[blackcabmal]

Hello
Please tell me what mac mini i need to run plex to show artwork for films stored on popcorn hour and nas duo.
Have approx 4tb films spread over the 2 sources.
come to play films and forget what they are so need to show artwork etc.
Sure i don't need to buy brand new one,so please tell me which model will suit my needs.

Thanks

Murray

[hutch]

A 2009 Core 2 Duo is easily up to 1080p local client playback for Plex.

However, if you want transcoding of 1080p files for playback on an AppleTV or iPhone or similar your gonna need something a bit newer.

[bpsmith]

As said above, it needs to be a 2009 or newer model, with anything from 2010 onwards have the bonus of being HDMI port enabled. Having HDMI onboard can make things a lot simpler for getting your 1080p video and 5.1 surround sound out to your TV or AV Receiver.

[blackcabmal]

Thanks for the reply,

Really only need it for connection to my panasonic tv,my son has an iPad with plex on that and thats plays our films fine.

HDMI would be really helpful,so its 2010 onwards ?

Thanks

Murray

[bpsmith]

Yup. It's Mid 2010 onwards. You will know if it has HDMI as they added this to the new design models which got introduced at the time. Its the slimmer Alu unibody style, rather than the older Alu and White Polycarbonate top.

[blackcabmal]

Thanks for that

now to try and find one on a well known auction site,without getting fleeced.

Murray

[bpsmith]

They hold their money well. Unfortunate when buying. Great when you come to upgrade.

[blackcabmal]

Yeah i know,i bought an old g4 on a complete whim,pretty useless i thought as i didn't think things through ,anyway i sold it on and got my money back.
I wonder what sort of money difference between 2nd hand 2010 to new basic 2012.?

I dont believe you can replace the hdd in the 2010 should it fail.

I have to imacs in the house and both have had hdd failure,one after 3 weeks the other after 7 months,my track record aint good.Although i,m not a lover of pcs my eldest son has a hp desktop and it has been no trouble at all and he loves it.

I think Apple becomes a bit addictive,like hifi separates my other drug of choice.

Thanks

Murray

[bpsmith]

I had a drive with bad sectors in my 2006 iMac. It started running slow too, so opened it up and whacked an SSD in there. Upgraded to a C2D at the same time in order to fudge a Lion install that's not supported.

Now if that's doable, a Mac Mini drive replacement is certainly straight forward. Definitely possible with minimal tools if you Google it.

I just bought a Mac Mini Server in February. Sold my 2010 base Mini with 4GB RAM upgrade on for £450. If you were to check out Apple's Refurb section of their store then you would see that there's not a massive difference in price between 2010 second hand and 2011 new model prices.

There are no 2012 models yet, but due soon I would hazard a guess. Then you may get a discount on 2011 models but won't be huge.

It all depends on what you can afford or want to spend really.

[blackcabmal]

£450 for a 2010,£529 for latest 2011.

I thought the hdd was soldered to the logic board on the older minis.?

I think its mac rumours that say don't buy 2011 now as 2012 due soon.

How do you find the server?,overkill for my situation,really as i only want to display artwork for films,maybe music as well even a 2011 is overkill and i should be happy with a 2010.

Seems like your not doing much on this bank holiday,my house is quiet kids at tennis wife at work and me slobbing,mind you people for dinner tonight,damn ill have to get dressed.

Thanks

Murray

[bpsmith]

Wasn't aware of any drives soldered to boards on Mini's. Certain their not on 2010 and 2011 though.

A 2010 base model will be fine for your needs no worries. I used mine under the TV with Plex and was perfect. Even gave DTS sound in addition to DD 5.1. Plex looks lovely too!

My previous setup was the Mini running Plex and everything stored on an 8TB NAS drive. Then wanted additional rooms to have access so got some ATV's again. Then got the ATV3 for the Lounge as now does 1080p and decided to grab the Mini Server as started converting a lot more files to ATV and iTunes compatible. Made sense to get the Server model as its so much faster at converting with the Quad Core! Then during the past week I have bought a 4TB ThunderBolt drive for lightning fast file transfer. It's fine to have direct attached storage as use the Mini Server for iTunes anyway.

