[spiff]

well, basically, yes. you could run linux on the mini though and get good results. if you for some reason want apple hw.

[clep]

This sounds promising. It would be really nice if xbmc will be able to use the hardware acceleration that mac os leopard offers with nvidia 9400

I suppose that no one can answer this question?

I've just tested the "Adjust frame rate" option, which does NOT work :/ Since I couldn't find any 30fps videos, I set my refresh rate to 60Hz and played 24 / 25 Hz movies. Frame rate did not change.
Speedup however does work, if you use 50Hz

mac mini with mac os is not a good option.

A low cost ION box with xbmc live for linux would handle 1080p much better.

Well, like I said. All my Full HD movies run smooth. So no hardware acceleration needed for 1080p under OSX, CPU has enough power? Or what is the hardware acceleration needed for? But if Linux does support this, this should be a good choice as well ^^

[dannybullit]

well, basically, yes. you could run linux on the mini though and get good results. if you for some reason want apple hw.

thanks. Well if I went for mac mini it would be because of the nice design and the added value of having mac os. Bur since it doesnt handle all 1080p...

a mac mini with xbmc for linux is to expensive

Asrock ION with xbmc live is another option.

I just want a trouble free solution, like my good old xbox

[dannybullit]

I've just tested the "Adjust frame rate" option, which does NOT work :/ Since I couldn't find any 30fps videos, I set my refresh rate to 60Hz and played 24 / 25 Hz movies. Frame rate did not change.
Speedup however does work, if you use 50Hz



Well, like I said. All my Full HD movies run smooth. So no hardware acceleration needed for 1080p under OSX, CPU has enough power? Or what is the hardware acceleration needed for? But if Linux does support this, this should be a good choice as well ^^

Some poeple report that 1080p works fine in os x/xbmc, but there are other thread saying otherwise.

I want to be as certain as possible before buying a mac mini, it´s lots of money for a media player. but it´s so nice looking! )

[griffore]

All of my 1080p rips (x264 10Mbit Video + 5.1 AC3) play fine on my latest-gen mini running XBMC. I haven't tried Plex in a while so i can't comment.

vdpau = video decode and presentation api for unix (and not bsd)P

How can Mac OS be certified UNIX 03 and not take advantage of vdpau? :confused2: I'm guessing Nvidia is in cahoots with Apple to locking down HW acceleration on Mac OS.

I don't think we'll see XBMC HW acceleration on Mac Os until 10.6 (OpenCL) - and when somebody codes it of course.

[clep]

Some poeple report that 1080p works fine in os x/xbmc, but there are other thread saying otherwise.

I want to be as certain as possible before buying a mac mini, it´s lots of money for a media player. but it´s so nice looking! )

Yeah, this was the reason for me to buy it. Didn't want to spend too much time on building a HTPC ^^ And the mini was just fine for my needs.
But I know your concerns about that. What I did before buying it, was testing it at our local apple store. I was even allowed to test XBMC with some 1080p movies from my external HDD after I told them about my HD concerns It was just too much money for something that eventually couldn't handle my files ^^

[dannybullit]

Yeah, this was the reason for me to buy it. Didn't want to spend too much time on building a HTPC ^^ And the mini was just fine for my needs.
But I know your concerns about that. What I did before buying it, was testing it at our local apple store. I was even allowed to test XBMC with some 1080p movies from my external HDD after I told them about my HD concerns It was just too much money for something that eventually couldn't handle my files ^^

This is a good idea. I´m new to mac so maybe you could tell me what is needed to do this at my local apple store?

I have a external wd 2.5" hd with usb2 interface. Do I have to format the external harddrive on a mac before copying movies to it? or can mac os read ntfs file system with good performance?

Br, Daniel

[clep]

This is a good idea. I´m new to mac so maybe you could tell me what is needed to do this at my local apple store?

I have a external wd 2.5" hd with usb2 interface. Do I have to format the external harddrive on a mac before copying movies to it? or can mac os read ntfs file system with good performance?

