The Mini has a Radeon video chip, so it could offload MPEG2 processing. But, Apple does not provide open APIs for this. Their DVD player can/does use the MPEG2 acceleration, from back in the days of 300MHz CPUs which couldn't keep up with DVD decoding. But, no other apps can use it. That's really disappointing, because with MPEG2 accel, the Mini would make a great MythTV frontend.
On 10/8/05, Brad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Just as point of reference, I occasionally use my Mac (a powerbook g4
1.25Ghz) as a wireless frontend for MythTV. I'd have to say that it
works great. I guess it is pretty comparable to (perhaps a little
better than) the Mac Mini in terms of performance, and I have
absolutely no problems with the MythFrontend binary for Mac. I'm only
running SD but it works really well. I *think* I could run HD, but I
have no real basis for that assumption. I think its reasonable to
assume that a Mac Mini would not be able to do HD. Apple did,
however, increase the RAM included with the mini - which should be
sufficient for a frontend and OSX, they have two models with built-in
WiFi and Bluetooth as well. Finally, there is a rumour currently that
Apple is silently upgrading the processor speed as well. The official
Apple page is here: http://www.apple.com/macmini/
I've considered many of the other options that have been mentioned
here as well. For me the Roku, although great in terms of size,
price, and quietness - its a no-starter for me because it doesn't
support the full MythFrontend functionality. I don't think its
possible to get it to play MPEG4, DiVX, .AVIs, etc. which is probably
60% of my usage.
I do have a Pundit (original, not "-R") and am very happy with it --
but I'm not sure if those are still available. I asked a local shop
about getting another one and they said they've been discontinued
(although I think it may still be possible to track some down). I
have my Pundit sitting, literally, 18 inches from my ear right now
and I can barely hear a whisper from it. Although it is a little too
loud with a DVD in it cranking away at 16X, but that's to be expected.
I like the Mac as a frontend and, if I couldn't source another
original Pundit (which would be cheaper) then I would seriously
consider getting a Mac Mini for this purpose. Its a little more
expensive, but I haven't seen anything else that can compare in terms
of form factor and looks. Also, it would take me about 15 minutes -
tops - from taking the Mac Mini out of the box to have it working
with my backend. Even with all my experience with the Pundit, I
would set aside an afternoon to get that configured, tweaked, and
running.
Hope this info is helpful to someone!
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