can a mini mac do the same as MS HTPC

dazza1011

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right first of all i dont this to fall into an argument between whose OS is better :D and i was in two minds whether to put this in the mac forum or this, but i thought as i was previously thinking of having a HTPC this would be the best place to get a comparison

so i have been looking at the mini mac and apart from the Hard Drive storage issue can the mac do the same as a ( windows based ) HTPC i.e.play HD files h.264 MKV etc etc. and what ( apart from upgradable parts ) is the difference.

basically could it play what ever is thrown at it ??

( heres hoping for some good answers and not turn into a MS Vs Apple argument:lease:)
 
Plenty of people use Mac Minis as HTPCs. You will find MAC forums dedicated to this. Some are even using their iPod Touch as keyboards/touchpads. :)

It will play 1080P fine. Just get a DVI to HMDI cable and away you go.

OSX will play DVDs out of the box, but not Blu Ray yet.

It's possible to upgrade the CPU, hard drive and memory in a mini, but it doesn't really need this. For mass storage, get a large external hard drive. The Mini is built using the same technology as PC laptops and Macbooks anyway.
 
If you install Vista on the Mac Mini it can do the same as a PC of the same spce. If you run OS X then some things (Blu-ray playback) are a bit more of a problem.

Elgato do a decent range of external Firewire and USB tuners (and some of the Digital Everywhere stuff is compatible - I believe Elgato badge some of their stuff)

The current Mini has pretty low-power graphics on-board though - so hardware acceleration is not great. There are continuing rumours that Apple will update the Mini to have on-board 9400 graphics. If they did that AND put an HDMI connector on it - it would be a fantastic small HTPC.
 

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