[jamma007]

Hello all.

I just recently purchased an older Mac Mini (2,1) for which I am upgrading from a 1.83 GHz processor to a 2.33 GHz processor. I will also be upgrading the RAM from 2 GB to 3.3 GB (usable) of ram. Will this be capable of running KODI (gosh I gotta get used to that) for 720p videos? I am currently running them through an ATV2. The concern I have is the Intel GMA 950 being capable of processing it since it is integrated. I searched the forums but so far all I have seen about this model is from the way back machine back & I haven't seen it about ones with updated processors.

Currently all of the media is on a networked drive so the HDD isn't really a limitation for size but the fact that it is only g band compatible is an issue. Since the Ethernet is 10/100/1000Base-T I think I will be OK if I hard wire it in.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[Matt Devo]

GMA950? not a chance.

[Dougie Fresh]

Since you have it already why not try it and see? Idoubt GMA 950 is going to be up for it though. But, you have it already so you can try it...

[Matt Devo]

I don't get why people buy hardware, often specifically for media center duties, then come here trying to figure out if it will work. seems a bit out of order to me.

[aaronb]

I used to use one of those, some 720p stuff worked but most stuttered and dropped frames. You can put a CrystalHD card in it for hardware decoding, but you'll lose wireless.

[jamma007]

Matt- I bought it to be a headless server of sorts to take resource load off of my main computer. I just had a thought that it might work since I have one ATV2 and need something else for XBMC for my other entertainment set up. So it isn't a lets buy it and see if it works, its a I'm already going to be using it and just wondered if I could get it to pull double duty.

Dougie- the main reason I was asking is because I know that I can make it work with the Crystal HD card. I am going to have to pull it apart to upgrage the RAM and processor and would like to do it all in one shot if I need to add the Crystal HD instead of two tear downs and twice the chance to break something. (which it looks like im going to have to.)

Aaron- thanks for the info, Wifi loss wouldnt be a big deal since it is next to the router so I can jack it in anyway. I was planning to for speed anyway.

What do I need to look for when trying to find a Crystal HD card?

[Dougie Fresh]

Found these:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=65616
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/115-htpc-m...s-atv.html

[aaronb]

I never put a CrystalHD in mine, but I did put two of them in old AppleTV 1s, I remember that you should get the BCM70015 vs the BCM70012

[calev]

I thought I read some where that crystal hd support is getting dropped with Kodi.

[acidhouse]

I run my Mini (2.1) 2ghz, 4Gb memory at 1080p , plays fine.
also running are the sickbeard, couch potato services

only problem i have is other programs with memory leaks, make sure you have at least 300 Mb free memory or you will get stuttering.

[black_eagle]

I thought I read some where that crystal hd support is getting dropped with Kodi.

Yep, correct. See http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=203672

[Ned Scott]

OSMC (wiki) will have Crystal HD support, but there's no ETA on this.

However, I don't think you'll need it with the 2.33 GHz core 2 duo. From the benchmark scores, it looks like it should have enough power for 720 and even 1080, at least without deinterlacing (most content won't need deinterlacing).

[DBMandrake]

Lots of negative comments here from people that obviously haven't tried one...

I have a 1.83Ghz Core 2 Duo "mid 2007" Mac Mini (MacMini2,1) that I've used as my primary XBMC box for nearly two years.

Currently it only has 1GB ram and an 80GB internal drive (video is on an external 640GB USB drive) but it will shortly be upgraded to 4GB ram (3GB usable) and a 2TB internal drive to replace the external drive. (Less cables/boxes/noise)

First of all, it will be MUCH faster than an Apple TV2 in every way, especially user interface which will be nice and snappy, and is capable of running the fancy but "heavy" skins like Aeon Nox that would cause an ATV2 to collapse.

Unless you fit a Crystal HD card you will only get software decoding - I was thinking about getting one but had never really found a need for it, and now that I see support has been dropped in Kodi I won't bother...

Software decoding will play all 720p content perfectly in my experience - I've never come across any 720p content that doesn't play perfectly in XBMC.