Therefore I will soon be selling my 8TB WD ShareSpace NAS.

My setup keeps evolving all the time tbh, but it's all good fun and never lose much money when buying and selling. No PC compares in resalability stakes!

My Wife is working and I am delving in here on iPhone every do often whilst watching TV with my Son, and flitting between that and the ironing. Had a week away last week so there's piles of it to do and no cash left to go anywhere! :-)

[Wild Weasel]

Hard drives aren't soldered in on Mac Minis, they connect via the standard parallel or SATA connection. They are the same laptop drives you would use in any other computer.

[dc8900]

As the owner of an the early 2009 and late 2009 minis, can confirm they are not soldered on (nor are earlier models)

[blackcabmal]

These networks never seem to be complete,your right about Apple holding prices.

I ran a network last year,went a bit overkill,the kids have about 5 or 6 ethernet
points in there rooms,but the worst job was burying cables in a solid wall behind tv,what a pain,oh and i hope i never have to wire cat5e cable again.

Ironing,thats a chore i will not do,I'm rubbish,i will dust and hoover,but my work is diy unfortunatly.

On your 8tb nas what config do you have?

You summed up all i want out of a mac mini is to run plex so when i play a movie on the popcorn i can see some nice artwork and a synopsis,can't really see me using mini as a computer in the lounge.A pricey way of seeing artwork though but you only live once,you sure about being to replace a failed hdd on 2010 model.

Got to go cooking now,oh thats my other chore.

Thanks

Murray

[bpsmith]

Originally Posted by blackcabmal

These networks never seem to be complete,your right about Apple holding prices.

I ran a network last year,went a bit overkill,the kids have about 5 or 6 ethernet
points in there rooms,but the worst job was burying cables in a solid wall behind tv,what a pain,oh and i hope i never have to wire cat5e cable again.

Ironing,thats a chore i will not do,I'm rubbish,i will dust and hoover,but my work is diy unfortunatly.

On your 8tb nas what config do you have?

You summed up all i want out of a mac mini is to run plex so when i play a movie on the popcorn i can see some nice artwork and a synopsis,can't really see me using mini as a computer in the lounge.A pricey way of seeing artwork though but you only live once,you sure about being to replace a failed hdd on 2010 model.

Got to go cooking now,oh thats my other chore.

Thanks

Murray

True enough. I started burying Cat5e in the walls of my Dining Room with the ends ending up under the stairs with the aim of centralising everything there and wiring the rest of the house. Never finished it, despite having a drum of Cat5e and all the wall ports waiting, along with a Netgear 24 Port Gigabit Switch. :-(

Moving to a brand new house and have no plans whatsoever in pulling up freshly laid carpets and hacking back clean perfect plaster walls! Am therefore minimising my network devices these days instead. Only got the following to think about:

Mac Mini Server
iMac
WiFi Printer
MyBook World 1TB for backups
ATV3
ATV2 x2
iPhone x2
iPad
PS3

Most of that will work perfectly over my Airport Extreme dual band, with the Mini Server wired direct headless and the iMac linked via a home plug adapter. Much simpler to set up, for now...

I only started helping with the ironing recently. Made the mistake of being good at it. :-o

The 8TB NAS is in 4x 2TB form and currently set up in RAID 0 for speed. Did have it in RAID 5 for extra protection until recently. Works in a variety of different configs. All still under warranty too.

Can you please explain how you want your set up to work as you have confused me a bit above. Never used a Popcorn device, so back to basics and explain, as it comes across like your attempting to do something that isn't possible.

After the cooking that is, which is something I never do!

[Arcam_boy]

I was hoping to give Plex a bash on my late 2006 Core Duo 1.66 Ghz Mac Mini but sounds like thats a no no after reading this thread :-(

[blackcabmal]

Ha Ha Ha i like cooking,started 13 years ago as i found it much less stressful than bathing babies,and where the bathing has stopped i have carried on cooking.

