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Click on "Launch the Player". Do not click on "Lost". Click on "Watch Now". Wait for it to display the options, then select "now watch episodes in ABC HD streaming. You will be given the choice of: Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy or Desparate Housewives to watch in High Def.
Please try it this way and report back. Thanks


Thats exacty what I did with Grays Anatomy, no problems. Why do you say Lost is not in HD ? The ABC website says that it is.
 
I watched Ugly Betty in HD in fullscreen on my 1.66GHZ mini. It doesn't take much power to play HD. It's the bandwidth that's the issue not the cpu.
My Internet download speed is 10mbps, 5 times faster than required. My Compaq with Windows XP has a fast single Athlon 64 processor running at 2.41GHz, memory is 1GB, video RAM is 128MB that is siphoned off the main memory. This computer will not run Ugly Betty properly in HD. It will run Ugly Betty in full screen just fine using Regular Def. So, I am wondering if it is the lack of memory that is the problem, the single processor or the GPU.

My laptop with 2GB RAM, 128MB of it's own video RAM and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor handles HD with ease.

I am trying to get reports on how well different Minis handle HD.
 
Thats exacty what I did with Grays Anatomy, no problems. Why do you say Lost is not in HD ? The ABC website says that it is.

The reason I said this is that Lost is not listed after clicking on the HD option. Only 6 programs are listed, and that is why I asked everyone to do it that way to have a good comparison.
 
My Internet download speed is 10mbps, 5 times faster than required. My Compaq with Windows XP has a fast single Athlon 64 processor running at 2.41GHz, memory is 1GB, video RAM is 128MB that is siphoned off the main memory. This computer will not run Ugly Betty properly in HD. It will run Ugly Betty in full screen just fine using Regular Def. So, I am wondering if it is the lack of memory that is the problem, the single processor or the GPU.

My laptop with 2GB RAM, 128MB of it's own video RAM and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor handles HD with ease.

I am trying to get reports on how well different Minis handle HD.

It really doesn't take much to play HD. RAM cpu or video. HD is relatively low resolution in computer display terms. My mini has 1 Gig RAM


What kind of internet do you have that is 10Meg down? That is about 10 times larger than the average connection, and usually runs for several hundred dollars a month.
 
Only works in the USA

Here is a test for the Mac Mini.
Go to ABC TV, launch the Player, click on High Def shows, then run Desparate Housewives or Ugly Betty full screen to see if the sound and video will play without stuttering and report back to us.

Unfortunately, watching shows on ABC (US version) will only work in the US. I just tried (from Canada) and was told that the content would display only on computers in the US. I'm pretty sure ABC (Australian version) doesn't have the same shows.:D
 
It really doesn't take much to play HD. RAM cpu or video. HD is relatively low resolution in computer display terms. My mini has 1 Gig RAM


What kind of internet do you have that is 10Meg down? That is about 10 times larger than the average connection, and usually runs for several hundred dollars a month.
I have Cable Internet that is quite fast. Attached is a jpg showing the pretty heavy requirements to watch HD TV on a computer along with the screen to click on to get to the ABC HD choices of the 6 programs that I previously mentioned. I am just seeking answers.
 

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I have Cable Internet that is quite fast. Attached is a jpg showing the pretty heavy requirements to watch HD TV on a computer along with the screen to click on to get to the ABC HD choices of the 6 programs that I previously mentioned. I am just seeking answers.

Lemme ask you this. Fire up activity monitor and switch to the cpu tab. Then play an HD and tell me if your cpus are pegged at 100%. If so, then tell me what the top cpu users are.


I get more than 30 frames per second out of that little mini playing wow on a resolution a heck of a lot higher than HD and I have no problems at all. It's not the mini.
 
Lemme ask you this. Fire up activity monitor and switch to the cpu tab. Then play an HD and tell me if your cpus are pegged at 100%. If so, then tell me what the top cpu users are.


I get more than 30 frames per second out of that little mini playing wow on a resolution a heck of a lot higher than HD and I have no problems at all. It's not the mini.
As I said before, I am running a Compaq with Windows XP. I don't use my Mac much anymore. Am waiting for MWSF to see if Steve Jobs will make a Mac that I want.

I do not play computer games. I am only asking for results of running HDTV following the example I have set forth previously. I am not requesting opinions.
 
As I said before, I am running a Compaq with Windows XP. I don't use my Mac much anymore. Am waiting for MWSF to see if Steve Jobs will make a Mac that I want.

I do not play computer games. I am only asking for results of running HDTV following the example I have set forth previously. I am not requesting opinions.

Well excuse me for not catering to your every whim and not one step further.

The mini can play HD fine. My "games" example was to show that it is more than capable of playing HD just fine.
 
Well excuse me for not catering to your every whim and not one step further.

The mini can play HD fine. My "games" example was to show that it is more than capable of playing HD just fine.
The only way that I can conclude what is lacking in my Compaq for running HDTV is to have different Minis follow my steps exactly to get a good comparison. The Mini is an amazing computer! I am just wondering how it handles to HDTV as I have stated. According to the stated requirements, the Mini with 64MB of video RAM falls short. So I am wondering if 2MB RAM in a Mini makes up for the shortage of GPU memory.
This information will help me decide if I should buy a new Mini or just go for the Mac Pro, that is way overpowered for what I do.
When I do watch TV on my computer, I do not watch in HD, because I can see no difference in the picture quality from Reg Def.
 
