Apple just updated the Mac Mini - New Design
#61
davilla Wrote:Just be careful not to use wacky encoder settings that violate h.264 spec regarding bit-rate/profile/level and number of reference frames. Hardware decoders such as CrystalHD and VDADecoder are less forgiving than ffmepg regarding h.264 encodings. x264 seems to allow anything and not care that the result would violate h.264 spec.

Good point, I never thought about that. At least now if I start to have playback issues I know where to start looking.
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#62
voip-ninja Wrote:I can also pick up on a low bitrate encode very quickly. 5Mb/s is nowhere near enough for a BD 1080P encode.

Watch those on a good quality TV at proper viewing distances and it will look ugly as hell. If you're okay with the quality then certainly no worries but claiming it's "good enough" for anyone is a bit of a stretch.

1. I never said 5mb/s
2. I never mentioned 1080p
3. I never said "good enough"

My encodes are not CBR, but uncapped VBR encodes. Black, static, etc. scenes don't need the same bitrate as panning scene. So, if you encode to a specific bitrate, all power to you. But you are just bloating your file for no reason at all. Whatever the average bitrate comes out to be...well it is what it is. I trust x264 judgment better than mine.

As far as quality, I'll put my AE4000U @ 110" up against anything else out there. I promise you, with a 110" screen, I will see any and all defects if they exists. But, again, to each their own.
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#63
D-tyme Wrote:1. I never said 5mb/s
2. I never mentioned 1080p
3. I never said "good enough"

My encodes are not CBR, but uncapped VBR encodes. Black, static, etc. scenes don't need the same bitrate as panning scene. So, if you encode to a specific bitrate, all power to you. But you are just bloating your file for no reason at all. Whatever the average bitrate comes out to be...well it is what it is. I trust x264 judgment better than mine.

As far as quality, I'll put my AE4000U @ 110" up against anything else out there. I promise you, with a 110" screen, I will see any and all defects if they exists. But, again, to each their own.

Bloating the file? I take the original H.264/VC1/MPEG2 video file and don't do any transcoding at all. It's full quality. I apologize as I was not trying to put words in your mouth.

I know a lot of XBMC users transcode BD video or download their BD rips from torrent sources, but a lot of us also use original full BD audio/video content and I (and I'm sure others) am very interested in how the new Mini can handle these higher bitrate streams... especially on VC1 which seems to be a problem for everybody lately.
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#64
davilla Wrote:"Adjust display refresh rate" is a feature request for XBMC for Mac platforms.

I thought this was unpossible on OS X?
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#65
anothergene Wrote:I thought this was unpossible on OS X?

It's not impossible, you just have to do it the right way.
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#66
Just went to the Apple Store to "test-drive" the new Mac Mini with 1080P content (full screen). A .mp4 running through Quicktime showed CPU usage never peeking above 6% in <top>.

I'm not sure if there is a delta between QT and XBMC's video player, but thats damn impressive.
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#67
davilla Wrote:It's not impossible, you just have to do it the right way.

That sounds so cheesy Tongue

Stop fighting over acceptable bitrates and encoding settings. VBR will win every time. But if your video looks good for you, who cares? After all your encoding it for yourself not others, so do what looks best for you Smile
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#68
I just order one. Im running an old xbox its time to let it go now. Im woundering is it possible to get ps3 remote working with this? Or should i use some other remote?
Livingroom: MacMini Mid summer 2010 4Gb RAM HDMI to Pioneer PDP-434 Plasma 1080i
Kitchen: one xbox 1.1 executer 2.3 chip 120 GB in HD 720p mode
Bedroom: Computer Intel Quad 9400, 8 GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX260, Vista Ultimate 64, Ubuntu 10.10
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#69
You can use a PS3 remote with Remote Buddy software for sure. I'm not sure if there's another (free) way.
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#70
I just got the new Mini, base version and thought I would report on it's performance. It's working great, I installed the latest nightly and everything streams just fine. All my 1080p scene rips play wonderfully. I have the silver apple remote and fixed the keymap.xml to use it the way I like. The computer sleeps and wakes from sleep quickly, I had to disable the bluetooth checker that would turn on every time the machine woke. Overall it's been a very smooth process. I know this post isn't very technical but just wanted to give a heads up in case someone was on the fence about buying it. It wasn't cheap but it was super easy to get everything cooking. I went from the original Xbox to the AppleTV to this, it was a big upgrade.
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#71
rdubya Wrote:I just got the new Mini, base version and thought I would report on it's performance. It's working great, I installed the latest nightly and everything streams just fine. All my 1080p scene rips play wonderfully. I have the silver apple remote and fixed the keymap.xml to use it the way I like. The computer sleeps and wakes from sleep quickly, I had to disable the bluetooth checker that would turn on every time the machine woke. Overall it's been a very smooth process. I know this post isn't very technical but just wanted to give a heads up in case someone was on the fence about buying it. It wasn't cheap but it was super easy to get everything cooking. I went from the original Xbox to the AppleTV to this, it was a big upgrade.

Have you given Plex a try on it? I've been playing with Plex on my iMac and am pretty impressed so far. Can't get it to find my fanart though.
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#72
voip-ninja Wrote:Have you given Plex a try on it? I've been playing with Plex on my iMac and am pretty impressed so far. Can't get it to find my fanart though.

Off Topic for this forum, take it elsewhere please.
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#73
rdubya Wrote:I just got the new Mini, base version and thought I would report on it's performance. It's working great, I installed the latest nightly and everything streams just fine. All my 1080p scene rips play wonderfully. I have the silver apple remote and fixed the keymap.xml to use it the way I like. The computer sleeps and wakes from sleep quickly, I had to disable the bluetooth checker that would turn on every time the machine woke. Overall it's been a very smooth process. I know this post isn't very technical but just wanted to give a heads up in case someone was on the fence about buying it. It wasn't cheap but it was super easy to get everything cooking. I went from the original Xbox to the AppleTV to this, it was a big upgrade.

Just picked mine up (/w remote) 15min ago. I prob. won't get to it till the weekend, but the hard part is over...(dishing out $747)

Besides the fact that today is iPhone day and the lines for that was not only out the door of the store, but out the door of the mall!
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#74
i was curious if anyone has gotten around to gutting out the dvd and replacing it with a 3rd party bluray drive .. i know the new mac mini uses a 12.5mm drive and the 3rd party drive i found was 12.7mm, thats close .. isn't it Wink

also, would this be possible under OSX .. or would i be forced to install ubuntu on my machine .. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=67420
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Apple just updated the Mac Mini - New Design0