Replaced my HTPC with a Mac Mini

[jacktesterson]

For fun... new pc HTPC was giving me issues (motherboard was bad), so returned it all



Bought a Mac Mini Base model on Impulse, No experience with Macs at all.

Thought it'd be fun to play with something new.

So far experience has been positive. Mac OSX Lion definitely has a few bugs, but works very well.

HD everything plays just fine using MPlayerX.

Only thing I haven't attempted yet is to find a blu ray solution for my usb blu ray drive, which is fine, as I use PS3 for this most of time anyway.

Only problem I've had is I had to restore Lion out of the box.... It was full of bugs and freezing issues. Restored it, works 100% now.

I was a little hesitant on the HD 3000 as my video (never used Intel before for HTPC), but it works fine.

 

[cheez]

For fun... new pc HTPC was giving me issues (motherboard was bad), so returned it all



Bought a Mac Mini Base model on Impulse, No experience with Macs at all.

Thought it'd be fun to play with something new.

So far experience has been positive. Mac OSX Lion definitely has a few bugs, but works very well.
Only problem I've had is I had to restore Lion out of the box.... It was full of bugs and freezing issues. Restored it, works 100% now.

Did you get a OS X Lion from someone who used it previously? Sounds like the OS was either corrupted or severely infected with virus.
When I got the Lion (came with my new MBP) it gave me no issues, no bugs.

HD everything plays just fine using MPlayerX.

Good choice. This is what I use for Mac. Compatibility is very good. It literally plays everything I have. I think it's better than Media Player Classic from Windows.
You can also adjust sharpness, brightness / contrast as well. The feature for having sharpness is the biggest pro for me. I didn't like any other video players offered for Mac.

The downside is that, the video playback, especially the H.264 and MPEG2-TS (uncompressed - high bitrate) files it *stutters* or *hiccups* easily, meaning it does not provide solid smooth playback. I found out that it is worse when streaming from the network computer even with 1Gbps connection. Turned out that it needed "Also cache local files" box checked in the preference under Network settings in MPlayer X. It plays much better now. I am spoiled when it comes to playback speed because I came from Elecard Mpeg Player which has the fastest playback man has ever created (only available on Windows, sadly) D:

I was a little hesitant on the HD 3000 as my video (never used Intel before for HTPC), but it works fine.

It's quite good actually. Should not run into any problems displaying 2D (videos) and video performance seems good. It's def better than the onboard videos found in PCs. Seems like the performance is about 20% slower than cards like ATi Radeon X1950 series in games so that's pretty darn impressive.🙂

 

[Kadarin]

I use the dual core i7 Mini with discrete graphics for my HTPC solution, and use my PS3 to play blu rays. Video usually gets handled by iTunes and Netflix, and I also stream through the house with Airplay. It works well!

 

[jacktesterson]

Did you get a OS X Lion from someone who used it previously? Sounds like the OS was either corrupted or severely infected with virus.
When I got the Lion (came with my new MBP) it gave me no issues, no bugs.

Good choice. This is what I use for Mac. Compatibility is very good. It literally plays everything I have. I think it's better than Media Player Classic from Windows.
You can also adjust sharpness, brightness / contrast as well. The feature for having sharpness is the biggest pro for me. I didn't like any other video players offered for Mac.

The downside is that, the video playback, especially the H.264 and MPEG2-TS (uncompressed - high bitrate) files it *stutters* or *hiccups* easily, meaning it does not provide solid smooth playback. I found out that it is worse when streaming from the network computer even with 1Gbps connection. Turned out that it needed "Also cache local files" box checked in the preference under Network settings in MPlayer X. It plays much better now. I am spoiled when it comes to playback speed because I came from Elecard Mpeg Player which has the fastest playback man has ever created (only available on Windows, sadly) D:


It's quite good actually. Should not run into any problems displaying 2D (videos) and video performance seems good. It's def better than the onboard videos found in PCs. Seems like the performance is about 20% slower than cards like ATi Radeon X1950 series in games so that's pretty darn impressive.🙂

Sorry I was just rambling on.

The Mac Mini is brand new, sealed box, bought from Best Buy... with Lion preinstalled. I also bought a 8GB Gskill Ram kit (as base only came with 2GB). Made the switch to 8GB before booting first time.

$599 base model.

It booted fine initially but after software updates, it would freeze solid for 45-50 seconds every 10 minutes. I couldn't find the culprit. I was actually very close to returning it before I realized to try a Restore... and that fixed everything.

One thing I did like, I had installed a few apps on it before installing, as well as configured a few things... and after the restore, my apps/configuration was still set. It also connected to internet and downloaded the restore, which was neat.

 

[jacktesterson]

oh... and I absolutely love the look. Even compared to ITX its so small, yet so powerful. (Sandy I5 installed, dual core with HT)

I have a thermaltake dual bay external drive hidden behind the TV holding 2x2TB drives.

The only thing I miss really is I'm using the external enclosure by USB 2.0 rather than E-Sata which sucks... but its ok.

Kinda wish the hard drive was easier to change too.. (SSD)

 

[jacktesterson]

The downside is that, the video playback, especially the H.264 and MPEG2-TS (uncompressed - high bitrate) files it *stutters* or *hiccups* easily, meaning it does not provide solid smooth playback. I found out that it is worse when streaming from the network computer even with 1Gbps connection. Turned out that it needed "Also cache local files" box checked in the preference under Network settings in MPlayer X. It plays much better now. I am spoiled when it comes to playback speed because I came from Elecard Mpeg Player which has the fastest playback man has ever created (only available on Windows, sadly) D:

I haven't had any hiccups or stuttering for any of my files, yet.

The only video playback issue I had was I found Silverlight (used for Netflix) seems to work WAY better in Safari then it does in Chrome.

 

[onlyCOpunk]

Welcome to Mac Mini HTPC world, I have a base model too and it runs a dream.

You should download a program called Plex for your media solution. It's a good little front end and is also capable of streaming to many other devices around your home. It's also very good at organising your content for you so more labelling or putting things in the right folder, unless that's what you're into.

One more very useful thing your mac mini can do, that is if you have another mac is you can screen share so that you don't have to use your mini through the tv all the time if you want to set a download or something, you can muck around and have everything ready when you turn your tv on.

 

[scannall]

Also be aware that for the first day or two after you install it you will get hiccups as it indexes everything.

 

[lokiju]

If you're hooking it to your TV for full on HTPC functions then Plex or XBMC are pretty good apps that make reading it on a TV nice.