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Amen brother!

The Apple media center is here.. The great thing is that it's also a pretty powerful computer too!

Does anybody know of that site where mac users can download videos on-demand? I want to explore that but I can't remember it for the life of me...

Thanks!

Now I can finally enjoy Jared singing in Dolby Digital 5.1 displayed on a widescreen HDTV. Life just got better.

Alan, the mini is the first step..

Hardware first.. Content next.

I'm gonna act like an analyst and predict that Disney and Pixar movies will be available first! Pretty intuitive huh?

Well that takes care of the technical details, except HDCP of course.

Since anything worth a darn to watch is controlled by the cable companies and HDCP, and there is no DRM from the Mini to a monitor, the only thing we can watch is a few "FreeHD" channels.

Still need a ClearQAM decoder like the EyeTV 500.

But at least we can hook up the Mini to a large 60" Plasma without trouble.

I'm having a Lord-Vader-Rise moment.

I hears minimum requirements to play back HD is a 2.0ghz Intel Core Duo so the Mac Mini isn't the solution. Recording is no problem.

Too bad though....

Daniel-san, where did you hear that?

Wait a tic....ISN"T THIS MAC MINI SUPPOSED TO SUCK BIG TIME?!!????!!

I mean, c'mon all the Mac users in these forums are bad mouthing the living shit out of it, right?

IT MUST SUCK.

WOW! EXCELLENT!

...except that the Intel graphics chipset and the proc on the mini can't do HDTV.

Nice thought, but completely off-base.

Quoted from another post:

not even he high end unit is useful for a set-top box if you've got an HD screen.

For 1280x720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:

* 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
* At least 256MB of RAM
* 64 MB or greater video card

QuickTime 7 for Windows:

* 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 or faster processor
* At least 512MB of RAM
* 64MB or greater video card
* Windows 2000 or XP


For 1920x1080 (1080p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:

* Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
* At least 512MB of RAM
* 128MB or greater video card

QuickTime 7 for Windows:

* 3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium D (dual-core) or faster processor
* At least 1GB of RAM
* 64MB or greater video card
* Windows 2000 or XP

As well, with the increase of $200 in costs, it makes the iMac a better purchase unless you are going strictly for form factor:

Mac Mini $800
Monitor $250
Keyboard/Mighty Mouse $78
Upgrade HD 120GB 5200rpm $125
Total $1253 (not including $150 for iSight)

iMac 17" $1299
Has faster processor 1.83 versus 1.67, 160GB 3.5" 7200rpm drive, faster (and not integrated) graphics card, Built-in iSight cam

Not content with content? Here's are some likely places Apple will be able to find video and audio content for fun and profit:
Pixar, ABC Entertainment, ABC Daytime, ABC News, ABC Sports, ABC Kids, Touchstone Television, ABC Radio, Radio Disney, ESPN Radio and ABC News Radio, ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, SOAPnet, Walt Disney Television Animation, Fox Kids International, and Buena Vista Television. And Disney holds equity interest in Lifetime Entertainment Services, A&E;Television Networks and E! Networks.

Impressive list for a very wide audience.

Only the insipid whiners among us are complaining about the new mini.

Oh and the PC users who have nothing better to do between Doritos and porn.

Oh and as soon as someone points me to the nearest retail outlet where I can buy HD movies (much less download them!) I will care if I can play HD on a computer.

BlueRay, HD-DVD, HDCP etc questions answered here

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/content/view/1067/98/

"Doritos and porn" Funny stuff!

They're not just for breakfast anymore. Cheetos and anime? Dangerously cheesy! Snicker doodles and film noir? Too sweet and sour.
Skittles and British TV comedy? Now we're talking.

Speaking of cheesy, I can't believe the unimaginitive PC press hasn't made endless puns with Apple and Core Single and Duo. Or maybe I've gotten better at tuning them out.

anybody know if the core duo mini can import HD using iMovie HD or FC express?
i saw where someone said it would record HD, but what about importing through firewire.
Thanks in advance.

