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2005 Mac mini as an Apple TV
- Thread starter Z8beema
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It's not going to be able to play HD media well, if at all, and it can't run a modern version of OS X. If you want an Apple TV, you're better off buying even a 3rd generation one than trying to use a G4 Mac Mini for this purpose.
An SSD is of no value when playing streaming media.
The slowest HDD can stream even 4K video without breaking a sweat.But yeah, the real problem is the GPU. Video devices have advanced greatly in the past decade, and older GPUs just don't have the ability to drive higher resolution screens. Just as importantly, compression algorithms have changed, so that even if you are driving a screen that the GPU can handle, the older GPU probably won't be able to provide hardware decompression for the video. This forces the CPU to handle the decompression in software, and that can be quite challenging for an older machine to handle.
That said, I did use a 2007 mini as my HTPC for a long time. It served adequately for 720p video, but simply couldn't handle 1080p video sources.
An SSD is of no value when playing streaming media.
Once streaming a hard drive is not the limiting factor but the SSD helps gets it to the point where streaming can start much faster. Before installing the SSD my mini was a pain to use, now I have the OS on an SSD and all my content on a HD.
Actually, this is mostly about the codec. Practically all of the 1080p video is using h.264 anymore. A core2duo just doesn't have quite the "umph" for that, although the 2010 Minis are close. Mpeg2 would work well, but then you'd have something like a 50% larger video file size along with a worse quality picture
I use a 2009 Mini for exactly this purpose. 2.0ghz, 8GB ram and a 2TB SSHD. High Seirra is installed. Has absolutely no problem streaming, and plays 1080P h.264 and h.265 like nothing. I don't know what video player you're using but I use Kodi and VLC. The core2duo, the slowest 2.0ghz one that mine has, has no problem with it. Doesn't lag or anything.
I do agree that a G4 mini would not be the ideal choice though. I tried doing this with my powermac G5 for awhile. Handles the video okay but there is no codec compatible for PPC that'll play h.265 which everyones been using now.
I do agree that a G4 mini would not be the ideal choice though. I tried doing this with my powermac G5 for awhile. Handles the video okay but there is no codec compatible for PPC that'll play h.265 which everyones been using now.
My 2007 Core 2 Duo Mac mini handled 1080p h.264 (and AC3) content just fine - so long as the bit rate of the encode wasn't too high. So, it all depends...
