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Gizmotoy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,108
164
Has anyone tried running XBMC in Windows 7 on one of the new minis yet? I'm having trouble with choppy menu animations my 2011 Quad i7 in this setup and was thinking about upgrading to a new one. It's a long story, but no combination of new drivers or software appears to resolve the issue I'm having. Given my prior trouble, I wanted to wait until someone else has tried the new ones.

I'm also considering swapping out to one of the 2011s with discrete graphics instead of my Intel HD3000 in hopes that fixes it.

I'm not sure what to do, though. If you guys have any ideas I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!
 

Gizmotoy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,108
164
Anybody currently running Windows 7 under Bootcamp on a current Mac mini willing to give this a try? I'd be willing to send a couple dollars for your trouble. I can send detailed instructions. It'd take probably 10-15 minutes to install XBMC and Aeon Nox, tops. I just don't want to spend $600 and be back where I started!
 

spokk

macrumors newbie
Apr 27, 2010
15
0
I am also interested in the exact same thing. Will be running win8 + xbmc though. Windows is just better at xbmc stuff(performs way better), also my multiremote has lots of featurea that only work in windows

Would really like to know how it works before i take the plunge. Running w7 and xbmc on a 2009 mini now and an upgrade is in order
 

spokk

macrumors newbie
Apr 27, 2010
15
0
Mac os is not interesting for several reaaons. One being hd audio, others being need a windows machine to host .net framework stuff. Anyway someone must have tried this by now?
 

Gizmotoy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,108
164
I have to say I'm a little surprised I can't even pay someone to test out XBMC. :eek:

I've looked at Plex a few times, and I've never seen anything that I'd use that it does better than XBMC. XBMC has more plugin support, and doesn't require me to run additional software on my server. Plex doesn't support HD audio, even on Windows where it is actually possible, so that's a big drawback. I don't watch from my mobile devices, and don't want any part of my server exposed to the open Internet, which as far as I can tell eliminates Plex's major advantage over XBMC. With all that in mind, I don't think Plex is right for me.
 

Gizmotoy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,108
164
FYI Macosx can not bitstream the HD audio. But it can output LPCM.

Certainly a little off-topic, but I think most people attempting to use a Mac Mini in a HTPC are aware of that. At least in my case, I'm not about to go back and decode something like 500 movies from DTS-HD MA and TrueHD to LPCM just so I can play them under OS X. Beyond the tedious conversion process, since LPCM is completely uncompressed, it would result in a large increase in the amount of storage capacity required. Converting to LPCM is not very attractive.
 
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Gizmotoy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,108
164
A note for anyone finding this. I tried upgrading my 2011 Mac Mini Server to Windows 8, and the choppy menus animations I was having in XBMC magically went away. Same drivers being used on both OS versions. I have no idea what the problem was, but I guess the new version fixed it.
 

SlickVik

macrumors member
Sep 12, 2003
35
18
Certainly a little off-topic, but I think most people attempting to use a Mac Mini in a HTPC are aware of that. At least in my case, I'm not about to go back and decode something like 500 movies from DTS-HD MA and TrueHD to LPCM just so I can play them under OS X. Beyond the tedious conversion process, since LPCM is completely uncompressed, it would result in a large increase in the amount of storage capacity required. Converting to LPCM is not very attractive.

Plex will transcode TruHD and output LPCM 7.1 while playing, so the only real problem is DTS-HD.
 

Gizmotoy

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 6, 2003
1,108
164
True HD is pretty rare on Blu Rays because the fallback format if your equipment doesn't support it is so much worse than the DTS Core on the DTS-HD disks so most studios choose DTS-HD.

So while that's interesting, from a practical perspective it's not very helpful.

I've had some time to get used to Windows 8. It's about as close to an ideal Media Center OS as I've seen.

When paired with the latest XBMC it has everything I need, including bit streaming all the HD audio formats. Very impressed so far.
 
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