Mac Mini as a HTPC?

[wedge22]

Ok I know its a mac not a pc but could you use a Mac Mini as a media centre to house all your movies on? I was just thinking that there is no way I will get anything smaller than a Mac Mini really.

[joshwa]

yes you can - you would need a larger (laptop) hard drive if you wanted to store them that way, you can easily setup windows file sharing on it, so other windows pcs can view them, but the only problem would be if you wanted to watch them from the mac mini - as it's only got stereo jack out (not 5.1 sound)...

there are very small pcs as well:
link, link

and there will be one's just as small as the mac mini in the future:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/02/mini_vs_mini/
http://www.mini-itx.com/news/computex2003-1/

[Jonny M]

There's a way of using the Mac mini as a frontend to MythTV which I think is the best way to go about it, streaming your video from a large server shoved out of sight.

[philb34]

The only thing that i found that stopped me doing this was no digital output from mini to av receiver.
You have to buy external sound system,external hard drives etc but try these links:


http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000057028826/

http://www.machtpc.com/

http://www.123macmini.com/

Also try av forums have a whole section for htpc.www.avforums.com

[bsodmike]

Right now that is the exact role of my mini. It is connected to the TV and control it with a kb/mouse (nothing amazing here lol).

In the future I think I might get rid of the kb (maybe) and connect a wireless mouse. I use it mainly to watch stuff downloaded and Region 1 DVDs...

Digital Out: Yes, this is a problem, but for now I'll live with Stereo..

[herulach]

Have you looked into those cubit things that scan sell? They are tiny, and you can get them in colours other than super tacky white.

[bsodmike]

Luckily for me you don't see the 'super tacky' white:

[wedge22]

So there will soon be an Aopen pc available that is the same size as the Mac Mini, that sounds like a good little pc from the limited specs listed on the website above.

[philb34]

hey BSOD that looks smart like that mate!

[menthel]

Don't forget that the mac mini cannot play hd content, its just not powerful enough.

[bsodmike]

hey BSOD that looks smart like that mate!

Thanks dude, it looks quite sweet sitting under there

Menthel: Yes, HD content would be an issue (initially) but that again depends on what you connect it to. What I mean is a) it has only 32MB of vram so your options of connectivity are limited. I have it set @ 1280x1024 for now and I played an HD clip of Samurai Champloo (last 2 eps) and it plays it quite smoothly...but again that's cause of the lower res....

[menthel]

I have tried playing hd stuff on my powerbook 12" and it just stutters!

[Red10]

If i may, i'd like to offer my 2ps worth!

Forget HD stuff on a Mac Mini, i've a few heard horror stories re: HD on HIGHER powered machines than the mini... I dunno, i could (and probably am) wrong but even when looking at some web content and movies my machine stutters and whines...
I was playing a flash game and it got cranky as hell (i'm using 1Gb RAM), so i don't know how it'd handle movies etc.

[arthurleung]

Slap an Audigy2 NX USB into your Mac Mini, sound problem solved.

[philb34]

yes but how much is that option over a pc sound card?

[paddlegod]

Have a look at the Cubit5 in white. The IR remote is built-in, slot loading DVD rewriter, can support 2 S-ATA 3.5" harddrives and can be configured with either Athlon64 (inc x2) or Intel P4 LGA775 CPUs. Takes standard PCI-E or AGP graphics cards and all have digital audio in and out.

http://www.fast-n-small.co.uk/acatal...wn_Hoojum.html