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[MAC] New Thunderbolt Mac Mini!
#46
I'm glad I saw this thread before I purchased my new MacMini... I was suppose to sell my late 2009 (core2Duo) Mac Mini with the Nvidia gfx on Wednesday and buy the new 2011 Mac Mini but I definitely don't want to do it until it's confirmed that the performance will be ok in Lion.
OS: Leopard 10.5.6
Processor: 2x Quad Core Intel 2.8Ghz Xeon
Internal Storage: 2.4TB [4x 600GB Western Digital]
External Storage: Drobo 4.5TB
Memory: 14GB PC-6400 800mhz FB-ECC Ram
Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard
Apple Remote
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#47
I was thinking about picking up a new one, but if its currently problematic I'll wait.
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#48
This thread is really making me wonder. From the raw specs, the CPU alone (no GPU decoding), the entry level i5 mac mini should do 1080 without frame dropping (there are always exceptions, but generally speaking)

Maybe I'll go over to an Apple Store some time this week and try using XBMC on the mac minis in there. If I do I'll bring a usb drive with some test clips.

I would not be surprised if these issues were fixed with a minor update from Apple. I've heard that 10.7.1 is already in the pipeline, because devs already have the 10.7.2 beta. There's always little bumps when a new product comes out, and the new Mac Mini is both new hardware with a new OS.
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#49
so far i haven't had any issues, other than getting my harmony to work right. i have the 799 model with ATI graphics. i haven't tried any bitstreaming yet, as i had a flood this weekend which killed my HTPC and the reason i went and grabbed the new mac mini. 2 of my 2 TB drives were killed which had stuff with HD Audio on them
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#50
Open6l Wrote:you would need the drivers which are not avail for 10.6. Natively I would say no - might require some tweaking/hacking to get that to work.

Seems like to 3000 graphics model can be coaxed into 10.6 according to this.
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#51
With just the CPU alone so far it's playing back everything including some pretty 1080p files just fine as soon as you turn on hardware decoding problems start to show everywhere.
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#52
Ned Scott Wrote:This thread is really making me wonder. From the raw specs, the CPU alone (no GPU decoding), the entry level i5 mac mini should do 1080 without frame dropping (there are always exceptions, but generally speaking)

Maybe I'll go over to an Apple Store some time this week and try using XBMC on the mac minis in there. If I do I'll bring a usb drive with some test clips.

I would not be surprised if these issues were fixed with a minor update from Apple. I've heard that 10.7.1 is already in the pipeline, because devs already have the 10.7.2 beta. There's always little bumps when a new product comes out, and the new Mac Mini is both new hardware with a new OS.

I don't necessarily think it's a lion issue specifically as I have also tested the macmini 2010 with lion installed and it still doesn't experience the issues that the 2011 does (unless it's a compatibilty issue with lion and the 2011 intel hardware). I am going to setup bootcamp on the 2011 and see if the issue occurs under windows on the 2011 intel model.
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#53
i am noticing that sometimes the audio output stops, and then picture playback is choppy. when this happens i have to exit XBMC, ofcourse i am using a nightly, and only tried one of them so i will test another
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#54
I was hoping to use the new mini as an HTPC.

I've had issues playing back mkv rips with my macbook pro - but everyone says even the base mini should playback mkv rips with no issue.

I was debating between:

i7 Core Duo
AMD - dedicated GPU

or

Server version
i7 Quad Core
Integrated Graphics

Which do you think is better?

Thanks
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#55
Open6l Wrote:I don't necessarily think it's a lion issue specifically as I have also tested the macmini 2010 with lion installed and it still doesn't experience the issues that the 2011 does (unless it's a compatibilty issue with lion and the 2011 intel hardware). I am going to setup bootcamp on the 2011 and see if the issue occurs under windows on the 2011 intel model.

It can still be Lion because there will always be Lion files specific to that mac mini, and it's really hard to catch bugs when it's a secret product until the same day Lion launches. Lion bugs that might be specific to the 2010 mac mini were likely caught by developers who had access to the Lion betas for a few months before hand.
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#56
lcrooks Wrote:I was hoping to use the new mini as an HTPC.

I've had issues playing back mkv rips with my macbook pro - but everyone says even the base mini should playback mkv rips with no issue.

I was debating between:

i7 Core Duo
AMD - dedicated GPU

or

Server version
i7 Quad Core
Integrated Graphics

Which do you think is better?

Thanks

For the time being it sounds like the one with the AMD GPU is a better deal. Both those have processors that are way more than enough, so at that point having a good GPU for hardware video decoding becomes the more important issue. Plus there will likely be after market kits for installing a second hard drive on the minis that only come with one hard drive.
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#57
Ned Scott Wrote:It can still be Lion because there will always be Lion files specific to that mac mini, and it's really hard to catch bugs when it's a secret product until the same day Lion launches. Lion bugs that might be specific to the 2010 mac mini were likely caught by developers who had access to the Lion betas for a few months before hand.

well I ran some minor tests on the 2011 Intel model after installing bootcamp and Windows 7. I ran the latest nightly build from 07-25 and tested the same U2 bluray remux. It dropped to 10fps. I also tested the Planet Earth sample clip - it also dropped down to about 8fps. I then enabled the option 'hardware acceleration dxva2' but unfortunately the screen was so badly pixelated (and unviewable). I tried a typical profile 4.1 1080p clip and it ran fine (although the CPU would fluctuate from 20% up to 67% during both Inception and Transformers Revenge of the fallen encodes). I also tested a 1080i encode and had very similar results when enabling de-interlacing. It would drop down to ~10fps. It's a mixed bag right now with the intel model.
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#58
So to sum it up:

Although hardware accceleration is implemented on the Mac Mini 2011 models with either the Intel or AMD gfx, it is slower than the 2010 models with Nvidia, causing unacceptable glitches and artefacts when watching HD movies.

Because of this I've decided to pick up a second hand Mac Mini 2010 /w 4GB and a 60GB SSD for much less than the entry-level Mac Mini.
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#59
user888 Wrote:So to sum it up:

Although hardware accceleration is implemented on the Mac Mini 2011 models with either the Intel or AMD gfx, it is slower than the 2010 models with Nvidia, causing unacceptable glitches and artefacts when watching HD movies.

Because of this I've decided to pick up a second hand Mac Mini 2010 /w 4GB and a 60GB SSD for much less than the entry-level Mac Mini.

I would call this speculation still. Hardware acceleration doesn't have a speed. I think we will find out if this really is a hardware issue or not, in the coming weeks. You guys could be right, but I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet.

Regardless, I think your choice is still the best. It is far more cost effective. Mac minis from even a few years ago make great HTPCs, so there's no reason to get the latest just for that. Plus you get a DVD drive in the older models.
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#60
Ned Scott Wrote:I would call this speculation still. Hardware acceleration doesn't have a speed. I think we will find out if this really is a hardware issue or not, in the coming weeks. You guys could be right, but I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet.

Regardless, I think your choice is still the best. It is far more cost effective. Mac minis from even a few years ago make great HTPCs, so there's no reason to get the latest just for that. Plus you get a DVD drive in the older models.

the funny thing is that when I enabled DXVA2 (under xbmc-windows) the CPU would drop down below 8% but the entire screen was glitched/pixelated/artifacted and completely unviewable - but that could be why the CPU dropped because there wasn't anything on the screen to decode Laugh
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[MAC] New Thunderbolt Mac Mini!0