XBMC, unlike Quicktime and some other video playback software actually uses both cores to software decode, and is pretty efficient too - on this hardware it will play high bitrate/resolution videos that will stutter badly played in the native Quicktime player, probably because Quicktime doesn't utilise both cores.

1080p is a bit more of a mixed bag - "low bitrate" 1080p - in the order of 15Mbps plays absolutely fine, however full bitrate blu-ray rips (40-45Mbps) will not play without stutter. I haven't experimented to see where the cut-off point is, but it's somewhere between 15 and 40Mbps.

To be fair a lot of low powered hardware decoded XBMC platforms will struggle with full bitrate blu-ray rips too, but usually due to network performance issues when streaming across a network.

Upgrading the processor to 2.33Ghz should significantly improve the performance of 1080p playback and allow you to go to higher bitrates.

So is it high enough spec to play all 1080p perfectly ? No, however it's still a big upgrade from an Apple TV2 - remember the AppleTV 2 is only 720p and can't output 1080p anyway. An AppleTV2 also only has 256MB of ram and a MUCH slower cpu...

Keep in mind that this Mac Mini is DVI - you can output to an HDMI TV in full 1080p using a passive DVI-HDMI adaptor cable but you'll have to use analogue or SPDIF for sound. (Not really an issue if your sound is going to an AV receiver anyway)

The only trouble I've ever really run into is that 1GB of ram is marginal, especially if you try to run torrent clients and so forth in the background. 2GB or more of ram should make a huge difference to the ability to multitask while XBMC is running, hence the ram upgrade that I've finally got around to ordering.

The best Mac OS version to run for media centre purposes on this model is Snow Leopard 10.6.8. Anything later just consumes more resources (Lion requires a minimum of 2GB ram to even install) and introduces some minor compatibility issues. A linux based distro like OpenElec may also work but I haven't tried it.

Even if you decide to use it as a headless server later on (as I may well do) it can still make a good little NAS / MySQL server for the other XBMC devices to connect to - wireless is only abg but it does have Gigabit Ethernet with Jumbo packet support, and is capable of running Mac OS, Windows or Linux.

PS where did you get the 2.33Ghz processor upgrade and how much did it cost ?

[DBMandrake]

I decided to experiment to see what it's limits are. Using the Jellyfish test clips:

http://jell.yfish.us/

The highest bitrate it will play without dropping frames is 25Mbps which is a bit higher than I expected. At 30Mbps its dropping a few frames here and there and by 40Mbps it is dropping a lot.

The interesting thing is that the CPU cores are nowhere near saturated at the point that it's no longer coping ?

I'm seeing XBMC maxing out at only 115% CPU usage in both top and codec info. Process CPU usage in top is scaled to a single core so 200% would be full utilisation of both cores.

In the overall stats in top (scaled for both cores eg 100% = both cores saturated) CPU usage is 55%, system 5% and about 40% idle.

In codec info vcpu is pegged on 100% while playing a frame dropping 40Mbps file.

I'm rather surprised by these results - they seem to suggest that software video decoding on XBMC is NOT multi-threaded as I thought!

Can any devs comment on whether this is a bug or whether it has always been a singled threaded software video decode that can't utilise multiple cores ? It seems to me that if the video decode was multi-threaded it would be able to play much higher bitrates files (possibly full blu-ray bitrate) even on even this modest hardware...

[DBMandrake]

It's just been pointed out to me in another thread that multi-threaded software decoding exists but is not turned on by default!!

In expert mode, Under Settings->Videos->Acceleration "Decoding Method" MUST be set explicitly to software (even though software rendering will be used even if you choose hardware acceleration on this model of mac) and "allow multi threaded software decoding" should be switched on.

The performance gain is substantial - without it this Mac can comfortably manage 25Mbps without dropping frames but starts to drop frames at 30Mbps, with it enabled in Gotham it is comfortably managing 45Mbps without dropping any frames and can almost manage 50Mbps with just the occasional dropped frame.

Massive difference! It may almost be fast enough now to play full bitrate blu-ray clips (I don't have any to test) but if not I suspect with the 2.3Ghz processor upgrade and multi-threaded decoding together that it should.

I recommend anyone using an old Mac Mini that doesn't support hardware decoding check these settings!