“It’s finally arrived: the Mac that is made to be used with your HDTV! Browsing through Apple’s list of accessories for the new Mac mini reveals just what we have been waiting for. Not only do they list the various adapters that we mentioned in our ‘How to connect your PC to your HTPC’ article but they also mention all the various resolutions. So it doesn’t matter if you have DVI, HDMI, or VGA, you are covered,” Ben Drawbaugh writes for HD Beat in an oddly-titled piece, “The Intel Macmini is perfect for HDTV.”
MacDailyNews Take: What’s up next, “The IBM Power Mac is perfect for Photoshop?” But, we digress…
Drawbaugh continues, “I am the most excited about the mention of the resolutions; in the past you would have to use a third party product such as DisplayConfigX to get your Mac mini to output the correct resolution, now it seems it’s supported by OSX. This in combination with the overscan adjustment built into to the display preferences is very impressive. Audio was considered as well as the new Mac mini includes SPDIF in and out so you can enjoy DD 5.1 in all it’s glory.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy” for the heads up.]
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Analyst: Apple’s new Mac mini ‘a good first step into the living room’ – February 28, 2006
Old Apple Mac mini G4 vs. new Mac mini’s graphics and video specs – February 28, 2006
With today’s announcements, Apple’s vision is becoming clearer and bolder – February 28, 2006
Apple introduces new Intel-based Mac mini – February 28, 2006
It’s a processor hog of the worst kind. Encoding is glacially slow on a G5 & slow on a Core Duo.
Eddie Cue needs to get his folks off of their backside cache and fix H264.
Nick, you can get a DVI to component video adapter. The real question I have is the bandwidth the DVD player can output so you don’t experience color washouts (especially on dark scenes) like I have with my crappy high dollar Denon player…
For all the HD mini doubters:
From another thread:
For 1280×720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
* 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
* At least 256MB of RAM
* 64 MB or greater video card
For 1920×1080 (1080p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
* Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
* At least 512MB of RAM
* 128MB or greater video card
Since the integrated graphics chip has special capabilities for handling video does anyone think that this chip will offload some of the work the processor would normally do so the above specs don’t apply to the mini? They chose the speed for a reason
Furthermore what is all the crap about the integrated graphics chip…except for the Power Macs is not like anyone was ever going to switch out the graphics card in the IMacs and PowerBooks, Ibooks…
What’s an Intel Integrated Graphics Chip doing in a Mac?
Beats the hell out of us.
For all those whiners who are disappointed this system is no good for HD… a DirecTV HD DVR costs about $600 (although I remember it being more like $999 about a year ago). The mac mini is a full fledged computer. Mac OS X alone costs $129. However, with the purchase of a mac mini, you receive OS X and iLife in a small form factor COMPUTER for $599. The HD DVR box only does DVR for $599. When you think about it, the mac mini is a bargain.
For all those who say the true cost of a mac mini needs to include a keyboard, mouse and monitor… that is not where mac mini is targeted. It is assumed that you already own those components from a previous computer (PC or MAC). In fact, if you use it with a TV, I’m assuming that is already paid for. All you really need is the keyboard and mouse. And if you really are going to have a kick-ass home theater system, the keyboard/mouse combo is going to have to be wireless (Bluetooth… which Apple sells too). And for the record, if you’re sinking $599 to add this mac mini to a TV, consider yourself lucky to have that much disposable income.
i’m the original poster that noted this machine can’t playback 1080p content (at least from h.264 and according to Apple)
i’m waiting to see how well the core duo version works out with playback. I plan on going by an Apple store this weekend to see it in action.
I may be pleasantly surprised – but i never claimed to know what real-world performance is – i’m simply quoting apple saying that it doesn’t have the right stuff for your living room and 45″ Aquos 1080p monitor. The real world could be different.
also, what’s the deal with people bitching about no component out?
This thing has a DVI out…
which also means it has VGA out…
which also means it has component out….
geesh.
The question isn’t whether $599 a good value, or $799 a good value for duo core…although once adding extras (if you don’t have them) you get more power, video speed and drive space with the iMac fo a similar cost.
I personally think that a Mac Mini for $599 that CAN record TV in some sweet little iLife app, would destroy the media center PC market and make massive gains.
can the core duo mac mini editi HD in iMovie HD or Final Cut (express, at this point)?
Thanks in advance.
I don’t have a TV nor do I want a TV. Man, it sucks being a minority.
The specs on the apple site for HD playback are way to high.
I can play 1080i movie trailers from the apple site on my imac core duo 1.83 without dropping a single frame, and according to activity monitor I’ve got cycles to spare. Also this is the one with the lower video card.
I doubt the slower processor and integrated video will allow the same performance on the mini but I’m sure the 1.67 core duo version can handle 720p.
For all those saying that for a few hundred more you can get an iMac that includes the monitor, what happens in two years when the iMac is obsolete? You no longer have that monitor! An LCD screen should last a lot longer than two years. I’ll pay the extra for the 17″ stand alone screen now and replace the mini in a few years. Much cheaper in the long run.
Was playing with the new Mac mini core duo last night at the Easton Apple Store in Columbus. Played the Mission Impossible III 1080p trailer full screen, no problem. Definitely an interesting HTPC option when you add a full size external drive.