Hey Dude,

The fact that Apple allows creation of HD movies, the fact that TV is now available in HD format, compiled to the reality that all new non-crt tv's are able to play HD makes this more important. Frankly, for a decked out mini, I can get an iMac with much better specs for a similar end price and the iMac has a built-in cam.

I believe the price jump will ultimately hurt sales and that the $499 price might have been a perfect psychological barrier that attracted a lot of attention. Perhaps the $599 version should have been offered at $499 without the remote just to have this appeal.

If PVR had been added, a $599 PVR computer with a full-blown computer OS, virus-free email and web-surfing, and the best user-experience on the market, coupled with iPhoto-photocasting, Front Row, iTunes/iPod, etc. would have destroyed the market and capture 80% of the PVR market within 18 months. I still think this is the game plan but PVR will canabalize efforts to get studios on to iTunes. The functionality has been there ever since firewire appeared on cable boxes. Apple obviously has a fully functioning PVR in their labs.

Everything Jobs is about timing - introducing products and services at the right time either to dominate a fragmented portion of the industry, or to gain leverage of studios or other companies.

As a side note, no one has mentioned that Disney has its own cell phone service: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8485103/

Why hasn't anyone linked this with the debut of the Apple iPhone? This sounds like a slam dunk for Apple.

Well, it certainly does not have HDCP support, it does not have component video-out, and unless you pay $799 for the Core Duo model you aren't up to spec to play HD Quicktime content. Otherwise, uh, sure! A cheap-ass Mac mini for your $5000 plasma display and $1200 surround sound system! What a perfect match!

Gosh, I hope nobody calls me a whiner for not being a Mac fan boy. That would be really awful and stuff.

The Intel 950 can handle it. As the first Mac Mini owner will learn from playing HD trailers at Quicktime.com.

And it's OK to call something an Intel Mac because we didn't know for a long time what the chip would be called. If we didn't know the PPC name, we would have said IBM Mac.

https://register.go.com/disney/disney_mobile_mvno/index
Disney Mobile + Apple iPhone

http://mobile.espn.go.com/
ESPN

So now Disney/ABC/ESPN/APPLE have a huge purchasing-power block over Sprint, either to have their own MVNO or to use Sprints openly.

Kind of gives a LOT more leverage to the Apple iPhone if Sprint can get great stuff (and much better content) from the Disney family.

As well, Apple's mobile browser is now becoming a mainstay for Nokia. Interesting stuff!

I'm going to wait for a tuner to toss my HTPC (a 6 year old Dell, windows 2000, 160GB Hard Drive) out the window. I'm sure the Mini will play mpg2 just fine... but it is not a media center unless it can record tv and has some space to store at least 45 hours. Am I missing something?

If you look at the apple H.264 website you see that for 1080i HDTV decoding you need a 2GHz intel core duo. Far more powerful than the puny core solo or even the modest core duo included. In a year the mac mini will be the perfect HDTV companion, but right now it's just a soon to be obsolete box.

Since anything worth a darn to watch is controlled by the cable companies and HDCP

You need to get out more. The stuff controlled by cable companies and HDCP is shit. You can find much, much better stuff, for free, using DTV, Google Video, Limewire or Bittorrent.

Dug asks "Am I missing something"

yes, you are.. Apple's movie service will be streaming rentals. Just like the current quicktime movie trailers.

You will pay 3 or 4 bucks to rent the movie and have access to stream for a couple of days... Just like paying 3 or 4 bucks to rent a dvd from blockbuster, except you will do it from your couch.. The file will never reside on your hard drive.

PVR on a Mac? Never.. Not as long as apple is in the business of selling video content on the ITMS.

Do you really think that this 'new' Integrated Graphic chip may/will/can handle HD TV????

Apple always had promoted the graphic cards inside their machines; with a full page dedicated to graphics:

http://www.apple.com/imac/graphics.html
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/graphics.html
http://www.apple.com/imacg5/graphics.html
http://www.apple.com/powermac/graphics.html
http://www.apple.com/powerbook/display.html

Now... it's a 'mini' side note in the lower right hand of this page:

http://www.apple.com/macmini/intelcore.html

Is Apple hiding something? or Don't want to promote Intel's Integrated Chip as it does with ATI's or Radeon's???

