Mac Mini vs. new TV vs. others?

Stainless_Steel

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice and opinions on how to setup my media centre experience.

I have an airport extreme with a 2TB hard drive connected as a network drive. The disk is in RAID 1 config. with all my music, movies etc. accessible over the Wifi network.

I have an iMac that I currently use as a bedroom TV in a way. I connect it to the network drive and run Plex to watch movies and all that. Its great. BUT, I play a lot of online poker, and like having a desktop computer. The iMac 21 inch screen is also a little small. So I want to move the iMac from the TV stand its on and put it on the desk!

So I'm looking for opinions on what would be the best product to use for watching my media instead of the iMac.

The new Apple TV is great hardware wise. But I don't think it can connect to a network share? And does it play enough movie formats? I wouldn't like the idea of needing a computer running to make the content available to the ATV. Does that rule this option out? (Pity - great hardware and decent price!)

The new Mac Mini is, in my opinion, the mutt's nuts. Great hardware, DVD player, HDMI out. Most importantly, it runs OS X so can connect to network drive and use Plex! The bad news though....its 800 quid :eek:

What you guys think? Is there any other media device / HTPC that I can use?

J-blk

Have you considered getting a refurb or used previous gen. Mac Mini? I have the 2.26Ghz last gen. base model, using it with Plex as well and it is simply the best media center ever . Sure, the new Mini is drool-worthy, but spec-wise, it doesn't add much over the older one. You'd still be looking at €400-500 though.

docentore

do you have many films in .mkv format? Do you really want Apple solution?

I have Apple TV with Broadcom Crystal HD card with Linux and XBMC Live on it. I got rid of OsX partition all together, XBMC does everything I want and more. Of course one can have dual boot. Watching 720p and 1080p rips from 2tb NAS without glitches.

I would say it was more expensive than WD live or popcorn but I like the look of ATV under the TV. If you can afford Mac Mini go for it, if not ATV might be for you. You can find one for ~€100 on Adverts.ie and CrystalHD card costs about €80 on ebay.

Breezer

I'd recommend a cheap nettop with an Nvidia Ion graphics card. Put Ubuntu on it, install XBMC and Bob's your uncle. I recently bought an Asrock 330 Ion for this and it blows my Mac Mini (2 generations old) running Plex out of the water. Absolutely no problems playing 1080p MKV over a network share. I've also heard good things about the Acer Revo, but it doesn't have an optical drive.

The new Mac Mini will easily measure up to these systems, and has better specs overall. But as you mentioned, it's €800. I got my Asrock second hand for €210 (I think the same seller still has one available on Adverts.ie.) A friend recently bought a Revo for €240 or so new. If you're only going to be using the system as a HTPC, I'd definitely save the cash and go for Linux over OS X. Maybe buy some nice wireless speakers and a Blu-ray player, or even a new TV

lordgoat

A friend of mine got a crappy eepc or ehatever they're called think it's (asis/acer) runs ubuntu and XBMC and there are never any problems. Great system, small neat and tidy. Even has it rigged so the Wii controller acts as a remote.

XBMC is the only software to run, interface is so sweet.

docentore

agree with others: Xbmc is the way to go, no matter what hardware you're gonna get, Mac mini, Atv ot some ION based nettop