doesnt matter what program im using when it comes to sound.
only have 1 display connected.
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Mac Mini: media center (Plex)
- Thread starter mgpg89
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only have 1 display connected.
I have a first gen intel mac mini with a 1.5ghz solo that I swapped out for a 2.0ghz dual core. It is connected to a 60" Sony XBR2 via DVI-HDMI cable and surround sound with an optical cable. It has a probox attached via eSATA (another upgrade I performed) with about 6tb of mostly HD video. Quite a few of these are 1080p.
Plex categorizes this library well and playback seems to be near perfect. This machine also acts as a file server for my entire network (5 other macs), and handles both tasks at once nicely. The only complaint I have would be fan noise.
I will be replacing this machine when the new mini emerges with the thunderbolt port. I almost upgraded when the unibody hdmi unit came out, but then I had to ask myself...why? This little machine is still handling every thing I ask it to do.
I bought it used last year for $175 on CL, processor set me back aboout $80, and the eSATA mod was about $100. I added a 60gb internal SSD and the 2gb of RAM.
Everyone seems to question the little mini. Trust me....it can handle itself.
Plex categorizes this library well and playback seems to be near perfect. This machine also acts as a file server for my entire network (5 other macs), and handles both tasks at once nicely. The only complaint I have would be fan noise.
I will be replacing this machine when the new mini emerges with the thunderbolt port. I almost upgraded when the unibody hdmi unit came out, but then I had to ask myself...why? This little machine is still handling every thing I ask it to do.
I bought it used last year for $175 on CL, processor set me back aboout $80, and the eSATA mod was about $100. I added a 60gb internal SSD and the 2gb of RAM.
Everyone seems to question the little mini. Trust me....it can handle itself.
That is a puzzling situation. I don't have a Mac Mini but am seriously considering getting one to use as an HTPC in my home theater setup. Consequently, please understand that what follows is based on research but not on any practical experience.
According to Apple, the HDMI port on the 2010 Mac Mini does support audio via HDMI. Here's the money quote:
It appears that HDMI audio should work as well under OS X as it does under Windows. Go figure.
That is a puzzling situation. I don't have a Mac Mini but am seriously considering getting one to use as an HTPC in my home theater setup. Consequently, please understand that what follows is based on research but not on any practical experience.
According to Apple, the HDMI port on the 2010 Mac Mini does support audio via HDMI. Here's the money quote:
It appears that HDMI audio should work as well under OS X as it does under Windows. Go figure.
he means HD audio, such as DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD. Same way the fat ps3's supported audio thru hdmi, but not HD audio.
I just upgraded the mac mini to 8 GB for about 80 bucks off of Amazon. The machine now runs even faster. I am using a little passport drive to run my HD movies off of but am considering getting a nas device to dump my content off of my windows box. I was looking at the Buffalo Terastations to handle my storage.
Actually, the fat PS3s do support PCM HD audio via HDMI, it's just decoded by the PS3. The only limitation that PCM imposes is the AV receiver's HD indicator lights don't light up. The sound is the same, though. The only thing the new slim PS3s added that the fat PS3s didn't already have was the ability to bitstream the raw HD audio stream to an AV receiver and let the receiver decode it. In the later instance, the receiver's HD indicator lights are illuminated but, as noted, the sound is the same.
I bought a Mac Mini at the Tinker AFB exchange this morning and ordered a Kingston 8GB RAM kit for it from Amazon. I had to pay $94 for it though, so the $80 price you got sounds great. I haven't decided what to do about expanding the Mac Mini's storage. As a stopgap I will use an old OWC 250GB Firewire 800 drive with it. I also have a Toshiba 640GB portable USB drive, which is formatted to NTFS and connected to the TiVo Desktop installation on an old XP desktop. I will likely move it to the Mac Mini, once I get VMware Fusion and Windows 7 installed on it.
Sorry, If i'm hi-jack this thread...
Don't you guy think using MAC mini as Media Center like use sledge hammer to squad a fly?
