Mac Mini as HTPC

[Cable God]

Is it just me, or would a Mac Mini with HDMI output that would carry audio in addition to the video be a great HTPC? I think it would be a great addition for me since my house is mostly Apple products already, in addition to the Drobo FS GigE storage appliance. Hmmm.

 

[TheWart]

I agree, and I really liked the neat (but admittedly highly improbable) idea that someone had on macrumors. They suggested making the Mac Mini dual bootable, with an option of loading OSX or the iPhone OS/AppleTV OS that was rumored to be in the works a week or so back. That would be awesome.

 

[Kmax82]

Actually the iPhone OS makes perfect sense, if they can get it to work with existing applications, but provide some sort of remote style interface. There are great video apps on there that stream from your home computer, Netflix, ABC app, etc.. It would amazing.

 

[Patranus]

I agree, and I really liked the neat (but admittedly highly improbable) idea that someone had on macrumors. They suggested making the Mac Mini dual bootable, with an option of loading OSX or the iPhone OS/AppleTV OS that was rumored to be in the works a week or so back. That would be awesome.

I have been saying that for a while.
They should put an A4 chip into their products and have a "quickboot" mode into iPhone OS.
Think of the battery life for watching a DVD/movies on a long plane flight only running iPhone OS.

I remember seeing something similar in old school PC laptops.

 

[TheGizmo]

It's actually a pretty nice set up. I have an older mac mini hooked up to my 52" LCD and it works great. I use snow Leo. I have a older core 2 duo 1.83 mini with 4 gig ram using a dvi to hdmi interface for display (no hdmi on my mini). And I use the optical audio out to my surround sound system. Wireless keyboard of your choice and I personally use a magic mouse which I love especially with bettertouchtool software for pinch and zoom and to fast forward by horizonal scrolling in video apps. It's a perfect set up for me. Running at 1080p but when things are too small to read i just pinch magic mouse like an iPhone for zooming it. I personally love the setup. Have a External 1tb drive for
media and such. Sorry for spelling I'm typing from my iPhone.

 

[bearxor]

I think the MacMini makes a sucky HTPC. But my definition of HTPC might differ from yours.

For me, a HTPC has TV tuners and is used as your main source of TV watching. My HTPC has 4 ClearQAM tuners and 1 CableCard tuner and is always on and the TV is always tuned to it except for playing video games.

While it's entirely possible to hobble together a MacMini HTPC with USB TV tuners through a powered USB hub, the result would be extremely messy cable-wise.

It seems to me that most people want to simply watch Youtube or videos off a network drive on their TV. If thats the case, Western Digital has a lovely product for you, the WDTV Live that sells for only $110 at Newegg.

I love the MacMini and think it's a great product, I just think that trying to classifying it as a HTPC is a bit of stretch.

 

[Cable God]

I think the MacMini makes a sucky HTPC. But my definition of HTPC might differ from yours.

For me, a HTPC has TV tuners and is used as your main source of TV watching. My HTPC has 4 ClearQAM tuners and 1 CableCard tuner and is always on and the TV is always tuned to it except for playing video games.

While it's entirely possible to hobble together a MacMini HTPC with USB TV tuners through a powered USB hub, the result would be extremely messy cable-wise.

It seems to me that most people want to simply watch Youtube or videos off a network drive on their TV. If thats the case, Western Digital has a lovely product for you, the WDTV Live that sells for only $110 at Newegg.

I love the MacMini and think it's a great product, I just think that trying to classifying it as a HTPC is a bit of stretch.

I see what you mean, but I don't think I made my intentions clear. For me, it seems to be the "killer appliance". TV, Cable, etc, I could care less about on it. I have DTV with locals running thru HDMI for my TV consumption and don't intend to change that. I like the idea of switching hdmi inputs on my remote, use a magic mouse & BT mini-keyboard for watching movies, youtube, netflix streaming, and other downloaded content, and casual surfing. My Blu-Ray collection is ripped to MKV's, and I am not aware of a set-top box that can play all formats that I throw at it, because I love VLC (if you know of one, please let me know, I'm open to suggestions). I love the tiny form factor, and having my iTunes library is just extra icing on the cake. Do you have anything that you might suggest I look at that can basically do all of that? I looked at building my own htpc a few years ago, and it looked mighty expensive, and the form factor was kinda larger than I wanted to go. Maybe a set-top box running VLC and the ability to play from a LAN storage device. Basically, I think that's what I am looking for in a small form factor, which is why I like the idea of a Mac Mini with hdmi output. The other features of the Mac Mini just seem to sweeten the deal for me.

