Mac mini: plex or sell?

[Mattle40]

Hi all, bare with me on this as I'm an absolute novice when it comes to computers.

Basically; I have a Mac mini, I think it's the latest model, bought about 18 months ago and has barely been used. It's the first model that came without a disc drive.
I believe it is an i5 chip and 4gb ram.

Do I sell it? as I know I could get around £300+
I'm building a cinema room currently and this would go towards that, probably buy an oppo player.

Or can I utilise it better as a htpc?

I'd like to get my bluray collection on there with an external disc drive and external storage; then use plex
But am I right in thinking the Mac mini can't process blurays?
And if this idea is possible and worthwhile, could some kind person walk me through the setup?

Also If I do this, I don't want to be pulling the keyboard and mouse out every time, I want it to be slick. I can control the mac from my phone using hipporemote once it's on, but if it goes to sleep I need to press the keyboard or standby button to wake it up first. Is there anything I can do to keep it awake permanently? And what would the consumption of this be like?

Sorry to draw it out so long

Matt

 

[spinaltap]

I use a Mac Mini Core2Duo as an HTPC. I use a VPN to connect to the USA television networks, and to access Netflix USA and Canadian content. However, I use it less for watching movie rentals from iTunes since I purchased an AppleTV.

The negative reason for not utilising the Mac Mini for watching Netflix alone is that you cannot access Dolby Digital (stereo only). The AppleTV has no problem in providing Dolby Digital for Netflix, or for iTunes movie rentals/purchases.

An existing movie library can be accessed by the AppleTV from the Mac Mini. Also, the Mac Mini can access PLEX, while the AppleTV cannot (I use my iPad for this, and stream the content to my AppleTV).

As for Bluray, I use PavTube iMedia Converter for Mac to rip Bluray to the Mac Mini (or my NAS), which the AppleTV can then access.

 

[Mattle40]

Hi thanks for the reply, since I made this topic iv experimented a lot more and really got plex working and I'm really impressed so I think it's a keeper.
I have a 3tb lacie hard drive I'm ripping my blu ray collection to as we speak using makemkv. Took some figuring out but it's brilliant. Just learning as much as possible about it now to get everything I can out of it!

 

[HarshKarma]

Also, the Mac Mini can access PLEX, while the AppleTV cannot

You can now use PlexConnect to access PLEX via the AppleTV.