I finally did it – I sold my Apple Tv, and have invested in a new Mac Mini that arrived today. The new addition to our Apple mac family will be our Media Centre – and will be permanently plugged into our TV.
So, why have I changed form the sexy, sleek Apple TV to a Mac Mini?
The Mac Mini
It’s basically for more power. I was finding that the Apple Tv was running out of puff, especially when trying to play HD video, and running the latest breed of media software – Boxee and Plex.
So, it arrived today, as did the DVI to HDMI lead that I ordered from play.com. It was a very easy install. I borrowed my iMac keyboard and mouse, plugged into the network, connected it to the TV, and powered it up. The Mini picked up the TV straight away, and setting up the mobileme stuff took seconds. The objective here is to unplug the keyboard and mouse and run the mini using “Back to my Mac”, from my iMac or Macbook. This runs really well. The only downside being, if the mini boots up and the TV isn’t on the right input, the mini doesn’t know what screen settings to use. I’m going to leave the unit on all the time anyway.
So after updates were applied I downloaded Boxee. I must say it ran a lot faster than on the Apple TV, and when I tried an HD file it was amazing. No stuttering, great fluidity and colours. The Mac Mini starts off at twice the price of the Apple TV, but I used Quidco.com and got £12, and added a £70 printer, so I got a £60 rebate. I sold that on Ebay for £45 straight away. So the final price was more like 1.5 x the price. But don’t forget the Mac Mini comes with iLife 09 and Leopard, a bigger hard drive (80gb on mine), and a Cd writer/DVD drive.
I am going to play with Plex tomorrow and see what else I can do!
Mac Mini- available from here!
Enjoyed your article on the mac mini vs apple tv. Are you going to give us an update on how you are finding your new setup? I have been thinking about this for a while, and I think its the kind of thing that I want to do. I would have thought the mac mini would be far more suitable to handle all the HD stuff.
Thx,
Dominic
Thanks for the kind comments.
I have been very pleased with my Mac Mini, and have recently upgraded the hard drive to 320gb and the RAM to 2gb. I use Boxee exclusively as my Media centre. The Mac handles everything I throw at it, and I even use it to convert Sky TV stuff using the Pinnacle Mac Video converter. I would still maintain that you should get the older model on a deal!