Lighten me... I don't get it
MAC mini is so powerful and much more useful than just a Media Center...
What about TVIX, DUNE, POPCORN, WDTV, SEAGAT... The dedicate HD media player which built-in all the hardware codec, just plug in and play almost ANY video files, Audio format....
Why can we use that and use MAC mini and a Server or something more useful...
Don't you guy think using MAC mini as Media Center like use sledge hammer to squad a fly?
Lighten me... I don't get it
MAC mini is so powerful and much more useful than just a Media Center...
What about TVIX, DUNE, POPCORN, WDTV, SEAGAT... The dedicate HD media player which built-in all the hardware codec, just plug in and play almost ANY video files, Audio format....
Why can we use that and use MAC mini and a Server or something more useful...
You can. Some people just prefer more control, or to use the computer for other things.. Really up to you. I want to run Plex, and I can't do that with the things you mention.
I recently got a Mac Mini to use as a media center and love it. Thanks to the Mac Mini's HDMI connection, I can play many Youtube videos with 1080p video and 5.1 audio from a Google Chrome Web page. Apple's wireless keyboard and trackpad make it extremely easy to control everything. I have a large collection of M4V movies, which I intend to load into iTunes and play directly on my HT system.
I haven't seriously considered Plex because it appears that Chrome and iTunes will let me do everything I want. I have no wish to watch videos anywhere but on my HT system and iTunes will handle that for me nicely. Be warned, however, I haven't had my Mac Mini very long and am still learning about it.
I haven't seriously considered Plex because it appears that Chrome and iTunes will let me do everything I want. I have no wish to watch videos anywhere but on my HT system and iTunes will handle that for me nicely. Be warned, however, I haven't had my Mac Mini very long and am still learning about it.
Because all these have one huge flaw that disqualifies them:
They cannot correctly display a.s.s. subtitles. For anime lovers that's a killer.
On the macmini and stuttering:
1. A true BR rip is too much, but those are 40GB file
More sensible files can be played, though as some have said, the audio might cause some problems. That never happened to me so far, but I'm not representative We usually use it to watch Anime, Documentaries and the occasional tv show. I watch movies on BR through my PS3 (not that often, not enough time in one lifetime^^)2. Snow Leopard quite frankly sucked for HTPC uses. First it had remote issues, then they changed the display driver and VDPAU which caused a huge headache for both Plex and XBMC developers. Currently all that has been solved, but the fact that one issues got replaced by another and the time that it took to get it all right made it a less than ideal release for HTPC uses.
On Plex versus XBMC: XBMC has a lot more releases, which is a good and a bad thing. The good thing they fix issues fast (which was necessary with SL). But as with all these things... sometimes the updates break stuff^^. But if you use the official stable build it's absolutely rocksolid.
Plex is nice... but I prefer the XBMC community. The constant fixes, openness, willingness to discuss issues, I find it very useful.
Oh and a pro-tip!
Buy a Logitech Harmony 600 to control your TV, Mac-mini and Audio-set!
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I agree that BDs contain far too much data for ripping them to be very practical. It's just too slow and each disc takes up too much storage space, it seems to me. That's why I have had either a Netflix or Blockbuster subscription for a long time. I get BDs from them and watch them on my PS3. It's simple, fast, and legal, so it works well for me.On the macmini and stuttering:
1. A true BR [Blu-ray = BD] rip is too much, but those are 40GB file
2. Snow Leopard quite frankly sucked for HTPC uses. First it had remote issues, then they changed the display driver and VDPAU which caused a huge headache for both Plex and XBMC developers. Currently all that has been solved, but the fact that one issues got replaced by another and the time that it took to get it all right made it a less than ideal release for HTPC uses.
On Plex versus XBMC: XBMC has a lot more releases, which is a good and a bad thing. The good thing they fix issues fast (which was necessary with SL). But as with all these things... sometimes the updates break stuff^^. But if you use the official stable build it's absolutely rocksolid.