 

[Ns1]

I see what you mean, but I don't think I made my intentions clear. For me, it seems to be the "killer appliance". TV, Cable, etc, I could care less about on it. I have DTV with locals running thru HDMI for my TV consumption and don't intend to change that. I like the idea of switching hdmi inputs on my remote, use a magic mouse & BT mini-keyboard for watching movies, youtube, netflix streaming, and other downloaded content, and casual surfing. My Blu-Ray collection is ripped to MKV's, and I am not aware of a set-top box that can play all formats that I throw at it, because I love VLC (if you know of one, please let me know, I'm open to suggestions). I love the tiny form factor, and having my iTunes library is just extra icing on the cake. Do you have anything that you might suggest I look at that can basically do all of that? I looked at building my own htpc a few years ago, and it looked mighty expensive, and the form factor was kinda larger than I wanted to go. Maybe a set-top box running VLC and the ability to play from a LAN storage device. Basically, I think that's what I am looking for in a small form factor, which is why I like the idea of a Mac Mini with hdmi output. The other features of the Mac Mini just seem to sweeten the deal for me.

iPhone/iTouch -> Air Remote

 

[alfa147x]

I really want to get a Apple Tv and use it as a HTPC

 

[bearxor]

I see what you mean, but I don't think I made my intentions clear. For me, it seems to be the "killer appliance". TV, Cable, etc, I could care less about on it. I have DTV with locals running thru HDMI for my TV consumption and don't intend to change that. I like the idea of switching hdmi inputs on my remote, use a magic mouse & BT mini-keyboard for watching movies, youtube, netflix streaming, and other downloaded content, and casual surfing. My Blu-Ray collection is ripped to MKV's, and I am not aware of a set-top box that can play all formats that I throw at it, because I love VLC (if you know of one, please let me know, I'm open to suggestions). I love the tiny form factor, and having my iTunes library is just extra icing on the cake. Do you have anything that you might suggest I look at that can basically do all of that? I looked at building my own htpc a few years ago, and it looked mighty expensive, and the form factor was kinda larger than I wanted to go. Maybe a set-top box running VLC and the ability to play from a LAN storage device. Basically, I think that's what I am looking for in a small form factor, which is why I like the idea of a Mac Mini with hdmi output. The other features of the Mac Mini just seem to sweeten the deal for me.

If you want web surfing added to the mix, you can march down the Best Buy Monday and pick up a Acer Aspire Revo for $200. Comes with Windows 7 HP so you can use MCE, which is a great interface. Don't let it fool you. I had one here to play around with for a while with 1GB of RAM and it played back every 1080p MKV I could throw at it (even a couple my ATi card stutters on) flawlessly and, with Flash 10.1, should be fine for browsing too. Has HDMI out already.

Maybe a set-top box running VLC and the ability to play from a LAN storage device.

Just so we're clear, you do understand this is basically what a WDTV Live is, correct?

Video Formats supprted:
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)
MPG/MPEG
VOB
MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1)
TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1)
MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264)
M2TS
WMV9

Audio:
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS

I mean, if you want a MacMini, you want a MacMini. I'm sure the next one will at least have the ability to do HDMI with Audio from the MiniDP jack if it doesn't have a HDMI connector. An upgrade to the 320m in the MacBooks is probably what's going to happen. I'd just hate to see you spend $400-$500 more on something that isn't really designed for what you're trying to use it for to begin with.

 

[Cable God]

Thanks, I just saw the Live version of the WDTV. The one I was thinking about was a bit different, maybe an older model. Hmm, now the question is, do I like the extra functionality of the Mac Mini $800 more? The WDTV live has the basic functionality that I want.

 

[TheSiege]

Here you go, this is a better solution and is what I am running

http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-silent-standalone-xbmc-media-center-on-the-cheap