“I’m doing an article for the magazine, and could use some help. I’m hoping to hear from anyone that owns a Mac mini–particularly the new Bonjour-equipped, Intel-based models–and are using it as a way to get media into their living room. Could be to play music, or to watch videos, or whatever,” Peter Burrows blogs for BusinessWeek. “Let me hear from you–and quickly, if you don’t mind. I’m trying to file the story today, so I don’t have to work on it while in Disneyland with the family next week. You can send comments to this post, or email me at .
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mike” for the heads up.]
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I’m very interested in this – does the new Mini stream video to your HDTV without interference or stoppage of play? If that is a problem, I’m not buying one in the near term. If it isn’t a problem I will be buying a Mini soon…
First!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Strike that last comment.
MacMaster – You’re a waste of fscking oxygen.
G-Spank,
There was something over at Accelerate your Mac about actual performance of the MiniTels with HD hooked to a HDTV.
If I rememebr right, 1080i/p files made it choke, but the rest do fine.
Search this pages links for the readers submission.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives.html
I have a stock 512 CoreSolo MacMini I bought from the St Louis Apple store a week ago. I was reluctant to buy it because of all the negative things I read about bad Airport connections, short Bluetooth range, inferior video performance and other problematic issues, not to mention, it’s the cheap single processor model. I don’t have an HDTV but I do have a 53″ Sony RP CRT that most agree looks great.
I approached the MacMini like a new consumer. It’s not loaded with power apps, just the iLife stuff and most importantly, iTunes.
I did the initial setup with a 17″ NEC LCD, paired up an Apple wireless keyboard and mouse, then moved it up to the big Sony TV in the family room to see how it would perform.
A high-quality passive switchbox connects my video sources to a single S-video input on the TV, this lets me easily switch between sources. I used an optional Apple video adaptor to connect the output of the MacMini using S-video. DVD looks better but the Mac looks very good. Surfing the web via DSL on the TV is very useable and handy for email checkinig during commercials.
The keyboard and mouse operate from 15′ away with no problem. I’ve never gotton less than 4-bars (maximum) wireless signal, zero airport problems. The Apple remote control and FrontRow works great, no stalliing or slowness.
We bought some “Lost” TV episodes and watched them full screen without commercials. They don’t look as good as DVD but they look a lot better than VHS on its best day. I’m not a gamer and don’t watch tons of TV. Buying shows you want to see when you want to see them is very appealing to me.
Overall I extremely pleased with the Mini and my wife even approves of the small silver box on top of the TV. It’s a neat little entertainment node and the shape of things to come.
Here’s my Mac mini story:
Once upon a time, I bought a Mac.
I liked it.
The end.
Mac King, thanks for sharing… sounds awesome. I appreciate you being on the bleeding edge for the rest of us. I love watching the evolution of technology, go Apple! And ‘if’ Apple gets to big of its britches, linux will probably up to speed by then for an OSX GUI spoiled brat like me.
“Let me hear from you–and quickly, if you don’t mind. I’m trying to file the story today, so I don’t have to work on it while in Disneyland with the family next week. You can send comments to this post, or email me at peter_burrows@businessweek.com.”
OK, is it just me or does this sound like a lazy way to get out of writing a story?
“Gosh, I got to get something out before I leave on vacation…I know, I’ll just ask people to submit their stories, instead of actually writing anything myself! Who needs research?”
“[…] particularly the new Bonjour-equipped, Intel-based models […]”
Uh, Mr. Burrows, quick note: All Macs are equipped with Bonjour. The Mac Mini is Intel-based, but Bonjour is Apple’s name for zeroconfig networking.
Just an FYI…
hey….
i bought my Mac Mini 5 days ago. Its a great piece of hardware except that it crashes from time to time…. it just shuts down and restarts.
Appartently they have problems with the new Mac Mini. As i heard a few people are having the same problem at my Mac store… Anyone else out there knowing how to deal with that????
Hope its not a big Mac Mini issue and its just mine that doesnt work 100%.
Wow, anyone else notice that soft-porn jamster add on this page? I didn’t know MDN was one of “those sites”.
On topic now, in my opinion this is kind of a rude request in that he asks for a favor and then adds by the way I need it now. Also seems like he doesn’t know much about macs with that Bonjour comment.
MDN word: growing! Imagine that (jamster)
“Wow, anyone else notice that soft-porn jamster add on this page?”
Sorry, I don’t see it. The only ads I see are for Mac products. Maybe the ads are user-specific?
Thank you very much Macs King, you answered my question perfectly. I too am not a huge Cable TV watcher, and Apple’s solution of buying just the shows you like and watching them sans commercials is friggin awesome for me. The resolution is fine for that, but it’d be nice to see it come up a little bit. I am hoping that Apple releases it’s “true” video iPod which will have a larger screen, and then offer a slightly bigger file format of the shows.
MW: hope (is this MW thing really magic?)
Sounds like this guy needs to work on managing deadlines a bit…