Media playback Software/Mediacenter?

[dragon2611]

I have a powerpc mac mini

1.5ghz g4
512mb ram
80gb hdd
Combo-drive
Wi-fi/bluetooth

Sitting around doing nothing.

I don't use it since I either use my PC or my Macbook.

I think I posted a whileback asking about turning one into a media center, but I never got around to actually trying to do it since I didn't have a screen to use it on.

However I was thinking of hooking it up to the TV as we recently changed the TV in the living room and the new one has a VGA input. (also has HDMI)
I was thinking of chucking VNC on it to start with so I could just use a laptop to control it untill I get a new wireless keyboard/remote.

Are there good media playback apps for OSX or would I be better off putting Linux on it?

Will this machine be able to decode h264 (something like VLC perhaps, I know the linux version can play it) but does this Mini have enough CPU power to playback video compressed with the latest HD codecs?

Also anyone know anything that can play FLAC?
(although I have a machine setup with jinzora that can transcode to mp3 then stream via HTTP if needed)

 

[Cromulent]

Stick Linux on it and you'll get much better performance out of the box.

Edit : Not sure about H.264 though. You maybe able too. It is not the end of the world if you can't. Xvid or MPEG-4 are okay for video playback under Linux.

 

[dragon2611]

Stick Linux on it and you'll get much better performance out of the box.

Edit : Not sure about H.264 though. You maybe able too. It is not the end of the world if you can't. Xvid or MPEG-4 are okay for video playback under Linux.

Any reccomendations for the Distro, Use FC8 on my PC but it might be a bit heavy for this use on the Mini.

H264 I think will depend if the mini's got enough cpu horsepower to manage it rather than the software since finding a codec shouldn't be to hard.

 

[dragon2611]

Any reccomendations for the Distro, Use FC8 on my PC but it might be a bit heavy for this use on the Mini.

H264 I think will depend if the mini's got enough cpu horsepower to manage it rather than the software since finding a codec shouldn't be to hard.

Nope not enough cpu power to do H.264 it seems..

Also tried fedora but couldn't get the wi-fi to work it would see a signal but not connect, put tiger back on there.