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Tried a 2018 i5 Mini for 2 weeks and it's going back !!
- Thread starter Tom80112
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Somehow, despite all of my complaints, I’ve ended up with another Mac mini 2018.
It’s disappointing in many ways, but I hope the future will bring good things, especially in the transcoding space. Currently, with Plex Media Server or Emby, transcodes are not that much faster than my old 2012 and 2014 mini. Sad. I know some of this is on Plex/Emby, and some of this is on Apple, but jeez....
It’s disappointing in many ways, but I hope the future will bring good things, especially in the transcoding space. Currently, with Plex Media Server or Emby, transcodes are not that much faster than my old 2012 and 2014 mini. Sad. I know some of this is on Plex/Emby, and some of this is on Apple, but jeez....
I’m confused by the OP. Doesn’t the perception of video quality depend upon the display being used? The MBP has a pixel-doubled Retina display. There is no mention of what display was used to test the Mac mini, and Mojave looks terrible on non-retina displays.
Haven’t you seen the countless threads about how Mojave handles antialiasing on non-Retina displays? I had my MBP hooked up to an ASUS 2560 x 1440 display and had to stop using it after Mojave because it looked so rough.
You basically really need a 4k display with Mojave. Apple does not sell a computer that doesn't either come with a Retina display or can't drive one. The 2014 Mini was the last one (the old MBA can actually drive one, just doesn't come with one). Hoping that things will improve at a later version is...surreal.
I have a 2012 Mini and a HP LP 3065 display that can do 2560x1600. It's certainly not Retina, but I didn't really see much of a difference in rendering of the fonts. The color-scheme is different in Mail.app, that's the one thing that caught my attention.
It's 2019.
I bought a 17" CRT display that could do 1280x1024 in 1995. I bought a 19" CRT that could do 1600x1200 in 1999 (though the refresh-rate wasn't too great at that resultion).
Anybody using a 1080p display these days and complaining about it should question his choices in selecting a display.
I have a 2012 Mini and a HP LP 3065 display that can do 2560x1600. It's certainly not Retina, but I didn't really see much of a difference in rendering of the fonts. The color-scheme is different in Mail.app, that's the one thing that caught my attention.
It's 2019.
I bought a 17" CRT display that could do 1280x1024 in 1995. I bought a 19" CRT that could do 1600x1200 in 1999 (though the refresh-rate wasn't too great at that resultion).
Anybody using a 1080p display these days and complaining about it should question his choices in selecting a display.
1080p 27" has 80PPI, that's... abysmal, really. I guess there's a difference but it looks terrible on all OS-es in 2019. High Sierra was no better.
I finally received my 4K ultrafine now and it looks stunning, i love it, and Mini has no issues driving it.
I've been fiddling with font rendering options via terminal on a spare system I use for such things, and running the UltraFine on that system makes fonts really thin now
I can't run the 4K with the my gf's 15" 2012, the i9 i don't have anymore, so I can only run it with the 13". I don't see a difference in rendering of anything between the UHD630 and Iris Pro 655.
And I maintain that if there was a difference it would mean that the Mini is faulty.
I finally received my 4K ultrafine now and it looks stunning, i love it, and Mini has no issues driving it.
I've been fiddling with font rendering options via terminal on a spare system I use for such things, and running the UltraFine on that system makes fonts really thin now
I can't run the 4K with the my gf's 15" 2012, the i9 i don't have anymore, so I can only run it with the 13". I don't see a difference in rendering of anything between the UHD630 and Iris Pro 655.
And I maintain that if there was a difference it would mean that the Mini is faulty.
For those who stumbled to this thread, my 2018 Mac mini renders just fine compared to my MBP 15" and 13" integrated or not. I just tested all my computers by connecting to LG 27uk850, 27" UHD monitor.
Op's problem, thus, seems specific to his own setup. Period.
Op's problem, thus, seems specific to his own setup. Period.
You seem to be contradicting yourself, first saying you need a 4K (in order to access retina resolution 2x scaling), but then saying a 30 inch 2560x1600 (no-retina) looks fine in Mojave apart from some subtle colour differences. Which is it?
From my perspective, i've decided that Mojave on non-retina (27 inch 2560x1440) screens is absolutely fine - but I have done two things:
1. Disabled font smoothing in System Prefs
2. Increased the default font size to 13 in all finder windows
In addition, I've actually used SwitchResX and the GPU power of the UHD630 to enable downscaled (2x) retina rendering to non-retina screen. But this is purely to significantly sharpen up font rendering in Preview - which has been poor for the past few iterations of macOS. It has a very small impact on UI fonts.
It looks OK for me - but then, it's not a 1080p display.
I've never really used a Retina screen for long enough to get used to it - especiallly not the one from a 15" MBP.
A decent 2560x1600 display these days is not much cheaper than a decent 4k display (or 5k for the matter).
I've never really used a Retina screen for long enough to get used to it - especiallly not the one from a 15" MBP.
A decent 2560x1600 display these days is not much cheaper than a decent 4k display (or 5k for the matter).
Another potential cause of the initial color issue: macOS may be sending a signal with limited color range over the HDMI port (like an HDTV would prefer). I suspect a DisplayPort cable (using a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter) would send a video signal with full color range and the colors would "pop" just as on the MBP and iMac. I've had this exact same issue on other Macs, actually - limited, flat colors via HDMI vs. full, saturated colors when using another display port like DisplayPort or DVI.
It depends on a number of things - including whether or not you previously had font smoothing enabled on High Sierra, the external display, and one's own sensitivity to the difference. It is largely a personal preference. On a 2560x1440 27 inch running Mojave, I've found the best balance is to enable smoothing but to have it set on one of the "lower" smoothing options - available from a write defaults command.
I just got the new base model yesterday and thus far, I have been pleased with it, outside of the internal speakers being terrible; as in muffled and not very loud. It is a good thing I don't have to rely on the internal speakers. Otherwise, it would be going back. I have the mini hooked up to my 4K t.v. and 4K Apple TV and it looks really good. It is mirroring the display of the mini and as such, I don't have to squint to read the screen from my recliner about 14 feet away.
That sums it up nicely. For the price, I hoped Apple would have done better. I do like that it is silent.
Frankly, mini is rarely in a position that would function well as a speaker: the only position that would work is having it dead center below the screen, everything else would make it a ****** speaker regardless of objective quality of it.
fwiw, it looks very similar to the Mac Pro speaker. They all had **** speakers
The OP was using a cheap standard DPI monitor, I think that was at the root of his issues. His confusion about the cause of his issues is why this thread is so long.
The idea that a video card plays back video "more sharply" seems insane to me
so you're complaining about the colors, sharpness yet you have not say what monitor you're using the mini with.
and you're comparing it to a 2017 mpb with retina screen which is one of the best color/sharpness out there.
So you got nothing. And your whole objection to my questioning video cards affecting "sharpness" was just ignorant childish popping off. Congratulations. There is no "kiddie table" here
at Mac Rumors, but if there was you'd be asked to eat crow at it.