Plex is nice... but I prefer the XBMC community. The constant fixes, openness, willingness to discuss issues, I find it very useful.
Oh and a pro-tip!
Buy a Logitech Harmony 600 to control your TV, Mac-mini and Audio-set!
I don't like to watch films via streaming, so found that I seldom used Netflix's streaming client on either my PS3 or TiVos. The quality of a typical BD's 1080p video and lossless audio has completely spoiled me for streamed movies. I just don't enjoy the streaming experience.
I have only been using a Mac Mini as an HTPC for about 10 days so I still have a lot to learn. Based on my limited experience, though, the current version of Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.7 is just fine for HTPC. It has allowed me to stream videos of all sorts from the Web. Most of them, of course, involve current events so I don't hold them to the high standards I have for BD movies. I have seen little or no stuttering or beachballing. The only glitch has been an occasional delay on 1080p videos when the network needs time to build up the buffer. If I use 720p instead, though, there is never a problem.
Despite the inferior PQ and AQ of streaming Web videos to BDs, they are vastly better when sent via HDMI to my Yamaha RX-V3900 7.1 AV receiver and 60 inch Pioneer plasma 1080p display than they are when played on any computer.
I have Windows 7 Ultimate installed on my Mac Mini. It runs in a VMware Fusion virtual machine. So far, I use it only for TiVo Desktop for Windows, so that the Mac Mini is the repository of backups of the videos from my TiVos that I want archived. Of course, when and if I hear of another HTPC app that works better in Windows that it does in OS X I will be able to use it, too.
I share your enthusiasm for Harmony remotes. I have been using them for more than 7 years and really like them. Currently, I have a Logitech Harmony 659 and a Logitech Harmony Adapter for PS3. Both are great. With the Mac Mini, though. I use the harmony only to control the audio. For everything else, I use an Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad. They have been an effective combination so far.
I'm also waiting for the 2011 model for a Plex media center..
I'm also going to upgrade the internal drive to a Bluray reader... Maybe I'll even post a video on how to do it!
Please yes. I'd love to see how this is done.
I have a 2010 Mac Mini, upgraded to 8GB RAM. I have significant stuttering on 1080p .mkv files in Plex, XMBC, and VLC. 1080p .mp4 files play perfectly in Quicktime.
Interestingly enough, I noticed that the stuttering was resolved and everything played perfectly when I disabled (actually, just reduced) the refresh rate on my TV. I'm running the mini through my Samsung UN40D6420, and the culprit seems to be the Auto Motion Plus settings (120HZ). Turn it off and I'm golden - but only in Plex, XMBC, and VLC. When I play a blu-ray on my PS3, it plays perfectly with the Auto Motion Plus setting.
So, I've found my issue is actually with either my TV, or the handshake between the Plex/XMBC/VLC output and the motion settings on the TV.
Problem is, I'm actually a big fan of that setting and it sucks to have to turn it off. Anyone have any ideas as to how I might be able to work around this issue? Thanks in advance!
Interestingly enough, I noticed that the stuttering was resolved and everything played perfectly when I disabled (actually, just reduced) the refresh rate on my TV. I'm running the mini through my Samsung UN40D6420, and the culprit seems to be the Auto Motion Plus settings (120HZ). Turn it off and I'm golden - but only in Plex, XMBC, and VLC. When I play a blu-ray on my PS3, it plays perfectly with the Auto Motion Plus setting.
So, I've found my issue is actually with either my TV, or the handshake between the Plex/XMBC/VLC output and the motion settings on the TV.
Problem is, I'm actually a big fan of that setting and it sucks to have to turn it off. Anyone have any ideas as to how I might be able to work around this issue? Thanks in advance!
Because all these have one huge flaw that disqualifies them:
They cannot correctly display a.s.s. subtitles. For anime lovers that's a killer.
