moment.

the only problem I had with doing so is the lack of connectivity into a Home theater system, I mean it onl has Analogue audio ports, and the sound isn't really the best imho.

the new Intel Mac Minis should be more interesting though.

zAbbo

crowej wrote:

why not get a mac mini and put mce onto it, apple just released something that will allow xp (mce) run on there machines.


best of both worlds

Current Mac Mini's are PPC based, MCE is made for x86. The new Mac Minis will be x86 and through bootcamp you can install Windows.

SouperComputer

zabbo wrote:

Current Mac Mini's are PPC based, MCE is made for x86. The new Mac Minis will be x86 and through bootcamp you can install Windows.

Minis have been running x86 since 28th February.

IMO the mac isnt ready for a full-on HTPC setup yet. I wonder what Jobs has up his sleeve though.

For PVR hardware and software on mac Hauppage have a mac compatible unit, elgato eye-tv is the most popular one.

RE*AC*TOR

zabbo wrote:

Current Mac Mini's are PPC based, MCE is made for x86. The new Mac Minis will be x86 and through bootcamp you can install Windows.

The intel mac minis have been out for a while now....

bk

What I'm thinking is that a x86 Mac Mini with Boot Camp running either MCE or MythTV as a frontend to a larger more powerfull media server runing in a different room, might work well.

SouperComputer

if you're running MythTV, a frontend is available for OS X PPC. Not to mention the streaming plugin fpr your mtyh backend that you could use too.

Oh, and forget using MCE in a server-client (in terms of HTPCS) setup. It will play files from mapped shares of course, but you cant throw recorded TV onto the server directly. Ive tried every hack in the book with no joy.

Of course, you can use crunchie to compress the video and bang it on the server, but then It wont be available in "recorded TV" in MCE, just the videos section.

In this case, your server will be doing little work, a PII would be more than sufficent, even if you run GB ethernet and server TB's of content.

If you plan an MCE server-client based setup, then MCE will need to be your server then you can use extenders to view the content. But then you are still stuck with one EPG and cant mix analouge signal and STB's for example. You also have to mess around to get codecs not supported by extender to play too.

Id love to know how much it would cost to develop a proper inetgrated, server-client solution.

bk

SouperComputer wrote:

if you're running MythTV, a frontend is available for OS X PPC. Not to mention the streaming plugin fpr your mtyh backend that you could use too.

True, I forgot about that.

SouperComputer wrote:

Oh, and forget using MCE in a server-client (in terms of HTPCS) setup. It will play files from mapped shares of course, but you cant throw recorded TV onto the server directly. Ive tried every hack in the book with no joy.

Of course, you can use crunchie to compress the video and bang it on the server, but then It wont be available in "recorded TV" in MCE, just the videos section.

In this case, your server will be doing little work, a PII would be more than sufficent, even if you run GB ethernet and server TB's of content.

If you plan an MCE server-client based setup, then MCE will need to be your server then you can use extenders to view the content. But then you are still stuck with one EPG and cant mix analouge signal and STB's for example. You also have to mess around to get codecs not supported by extender to play too.

The idea is not to use the Mac Mini as a HTPC, but just a frontend. There would be a normal MCE server in the backroom with TV capture cards + lots of HDD space. It would serve recorded TV to the Mac Mini MCE clients.

Yes you could also get a MCX, but they are almost as expensive as a Mac Mini, so why not get the extra features of the mini.

SouperComputer

The idea is not to use the Mac Mini as a HTPC, but just a frontend. There would be a normal MCE server in the backroom with TV capture cards + lots of HDD space. It would serve recorded TV to the Mac Mini MCE clients.

Yes you could also get a MCX, but they are almost as expensive as a Mac Mini, so why not get the extra features of the mini.

Do you mean have an MCE computer and share/map the recorded TV folder onto the client machines?

Im a bit confused at to what you plan doing to do, break it down for me.


The mini is a good hardware platform for a frontend, but there is no provision for MCE frontends with the exception of extenders. IE you can install MCE on your intel mini, but it wont act as a front end. Again you can use network shares and put shared content in the library for MCE, but the PVR function is prettymuch lost.

Also, extenders are a good bit cheaper than a mini, even after shipping and customs:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Linksys-WMCE54AG-Wireless-A-G-Media-Center-Extender_W0QQitemZ9715879751QQcategoryZ51165QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

bk

SouperComputer wrote:

Im a bit confused at to what you plan doing to do, break it down for me.

I haven't made a decision on what I'm doing yet, just exploring the options.

Currently I have a hacked US TiVo running off NTL Digital that works great, however I'm thinking of making the next step to a server/multiple clients setup over the next couple of months.

As of yet I'm undecided as to what is a better option MythTV or MCE.

SouperComputer wrote:

The mini is a good hardware platform for a frontend, but there is no provision for MCE frontends with the exception of extenders. IE you can install MCE on your intel mini, but it wont act as a front end. Again you can use network shares and put shared content in the library for MCE, but the PVR function is prettymuch lost.

I had thought, probably wrongly, that you could install MCE on both a client machine and a server machine and that you could then control the MCE functions (including PVR) of the server from the client machine.

It seems silly that MS doesn't release a MCX software from PCs in general.

SouperComputer wrote:

Also, extenders are a good bit cheaper than a mini, even after shipping and customs:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Linksys-WMCE54AG-Wireless-A-G-Media-Center-Extender_W0QQitemZ9715879751QQcategoryZ51165QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Not that cheaper when you have friends in the US and a 10% discount

SouperComputer

Well, if you want network-based, MythTV is the way to do it. Its a lot of work but well worth it.

Grab a copy of knoppmyth to ease the pain of installation.

GB-PVR can be networked too, but I havent had a chance to try it yet. There is an app called Media-Connect or something to that effect for MCE, but its not a frontend unfortunately.

I dont know why you cant get a software-based MCE frontend, I guess they feel it will impact on XB360 sales. Perhaps it will come with Vista? The lack of networkability and expandability is one of my major gripes with MCE.

On the mini, 599USD - 10% (which seems high when Apple's max margin for resellers on "consumer" products is 7%) is still a lot more than an extender! Although if you can find a student in the US, you can get 15% off

But yes, the mini is a great piece of hardware for a HTPC, with the exception of the sound which is a bit naff, but no worse than most standard PC offerings.

Ive used the PPC ones in networked setups, it would be great to be able to fully integrate them.

Maybe Jobs has somthing planned?