"Apple TV" or "Mac Mini" good enough for XBMC?

[griffore]

If anyone has an AppleTV or Mac Mini, can they do some tests to see if they are powerful enough to run XBMC and play 720p videos?

I will be purchasing something shortly after MacWorld and being able to run XBMC and play 720p videos is mandatory.

Elan, keep up the great work and THANKS!

[gurkburk]

Hello griffore, My Mac Mini 2.0Ghz plays 1080P mkv in VLC so in power I think there should be no difference if it should be played thru XBMC.

From what I have heard the AppleTV don't play 720p mkv due to the power in the processor.

Elan and Ezar:

Keep up the good work, is there someway we (users without programming skills) can contribute?

[ultrabrutal]

does it support 1080p24 and is it able to output latest HD soundformats?

[monkeyman]

@gurkburk: If you can use a compiler, I'm sure they'd appreciate it if you tried to compile it and run it.

If you get any compilation errors, report them.

[gurkburk]

@ultrabrutal: Do you have something I can test with? Lastest soundformat I don't know, I use a (very good ) 2 channel stereo.

@monkeyman: Can give it a try when I have time, maybe in the weekend, as it is now there are lot of other things I have to do

[ultrabrutal]

yes I have a plasma tv which supports 1080p24 input. do you need my address for sending the macmini

[Gamester17]

If you read the hardware discussion threads in the Linux user forum you will find that it is the general consensus (among those who tried to play back native 1080p MPEG-4 AVC H.264 video) that you need at least a Intel 2,4Ghz Core2 Duo processor to be able to play most 1080p H264 videos that are available, ...howvere even a such fast processor like that has stumped in the playback of some very high-bitrate intensive scenes one or two specific movies.

Remember that XBMC only uses the CPU to decode video today, (no assistance is given by the GPU in the actual decoding), which is why you need a very fast CPU to decode 1080p MPEG-4 AVC H.264 video.

[petsounds]

Originally Posted by ultrabrutal

does it support 1080p24 and is it able to output latest HD soundformats?

Well, 720p/1080i on the Mac mini is certainly doable. 1080p might be pushing it. As for DD5.1, the mini has a digital audio output so it's certainly possible to passthrough a 5.1 signal to an external decoder.

The Mac mini is definitely the target platform for my next media center. It's powerful enough for most media center tasks, it's dead quiet, and looks a lot nicer than a mini-ATX case. The only drawback is its wireless - the internal card is 802.11g. There are some expensive 3rd-party solutions available to get the mini up to 802.11n speed, but they involve some slicing and dicing of the hardware. The best bet is probably hooking it up via ethernet to an 802.11n wireless bridge. Still not cheap, but then again nothing in n land is right now.

It's funny, I have been looking at running Linux on the mini for XBMC, but due to the good graces of elan (named after the Lotus?) it seems I won't have to dual boot.

I'm happy to try to compile XBMC under Eclipse, but I only have 10.4 here. Are there any lib dependencies on Leopard?

[Gamester17]

There are rumours (from well informed sources) floating around the internet that Apple will announce and release updated Mac Mini's at the next Macworld Conference & Expo (January 14 – 18, 2008 at the Moscone Center). That might also bring the price on the Mac Mini down a bit, well maybe (I hope)...

Now those 'new' Mac Mini models might just have updated/faster Intel processors (45nm CPU, code-named Penryn), but it is also possible that they are based on the newer Intel chipset; Montevina (refering to the fifth-generation Intel Centrino platform), and that features Intel's X4500 graphics technology and the new Intel combo WiFi/WiMAX Link mini-PCIe adapter (code-named Echo Peak) which supports 802.11n (Draft-N).

There are also rumours that there will be a new AppleTV announced, but most likely that will only have a larger harddrive and new software features (so unfortunate no other hardware upgrades).

[jdavila]

If the mini itself is an Intel powered mac, the hardware in the AirPort Extreme card is already 'n' capable, you only need to get a hand on the 'enabler' package that comes with the Software bundled into the AirPort Extreme Base Station CD (dig the net or let me see if I can post it anywhere) load it into the mac, and you're done. Did that on 2 of our macs and worked like a charm.

As long as it is Intel powered, the restriction on supporting the 'n' draft is software-only.

Hope this does any good on the effort to port the XBMC to the mac

Thanks 'n take care, will be reading forward to see if I can be of any assistance to the cause. Peace.