At the moment my movies are stored on a nas duo 2tb and a popcorn hour with hdd 2 tb, they are played via popcorn,except artwork with popcorn is rubbish.
I want to run plex on mac mini,in conjunction with popcorn hour.
the only thing popcorn won't do is display nice cover art.
Does that make any sense?

Murray

[bpsmith]

Never had the patience for cooking, as attention always wanders and then forget to check progress and burn the lot. Doh!

What you're suggesting is fine, assuming the popcorn is accessible as a NAS device over the network. If this is the case, then you can add that as a source within Plex and then playback perfectly. You can also add the other NAS drive to the same library and seamlessly see all Movies together regardless of where stored.

Your reply suggested that you wanted to use the popcorn for playback but utilise the Mini for cover art and metadata only, which obviously won't work. Perhaps I read it wrong before.

Plex is my number one option without a doubt. It's far better than the ATV, but I need to use the Mini Server for other things too and it soon became a problem with popup messages over the Plex window, etc. The ATV is the next best thing IMHO so can live with that. Just wish it did 24 frame movies with DTS or HD Audio sometimes.

Once I move this weekend, I might actually locate the Mini Server in the AV rack to get the best of both worlds. Can use the ATV3 for everyday use, which is family friendly, but also wire up the Minu Server to the AVR via HDMI and use that for Movie night treats. Perfect!

[dc8900]

Originally Posted by Arcam_boy

I was hoping to give Plex a bash on my late 2006 Core Duo 1.66 Ghz Mac Mini but sounds like thats a no no after reading this thread :-(

Well if for some reason you want to play SD or 720p than your mini would be ok but 1080p would be a no no

[ryan21]

If your connecting the Mac Mini directly to a TV whats the advantage of using Plex rather than Itunes to display and play the films? (apart from converting the films to MP4 with IVI).

[bpsmith]

With a Mac Mini connected direct, you get to use the Plex Server and Client software. The Server can be installed on any machine on the network, with the Client used to playback content. This can be done with Server and Client on the same machine no problem though.

The Plex front end Client is superb and is far more fluid and visually stunning than iTunes offers. iTunes actually looks archaic in comparison. I use iTunes and ATV's at present, and whilst its a good setup it can't compare anywhere near to Plex IMHO.

Plex has a great on screen menu system, allows full screen access to your library by browsing the various cover art, full metadata access and displays beautifully whilst browsing your library, plus loads more!

Check out:

Plex Website

You can also use an App called Preen to download and install additional Skins to make it look completely different, although each screen can display in various styles using the built in skin too.

Been a Plex fan for a few years now and it rocks. Just do a Google or YouTube search and check out the vids!

[Krotch]

Great thread as I have just started using Plex. So far I am very impressed with Plex. For those that have used it for some time or have more experience with these matters, I would be grateful for your views on the following:

The way I am using Plex is to install the plex plugin on a jailbroken ATV2. I run the plex server application on my macbook pro and all my media is on or connected to my macbook pro. On that basis, I have access to all my media through plex on the Apple TV irrespective of where my macbook pro may be. I am trying to get my mind around understanding the advantage of connecting a mac mini or similar device directly to the TV. Or stated differently, why would one not opt to have wireless access to your media from a TV?

Any views would be gratefully received.

[blackcabmal]

Hi
I guess one is atv now has no warranty
Also mac mini has hdd,but I take your point.
Murray

[bpsmith]

The Plex client on ATV is good, but the Plex client on a Mac is worlds apart. So much more functional and lots more pretty on screen menus and methods of accessing content.

You also get to play back in 24 frame mode for proper smooth BluRays and also use DTS sound too.

Another reason is direct playback of the file itself instead of Plex transcoding it to ATV compatible file on the fly.

There a lots if smaller tweaks too, but that's it in a nutshell.