The reason the system requirements are so high for the streaming content, but pre-recorded content plays on a much lesser system will be that the content's in a different format. Most HD files knocking around on the net are MPEG-2 or standard MPEG-4 encoded (although both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD support H.264 too.) The streaming content is likely in H.264, which compresses the same quality into a much smaller file (ideal for streaming, since you're limited to probably 2mbps with streaming content, where MPEG-2 content of equivalent quality would take many times this bandwidth.) However, the tradeoff is that the processing requirements for decoding it are much higher. A ~2GHz single core machine could probably decode MPEG-2 1080, but it takes probably an equivalently clocked dual core to do 1080 H.264 comfortably.

Some modern graphics chips (i.e. NVidia 8 series and up except the original 8800GTS, 8800GTX and 8800Ultra and ATI Radeon HD 2xxx/3xxx series but not the 2900XT) support full hardware decode of H.264 content, so CPU requirements would be much lower...
 
The reason the system requirements are so high for the streaming content, but pre-recorded content plays on a much lesser system will be that the content's in a different format. Most HD files knocking around on the net are MPEG-2 or standard MPEG-4 encoded (although both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD support H.264 too.) The streaming content is likely in H.264, which compresses the same quality into a much smaller file (ideal for streaming, since you're limited to probably 2mbps with streaming content, where MPEG-2 content of equivalent quality would take many times this bandwidth.) However, the tradeoff is that the processing requirements for decoding it are much higher. A ~2GHz single core machine could probably decode MPEG-2 1080, but it takes probably an equivalently clocked dual core to do 1080 H.264 comfortably.

Some modern graphics chips (i.e. NVidia 8 series and up except the original 8800GTS, 8800GTX and 8800Ultra and ATI Radeon HD 2xxx/3xxx series but not the 2900XT) support full hardware decode of H.264 content, so CPU requirements would be much lower...
Thank you so much for that technical report explaining why my single core machine falls down with streaming HD. So, is it likely that a Mac Mini Core 2 Duo with 64MB of shared memory can play streaming HDTV content without a hiccup?
 
Thank you so much for that technical report explaining why my single core machine falls down with streaming HD. So, is it likely that a Mac Mini Core 2 Duo with 64MB of shared memory can play streaming HDTV content without a hiccup?

What part of "it works fine" isn't sinking in?
 
Will this new sighting be the mini replacement?

News flash...
 

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Years ago there was a saying, "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up"

You need to think about that.

Well, it works for me. Ive spent a couple hours watching hidef shows on ABC with NO PROBLEMS.
 
I am currently watching Lost on ABC.com in 720P and the Hellboy 2 preview in 1080P at the same time. I have a Mac Mini 1.66 GHZ Core Duo with 1 gigabyte of ram. Neither show is stuttering a bit. The Mac Mini is extremely competent at running HD despite all the integrated graphics naysayers. Games however are another story. Hope this helps end this discussion.
 
Mini will Live. iTV getting re-vamped

I don't think they will end the mini at all. It's a perfect low-cost entry model, especially for people who are still on windows but are interested in trying Apple. Just unplug all your USB devices and your LCD, and simply plug them into a mini and turn it on. It doesn't get much more turn-key than that.

ITV will get re-vamped. If not this week, soon. I've heard for a manager at the Apple store in SoHo that sales of iTv have been low. However, this is the direction that media is headed (i.e. the convergence of the internet and television), so I do imagine Jobs to be re-thinking this equation to make demand more attainable.

Personally, I'm amongst those who wished the iTv would have at least included a DVR. But there was strong assurance that iTv would not be a "tivo killer." Who cares! Kill Tivo, please. Drive them out of the market. And while you're at it, take Comcast and Time Werner with you too!

Of course you can use a Mac Mini as a DVR and connect it to the iTv, but that's a expensive alternative to something that should be a "no-brainer."

What would really be exciting would be an iTv DVR with RSS Video Channel and Blog subscriptions. In short, let me record what I want from cable and watch what I want from the internet, so my media choices are exactly that; mine.
 
I don't think they will end the mini at all. It's a perfect low-cost entry model, especially for people who are still on windows but are interested in trying Apple. Just unplug all your USB devices and your LCD, and simply plug them into a mini and turn it on. It doesn't get much more turn-key than that.

ITV will get re-vamped. If not this week, soon. I've heard for a manager at the Apple store in SoHo that sales of iTv have been low. However, this is the direction that media is headed (i.e. the convergence of the internet and television), so I do imagine Jobs to be re-thinking this equation to make demand more attainable.

Personally, I'm amongst those who wished the iTv would have at least included a DVR. But there was strong assurance that iTv would not be a "tivo killer." Who cares! Kill Tivo, please. Drive them out of the market. And while you're at it, take Comcast and Time Werner with you too!

Of course you can use a Mac Mini as a DVR and connect it to the iTv, but that's a expensive alternative to something that should be a "no-brainer."

What would really be exciting would be an iTv DVR with RSS Video Channel and Blog subscriptions. In short, let me record what I want from cable and watch what I want from the internet, so my media choices are exactly that; mine.

You mean Apple TV, (or even :apple:TV, as marked on the product), right?? ;) I think iTV was one of its predicted names right about this time last year...

...and maybe we'll be having the same discussion about 'MacBook Air' 365 days from now :).
 
Well today is the day we should know whats up with Apples lackluster Mini advancements.:) I still say Apple could take a decent GPU from the mobiles and make one heck of a Mini by replacing that integrated stuff. I really hope they dont Kill it off but even if they do im sure they will replace it with something great.
 
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