[contrakid]

Hi all

I have a Mac Mini connected to my PH9 50" Plasma with 1TB space and running Media Central (very very good btw) and have been trying different file formats for 720p or 1080p play back.

I have found h.264 720p and AC3 audio to give very good results.

I have not been able to find a way of playing back windows VC-1 .mk2 files.

How do i use .TS files on a mac, extract and playback etc.

What other formats should i be looking for, can anyone give me some pointers etc.

Cheers all

[Kahuna]

TS file can be played with VLC. There is nothing to extract.

I have never seen VC-1.mk2 files so can't help there.

.MKV files usually work ok. There are other variables to consider than just the file or container types. Most stuff plays ok on my dual core mini but occasionally I get bad artifacts on fast paced scenes with higher bitrate rips. I will update the processor when they come down in price a bit, although I'm not sure it will help that much. From all accounts it is the OS X coding in QT and VLC which is not optimal and HD running under bootcamp is a lot smoother.

[rob_finch]

I use VLC for 720p and 1080i mpeg2 ts files, it's a fine player. The one area it falls down is mkv files, for which I use mPlayerOSX. VC-1 support has been included in ffmpeg, so VLC will support it in time. Check out their website for updates,

I have upgraded the CPU in my Mini to a 2.16 Ghz Core 2 Duo with 2Gb RAM, and although it does improve higher bit rate files, I still can't play 1080p h264 at all. The GPU must be the bottleneck. I'm soooo hoping for a Santa Rosa based Mini to be announced with the new Intel integrated graphics (which has hardware h264 decoding included apparently).

[contrakid]

Cheers for that info

So do you think the mac mini would play back 1080p using boot camp when booted into XP. Also does the mini playback 1080p in other formats.

[rob_finch]

I don't have Bootcamp installed, so can't comment on Windows. 1080p Quicktime trailers played fine on the 1.66Ghz Core Duo, and I have played mpeg2 and wmv files as well.

[Kahuna]

Originally Posted by contrakid

So do you think the mac mini would play back 1080p using boot camp when booted into XP.

I haven't tried it, but have read on other forums that it does.