It's a processor hog of the worst kind. Encoding is glacially slow on a G5 & slow on a Core Duo.

Eddie Cue needs to get his folks off of their backside cache and fix H264.

Nick, you can get a DVI to component video adapter. The real question I have is the bandwidth the DVD player can output so you don't experience color washouts (especially on dark scenes) like I have with my crappy high dollar Denon player...

For all the HD mini doubters:

From another thread:

For 1280x720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
* 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
* At least 256MB of RAM
* 64 MB or greater video card

For 1920x1080 (1080p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
* Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
* At least 512MB of RAM
* 128MB or greater video card

Since the integrated graphics chip has special capabilities for handling video does anyone think that this chip will offload some of the work the processor would normally do so the above specs don't apply to the mini? They chose the speed for a reason

Furthermore what is all the crap about the integrated graphics chip...except for the Power Macs is not like anyone was ever going to switch out the graphics card in the IMacs and PowerBooks, Ibooks...

What's an Intel Integrated Graphics Chip doing in a Mac?

Beats the hell out of us.

For all those whiners who are disappointed this system is no good for HD... a DirecTV HD DVR costs about $600 (although I remember it being more like $999 about a year ago). The mac mini is a full fledged computer. Mac OS X alone costs $129. However, with the purchase of a mac mini, you receive OS X and iLife in a small form factor COMPUTER for $599. The HD DVR box only does DVR for $599. When you think about it, the mac mini is a bargain.

For all those who say the true cost of a mac mini needs to include a keyboard, mouse and monitor... that is not where mac mini is targeted. It is assumed that you already own those components from a previous computer (PC or MAC). In fact, if you use it with a TV, I'm assuming that is already paid for. All you really need is the keyboard and mouse. And if you really are going to have a kick-ass home theater system, the keyboard/mouse combo is going to have to be wireless (Bluetooth... which Apple sells too). And for the record, if you're sinking $599 to add this mac mini to a TV, consider yourself lucky to have that much disposable income.

i'm the original poster that noted this machine can't playback 1080p content (at least from h.264 and according to Apple)

i'm waiting to see how well the core duo version works out with playback. I plan on going by an Apple store this weekend to see it in action.

I may be pleasantly surprised - but i never claimed to know what real-world performance is - i'm simply quoting apple saying that it doesn't have the right stuff for your living room and 45" Aquos 1080p monitor. The real world could be different.

also, what's the deal with people bitching about no component out?

This thing has a DVI out...
which also means it has VGA out...
which also means it has component out....

geesh.

The question isn't whether $599 a good value, or $799 a good value for duo core...although once adding extras (if you don't have them) you get more power, video speed and drive space with the iMac fo a similar cost.

I personally think that a Mac Mini for $599 that CAN record TV in some sweet little iLife app, would destroy the media center PC market and make massive gains.

can the core duo mac mini editi HD in iMovie HD or Final Cut (express, at this point)?
Thanks in advance.

I don't have a TV nor do I want a TV. Man, it sucks being a minority.

The specs on the apple site for HD playback are way to high.

I can play 1080i movie trailers from the apple site on my imac core duo 1.83 without dropping a single frame, and according to activity monitor I've got cycles to spare. Also this is the one with the lower video card.

I doubt the slower processor and integrated video will allow the same performance on the mini but I'm sure the 1.67 core duo version can handle 720p.

For all those saying that for a few hundred more you can get an iMac that includes the monitor, what happens in two years when the iMac is obsolete? You no longer have that monitor! An LCD screen should last a lot longer than two years. I'll pay the extra for the 17" stand alone screen now and replace the mini in a few years. Much cheaper in the long run.

Was playing with the new Mac mini core duo last night at the Easton Apple Store in Columbus. Played the Mission Impossible III 1080p trailer full screen, no problem. Definitely an interesting HTPC option when you add a full size external drive.