Quick Mini to LCD TV Question

[davisjw]

Hello everyone!

I've a quick question; I'm looking to purchase a Mac Mini to connect to my 42" LCD HD TV to watch movies, check my e-mail from the living room, surf the net and other relatively low power things.

My question then is what's the lowest end Mini model I can use that has a big enough graphics card to be able to project fully on my TV with movies going full force? Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time and any replies!

Edit: Would also like to be able to run Leopard since I want it to "talk" to my iMac so I can exchange files, thanks!

 

[mkrishnan]

Do you mean in terms of used Mac Minis? All the current Mini configurations have the same video -- the GMA 950. By projecting fully, I take it you mean 1080p? Here's a thread about 1080p on the Core 2 Duo Mac Minis...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=937580

 

[davisjw]

Sorry, it doesn't have to project HD- I really meant I wanted it to fit the entire screen of my TV with a very solid frame rate even if I'm watching a movie with say a lot of action.

I wasn't sure if I had to get an Intel based Mini or I could go further back in terms of generation. I'm not looking for anything too expensive, ideally nothing more then $350 but the cheaper the better since my laptop and iMac would be used for all the heavy lifting.

Basically the set-up is I have a G4 tower stuffed with HDs with ripped movies/ TV shows, etc used as a server and I want the Mini to be able to take things off the server or use things from the server so I can play the movies I have in my tower on my big screen.

It was more a question about basically what's the cheapest Mini generation I can get with a video card big enough to be able to fully fit my 42" wide screen TV and be able to handle movies playing on the 42" screen without a problem.

Thanks for the reply and link! Interesting..

 

[nando2323]

Sorry, it doesn't have to project HD- I really meant I wanted it to fit the entire screen of my TV with a very solid frame rate even if I'm watching a movie with say a lot of action.

I wasn't sure if I had to get an Intel based Mini or I could go further back in terms of generation. I'm not looking for anything too expensive, ideally nothing more then $350 but the cheaper the better since my laptop and iMac would be used for all the heavy lifting.

Basically the set-up is I have a G4 tower stuffed with HDs with ripped movies/ TV shows, etc used as a server and I want the Mini to be able to take things off the server or use things from the server so I can play the movies I have in my tower on my big screen.

It was more a question about basically what's the cheapest Mini generation I can get with a video card big enough to be able to fully fit my 42" wide screen TV and be able to handle movies playing on the 42" screen without a problem.

Thanks for the reply and link! Interesting..

I have a 1.66 Mini hooked up to my 42" Plasma and I have no issues at all running HD movies and TV shows to it, no stutter nothing, runs great. I have 2GB of RAM on it too if that means anything.

 

[chinesebob]

I have a 1.82 mini and we've had it connected to the tv with a vga cable and today finally got the dvi to hdmi cable to connect it up.

Now it's not showing the screen. I can screen share from my MB but nothing on the mini through the tv. tried changing the hdmi port, playing with the settings on the tv, nothing seems to work.

 

[chinesebob]

ok figured out that my tv isn't supporting 1080P even though it says it will. Go figure.

Now I have to figure out the sound....... I know I have the splitter, maybe I will have to resort to that and less than optimal performance.

 

[davisjw]

Thanks for your help!

 

[sfroom]

ok figured out that my tv isn't supporting 1080P even though it says it will. Go figure.

Now I have to figure out the sound....... I know I have the splitter, maybe I will have to resort to that and less than optimal performance.

Supporting 1080p and displaying 1080p are two different things. All HDTV's "support" 1080p, which means that you can watch content from a 1080p source, i.e. plug a Blu Ray player in and watch a movie.

However, using it as a display for your computer is completely different. For the image to display properly, the television has to be "expecting" the same resolution the computer is giving it.

My advice is to stick with VGA (or DVI, if possible), and set the resolution of the TV to something that matches a resolution available in system preferences, (i.e. most likley 1366x768 or something very close to it...1920x1080 if your television supports it).

The television should most likely have a "headphone jack" sound input matched with the PC-input, but if not, you can purchase 8mm to stereo cables for about $10 at most electronic stores, i.e. Radioshack.

 

[ftaok]

Supporting 1080p and displaying 1080p are two different things. All HDTV's "support" 1080p, which means that you can watch content from a 1080p source, i.e. plug a Blu Ray player in and watch a movie.

Not all HDTVs support 1080p. Yes, most new ones do, but even some 1-year old HDTVs do not support 1080p sources.

Not sure what the OP has (he mentions 42", but no model number).