For only $500, you certainly get a lot. If you add in a remote and media center software, you have a very cheap htpc.

Pics from Gizmodo.com






From Engadget.com:



Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of Apple, but this has me applauding them for their ability to squeeze down the size without sacrificing too much of the specs. What do you guys think?

Looks sweet to me. I'm nowhere near an expert in the field so I'll gently step aside and let others more knowledgeable respond. Hope it gets a thumbs up. It is definately pleasant to the eyes and takes up little space.

Apple rules.

complete idiot on this (pc guy), but is the apple cpu X86?

ie - can you mod it for a diff OS (XP/Linux, ect)?

You cannot run windows, but it is possible to use linux. Im not sure what file system mac uses, but if you use qtparted in knoppix (1 way) you could convert the partition to EXT3 and a Linux swap, and install the OS that way. There MIGHT be a windows emulator for mac e.g. win for mac (unless im confusing it with mac for win) that would run windows. But there is really no point. Mac is WAY better than windows, and is great for multimedia uses (iMovie, iDVD, etc...) And there is something about Linux cannot play DVD's because of some legal-copyright thingy.


-Elliot

Yep, there's a Windows emulator. VirtualPC for Mac. Use only when necessary.And no, Macs aren't x86.

Funny, I was just thinking what a cool little box to make an HTPC. It's got FireWire. Great for moving video around. OS X is an awesome, stable platform. I'm a budding Cocoa developer. A co-worker of mine has extensive Mac programming experience, inlcuding lots of FireWire and user interface work. We're going to start developing something akin to MythTv that runs on a mac. Imagine all the niceties of OS X (great video processing, iTunes, etc.) on an HTPC. Don't expect much for a long time. We're still in the requirements phase. Any ideas and suggestions would most certainly be welcome.

Also of interest, cable companies will be required to suppply you a firewire equiped cable box as of April 1, 2005.

Brett

I use PC's mostly, but I have a Mac and it has run with far more stability even with a used life of twice as long.


I think it's awesome--definitely a visually appealing approach to an HTPC, at an affordable cost. The flat-panel G5 is another example of Apple's main talent.

If I can get dolby digital out of that thing, I'm going to buy one. But not until the first revision at least.

since it has a usb 2, you can add a sound blaster audigy[external] or extigy and get 7.1 awsome sound. Looks like a clean package, i just wonder how well it can record video [tivo-style]. It seems to me that current HTPC configs require a powerful card and alot of processor to record high qual video... so much so that it is still questionable that top of the line stuff will function at HDTV quality - i doubt this will work for that. But as a DVD player and mac-game box it is sweet.

Doubt no more! The reason it usually takes so much horepower is because they recompress the video that has been decompressed. I'm talking about using the FireWire interface on an HDTV set-top-box, or other tuner (like a Mitsubishi TV). Don't have FireWire on your HD cable box? Come April 1, the FCC requires that your cable company give you one if you ask for one. FireWire can be used to make recordings of the aleady compressed stream. No need to reencode, we're just pushing data around here.

Where do you get that it's questionable if "top of the line stuff" will function? Your line must not be very cool.

For tuning in terrestrial HDTV
http://www.pchdtv.com/

For recording and playback:
http://www.mythtv.org/

Want to use a slower processor? Add an nVidia card wtih MPEG decoding hardware and take some of the load off of the main processor.

Brett

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Soni...er-focus-1.html

$120 and Mac friendly.

Macs can't game

Just popped an eVGA 6800 GT into my Athlon64 box, already got it running Ultra speeds. Half-Life 2 looks beautiful. What use is a 10 foot screen if you can't GAME?

The Mac Mini only costs $500. While not intended to game, it is even better suited to gaming than most retail PCs at the same price. Your Athlon 64 box is obviously not a fair price comparison, but I suppose if you have no concerns over money, then you would spend your money like so.

But the mini mac only has a ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB DDR.
will this effect quality of video.

and how would you hook up an xbow through this mini.