Br, Daniel

You can use it on OSX and Windows if it's formatted as FAT32. But since you want to test your HD Rips, which most likely are bigger than 4GB, you have to use another file system. NTFS won't work when directly connected to a mac (at least if you have't installed MacFuse). For HDDs directly connected to your mac the most common file system would be HFS+. There are tools for windows to access this file system. "MacDrive" would be a possibility (haven't used it yet since all my HDDs are in NTFS file system and connected to the Mac mini via network ), but it should work fine. HFS+ formatting under windows should also work with this tool. At least it looks promising ^^
(I've used a small HFS+ USB drive from a friend for testing )
But the easiest solution would be to just cut your 1080p to ~4GB parts, so that they can be put on a FAT32 file system

[jmarshall]

I have an older mac mini (with intel GMA950 graphics) and 1.83GHz c2d processor.

Typical full frame 1080p stuff does NOT play back on that machine problem free using XBMC (or any of it's derivatives). It's pretty close though, so you might get away with it on a newer macmini with the faster processor. Note that processor speed here is the key, as there is no HW acceleration.

Non-fullframe 1080p (eg 2.35:1 ratio stuff) plays back OK, so as you can see, it's kinda on the borderline with that CPU.

My advice for a machine that's just going to be used for XBMC, is to grab one of the ION platforms and run Linux on it.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[thesoulhacker]

Ok, I have the new mac mini. Upgraded the hard drive to a 7200rpm and upgraded the RAM to 4GB and I can play 1080p movies without any issue both through XBMC and Plex.

So you're safe going the mac mini route.

[jmarshall]

Which processor? Which 1080p movies?

I can play 1080p movies as well - just not many of them without problems. It's all down to bitrate, encoding level, and frame size. 1080p by itself is meaningless.

Cheers
Jonathan

[criti]

if opencl isn't a pain to code, that'll be the future.

[dannybullit]

I have an older mac mini (with intel GMA950 graphics) and 1.83GHz c2d processor.

Typical full frame 1080p stuff does NOT play back on that machine problem free using XBMC (or any of it's derivatives). It's pretty close though, so you might get away with it on a newer macmini with the faster processor. Note that processor speed here is the key, as there is no HW acceleration.

Non-fullframe 1080p (eg 2.35:1 ratio stuff) plays back OK, so as you can see, it's kinda on the borderline with that CPU.

My advice for a machine that's just going to be used for XBMC, is to grab one of the ION platforms and run Linux on it.

Cheers,
Jonathan

yes ION is a good option, however I really don´t like that you have to create modelines in xorg.conf when using xbmc for linux. Do you know if there´s similar issued with running XBMC on mac mini?

When talking of 1080p in general I think that people are refering to the standard material that you can doenload using a torrent client.

I want to be able to use spotify do have access to a huge music library... it´s not possible to do that when running xbmc for linux,

Br, Daniel

[jmarshall]

Standard material that you can download using a torrent client

There is no such thing. That is my entire point. Some of it will play without a problem (remember: CPU is the only determinant in this respect if you're using OS X), whereas some of it will not play very well.

XBMC has it's own music library and music search method. It also has smartplaylists and all the usual things you'd expect. This, ofcourse, does not depend on what OS you have sitting underneath it.

My advice: Throw a copy of XBMC on a usb stick with some fairly high bitrate content in your collection (some examples that my mac struggles with are The Princess Bride or Napolean Dynamite in 1080p), take it into your apple store and run it from the stick and see for yourself.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[phrehdd]

As some have mentioned, the Mac Mini is on the grey area of performance when used with XBMC or Plex to play 1080p media. This is related to CPU vs the bitrate challenge.

If you decide to get a Mac Mini, go for the 2.26 model barebones and add RAM yourself along with a drive of your choice. The suggestion of going the Linux/XBMC route will give you better performance than use using OSX with XBMC if you opt for the GPU offsetting the workload. The catch is, all other goodies provided by OSX are obviously absent. If this is just going to be a multi-media unit, then OSX while excellent, wont offer advantages.

Some will argue the that the cost of going to the 2.26 CPU isn't worth the small percentage of CPU power. One has to ask themselves, is it worth the difference between a film playing perfect vs small hiccups in playback. Remember its about thresholds here and as such, even a little bump in speed can make a difference on a few file playbacks. For me, that would be worth the few dollars more for a better experience on playback.

XBMC vs Plex. Tough call there. Plex caters to Mac folks and adds additional items not found with XBMC. For me, I prefer a cleaner less cluttered system that is stable - XBMC of late fills the bill nicely. I do* have some "suggestions" for both parties but thats for another post.

- Phredd