Mac Pro or Macbook

[Ikyo]

I was going to do a media PC upstairs that would play Bluray and some other media that I currently have. I found a Mac Pro 2.66 (previous generation) fairly cheap (around $1600) to use for this, but after the announcement yesterday...I am unsure.

With both units I would be using an external bluray burner for ease of use and portability. My concerns are:

Should I get a current generation Macbook?
Are there still issues with external Bluray drives?
Should I wait and see what they do with the Mac Mini?

I did consider using a mac mini for this, but I am not 100% sure it would have the power to handle 1080p without stuttering. If anyone is currently using a mini with Windows to playback BLuray movies, I would love to hear your input.

 

[highjumppudding]

well the mac doesnt play blurays yet. and i dont see this becoming a feature any time in the near future. you'll need a decent gpu to play the bluray so therefore a mac pro, imac, new macbook/pro. you can play bluray on windows for now though. external bluray is a great idea. i use an external bluray burner on the mac pro and it works great with toast 9. there is an article on my website about the setup and process. consider you budget and portability needs. its a tough time to recommend any specific setup because mac is not very bluray friendly at the moment.

 

[Ikyo]

The mac pro and the macbook are going to be about the same price. I am not worrier about portability because I have another laptop. I am having a rough time trying to find anyone that has an external blueray drive. Which model do you have?

 

[UltraNEO*]

I was going to do a media PC upstairs that would play Bluray and some other media that I currently have. I found a Mac Pro 2.66 (previous generation) fairly cheap (around $1600) to use for this, but after the announcement yesterday...I am unsure.

With both units I would be using an external bluray burner for ease of use and portability. My concerns are:

Should I get a current generation Macbook?
Are there still issues with external Bluray drives?
Should I wait and see what they do with the Mac Mini?

I did consider using a mac mini for this, but I am not 100% sure it would have the power to handle 1080p without stuttering. If anyone is currently using a mini with Windows to playback BLuray movies, I would love to hear your input.

Maybe "Cpt CaveMan" (a MR user) can help you here...

 

[Ikyo]

I ended up going with a early 2008 Mac Pro. It should have more then enough power to run everything. I had my old 2600 from my other Pro so I put both in it. I will run crossfire under windows to make sure it will have more then enough to do any HD content.

 

[Ikyo]

I did notice a very strange issue. When I boot the machine and it shows the Apple with the spinning circle in the middle of the screen, the screen is slanted annd distored. When I get into OSX, everything is perfectly fine. Does this have something to do with the EFI not being able to detect the TV correctly? It is a Hitatchi 50" Plasma at 1080P

 

[Ikyo]

Anyone have any ideas? I did try another video card to rule that out.

 

[wpc33]

Try a different monitor. Usually, the resolution adjusts in between the grey, and login screens. Perhaps the monitor has some default that causes this before OS X sorts it out. Just a theory.

 

[Ikyo]

I am guessing it might be an interlaced format or something of that sort.