On the macmini and stuttering:
1. A true BR rip is too much, but those are 40GB file
2. Snow Leopard quite frankly sucked for HTPC uses. First it had remote issues, then they changed the display driver and VDPAU which caused a huge headache for both Plex and XBMC developers. Currently all that has been solved, but the fact that one issues got replaced by another and the time that it took to get it all right made it a less than ideal release for HTPC uses.
On Plex versus XBMC: XBMC has a lot more releases, which is a good and a bad thing. The good thing they fix issues fast (which was necessary with SL). But as with all these things... sometimes the updates break stuff^^. But if you use the official stable build it's absolutely rocksolid.
Plex is nice... but I prefer the XBMC community. The constant fixes, openness, willingness to discuss issues, I find it very useful.
Oh and a pro-tip!
Buy a Logitech Harmony 600 to control your TV, Mac-mini and Audio-set!
Most of the time that is not the case if you are using Plex with hardware acceleration enabled. Any Mini with a Core2Duo and NVIDIA video GPU can handle most Blu-ray rips. If you strip out the HD Audio (which the Mini can't utilize anyway), you almost never have a problem with stuttering. I have have something like 28 Blu-ray rips on my NAS and have tested at least a dozen others. I've only had stuttering on a handful of rips, and those were all rips that still contained the HD Audio stream.
I had a mac mini (current gen) and got rid of it. I used it strictly for media content and used it a decent amount.
I sold it though and I'm extremely happy I did. You can honestly build a small i3 HTPC for roughly $400. No, it's not a mac but its silent and works perfect without any issues. I built two so far, one with an i3 and one with an i5 to run my Ceton 4 Cablecard tuner (record four HD shows at once via Window Media Center). I totally regret getting the mac mini now and spending all the money for an outdated machine.
If you do decide to go the route of building something and go the i3 route it'll even decode HD audio.
Good luck! Do your research. Plex is great but it has issues with some DTS audio. I personally had to use XBMC which worked perfect.
I sold it though and I'm extremely happy I did. You can honestly build a small i3 HTPC for roughly $400. No, it's not a mac but its silent and works perfect without any issues. I built two so far, one with an i3 and one with an i5 to run my Ceton 4 Cablecard tuner (record four HD shows at once via Window Media Center). I totally regret getting the mac mini now and spending all the money for an outdated machine.
If you do decide to go the route of building something and go the i3 route it'll even decode HD audio.
Good luck! Do your research. Plex is great but it has issues with some DTS audio. I personally had to use XBMC which worked perfect.
The bolded statement absolutely kills me, if only because it's extremely close to impossible. The Plex Media Player (i.e. the part that isn't a server and IS open source) is nearly a line for line copy of the XBMC Media Player. At one point, it WAS a line for line copy. Plex branched in 2008. Since then, as far as video player development goes, there's simply nothing that I know of that can really distinguish the two. Both use Apple's built in GPU decoding, which means the picture quality should be exactly the same. Both output AC3 and DTS the same. When GPU decoding isn't occurring, both use FFMPEG for decoding purposes. For all intents and purposes, XBMC should be essentially equal to Plex which should be essentially equal to VLC when we're talking about A/V quality, because they are all based on FFMPEG and Apple's proprietary GPU decoding framework.
As for the remainder of this whole discussion: meh. I recognize that I'm pretty biased, so I see no real reason to stick my head into the fight.
The reason must people use an application like PLEX is because they have multiple different formats. I have .avi .m4v and .mkv files try playing them through Itunes.
If all of your files are m4v and you plan to use itunes you could have saved money and bought an appleTV instead.
I find the Mac Mini to be the best compromise for an easy to use, yet full featured media center. I carry a $12/month Netflix subscription and that's all I pay monthly for TV/Movies. From my couch, with nothing but a logitech remote, I can:
- Play blu-ray rips generated with MKV (Plex)
- Simultaneously record 3 over the air HD channels while watching a 4th using an EyeTV Hybrid and an HD Homerun tuner.
