Setting Up Mac Mini Media Center

[cschleyer]

I am considering purchasing a Mac Mini in order to set up a media center on my 42 inch plasma. I am looking to be able to rip any DVDs I own. I am also looking to download any emulator that can play NES, SNES, Genesis, SEGA-CD, and Arcade games. Is this possible and is there an estimated cost? I'd assume I would need an external Hard Drive to house all of the movies and games.

 

[bearxor]

Buy a Dell Zino HD with the Radeon 4330.

You can get a X2 1.5ghz, 4GB of RAM, 1TB HD, 512MB Radeon 4330, 802.11n and Win7 HP for $650 right now.

The MacMini starts at $599 with a 2.26 C2D, 2GB of RAM, 160GB HD and GF9400m. The Mini also has a 2.5" HD and the Zino uses full-size hard drives.

From a Media Center standpoint, you'd be much happier with a Zino then a Mac Mini.

Of course, this doesn't factor in other things, like the fact that you might simply want an OS X machine to tinker around with.

 

[aphex]

#1. Don't discuss your plans to steal from Netflix here
#2. The Zino HD is a nice little system, but the CPU is kinda weak, and i've heard of stuttering 1080p playback with even the upgraded graphics (trying to see if I can find a link - havent used one myself though). Also, the Mini has a built in IR receiver (though you can add a USB one to the Zino).

Personally, I would prefer the Mac Mini in a HT system over the Zino HD

 

[bearxor]

I haven't used a ZinoHD myself, but if my dual-core 1.8ghz Opteron (circa-2006) with Radeon 4550 can handle 1080p playback I don't see any reason the X2 they sell with the Zino shouldn't be able to.

I would really prefer a nvidia vard in that thing though. The ATi cards seem to not hardware accelerate as many codecs as he nVidia cards.

For a pure HTPC experience, I have no idea why anyone would pick a MacMini. But as I said, sometimes there are other reasons someone would want one but from a pure HT standpoint, I stand by that a Windows-based machine is cheaper and more flexible, especially if you get in to DVR'ing stuff.

 

[Illusio]

I use my mac mini for a media center and it works great. I have a DVI to hdmi adapter for the video and optical audio for the audio part. It rips dvds just fine with Mac the ripper. It also nice for hulu watching. And the built in Front row is great for playing dvds, music, etc...

 

[ciproxr]

Buy a Dell Zino HD with the Radeon 4330.

You can get a X2 1.5ghz, 4GB of RAM, 1TB HD, 512MB Radeon 4330, 802.11n and Win7 HP for $650 right now.

The MacMini starts at $599 with a 2.26 C2D, 2GB of RAM, 160GB HD and GF9400m. The Mini also has a 2.5" HD and the Zino uses full-size hard drives.

From a Media Center standpoint, you'd be much happier with a Zino then a Mac Mini.

Of course, this doesn't factor in other things, like the fact that you might simply want an OS X machine to tinker around with.

excellent idea