- Stream Netflix movies (Plex)
- Hulu (Hulu Desktop -- I prefer it to Plex's plugin)
- Airplay video from iPad (Plex)
- Youtube (Plex, actually use the iPad to Airplay it to Plex more often)
- Trailers (Plex)
- Pandora (Plex, or PandoraBoy)
- CNN/Fox News (Plex)
- Photo slideshows from iPhoto library (Plex)
- CBS plugin (Plex) for what I miss off the EyeTV and isn't available in Hulu
- Transmission (Plex) for downloading torrents, which are then automatically renamed via applescript and incorporated into Plex.
I'm using a 2009 Mac Mini with NVIDIA GPU. The logitech has two main activities that cover all of the above; EyeTV and Plex (I launch Hulu Desktop, Front Row and PandoraBoy using Plex's built-in app launcher). Girlfriend has no problem using any of this. I do keep a apple bluetooth remote and mouse handy but they are rarely used.
I tried XBMC but things like streaming Netflix and the overall setup were more complicated. I haven't yet setup Plex on anything but my main living room Mini, but it's centralized Media Server are going to make that a snap compared to some of the other offerings.
- Play blu-ray rips generated with MKV (Plex)
- Simultaneously record 3 over the air HD channels while watching a 4th using an EyeTV Hybrid and an HD Homerun tuner.
- Stream Netflix movies (Plex)
- Hulu (Hulu Desktop -- I prefer it to Plex's plugin)
- Airplay video from iPad (Plex)
- Youtube (Plex, actually use the iPad to Airplay it to Plex more often)
- Trailers (Plex)
- Pandora (Plex, or PandoraBoy)
- CNN/Fox News (Plex)
- Photo slideshows from iPhoto library (Plex)
- CBS plugin (Plex) for what I miss off the EyeTV and isn't available in Hulu
- Transmission (Plex) for downloading torrents, which are then automatically renamed via applescript and incorporated into Plex.
I'm using a 2009 Mac Mini with NVIDIA GPU. The logitech has two main activities that cover all of the above; EyeTV and Plex (I launch Hulu Desktop, Front Row and PandoraBoy using Plex's built-in app launcher). Girlfriend has no problem using any of this. I do keep a apple bluetooth remote and mouse handy but they are rarely used.
I tried XBMC but things like streaming Netflix and the overall setup were more complicated. I haven't yet setup Plex on anything but my main living room Mini, but it's centralized Media Server are going to make that a snap compared to some of the other offerings.
I have had an Apple TV for three and a half years. I never liked it because of its dependence on iTunes so I replaced it with a Mac Mini with a smile on my face.
My roommate and i have been using a MM for the last two years as our media server, and I couldn't be happier. He has the last generation and it works perfect for 1080p (it's the only thing ill watch now). There were some flubs here and there with Plex, but once it is configured, the MM hardware acceleration works perfect. We were using XBMC for a long time, but it'd be hit or miss with stuttering and audio sync, and the lack of updates due to abandonment gave way to Plex. Plus, plex has the media server software as well that logs and creates a whole file system just for your media (gets boxart, etc) and it works amazing (and they set out new releases monthly).
My roommate is moving out pretty soon, and i'm going to get a new MM to replace it because it works so well (although I may wait a few months to see if they refresh them, since there is a lot of speculation). I wouldn't set up my media any other way.
My roommate is moving out pretty soon, and i'm going to get a new MM to replace it because it works so well (although I may wait a few months to see if they refresh them, since there is a lot of speculation). I wouldn't set up my media any other way.
for me its the automation and the front end.
the automation lets me run a sabnzbd client in the background 24/7 to pick up whatever I want, then plex will scan it and add the metadata to the server. That server is then available across its own front end, or on iphone/ipad/appleTV and now roku boxes.
The front end is incomparable to the media streamer/HDD boxes. Those things are almost like browsing a DOS directory unless you spend a long time with different apps creating a decent UI for them. I never really got on with that way of doing things.
The most recent mini is also very power efficient, and if you plug in a few USB HDDs you have a nice NAS too!