Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Rumors, Surveys and Polls
TUAW Poll: Would you buy a media center Mac mini?
Considering the rumors that are swirling about today regarding an Intel-based, media center Mac mini, I got to thinking: Would you buy one of these things? ThinkSecret has made it sound extremely appealing: FrontRow 2.0, TiVo-like functionality, a built-in iPod dock and a similar price point...what's not to love? If Steve whipped one of these out of his pocket at Macworld in January, priced in the $500 - $600US range, I'd have to hide my credit card on myself.So, TUAWers, what do you think? Take the poll, and we'll post the results tomorrow.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Doug said 6:44PM on 11-29-2005
Hmm.. Xbox 360 or Mac Media Center.. tough call.
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Michael said 6:46PM on 11-29-2005
Will it use BitTorrent? No? Oh, ok, I'll stick with my PowerBook.
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John Laur said 6:51PM on 11-29-2005
Only if it will do HD. CableCARD would be a big step in the right direction too. Anything without HD support is a stopgap piece of crap. I really hope Apple realizes this.
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andras said 7:02PM on 11-29-2005
If I could find a bluetooth keyboard with some type of onboard pointer (trackpad, eraserhead, something) so that I could actually use the computer part of it while sitting on my couch i'd be interested.
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dj said 7:22PM on 11-29-2005
Bluetooth keyboard with touchpad? The reader reviews seem very mixed...
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000957043541/
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Eric Jeffers said 7:30PM on 11-29-2005
I use macs, but i also have a windows Media Center PC. I basically love it and would never give it up. It is perhaps the one thing M$ has ever donr right. And i would be very reluctant to switch from MCE to the mac version/rip-off.
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dalton said 8:54PM on 11-29-2005
There's no reason it couldn't do 480p out of the box. Apple's website specs say that 720p Quicktime requires a 2.8 Ghz Intel chip, which is doubtful in the next version of the Mini.
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bean said 10:18PM on 11-29-2005
I already have a Mac mini DVR. Its called a Mac mini and EyeTV 200. It records all of my TV shows and movies off of cable. It also edits out commercials. I use the AMUG Super-mini to expand storage to 300GB on the Mac mini fast IDE ATA/100 bus. I can save shows to disk using the internal Maxtor 300GB SATA or burn DVD using the Pioneer 109 DVR. See details on the Super-mini at:
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/addonics/mini/
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John Laur said 10:55PM on 11-29-2005
There's no reason it couldn't do 480p out of the box. Apple's website specs say that 720p Quicktime requires a 2.8 Ghz Intel chip, which is doubtful in the next version of the Mini.
But don't count out hardware accelerated H.264. The mac mini can already (sort of) play MPEG2 at HD resolution, but if you have a graphics processor that can decode (and deinterlace) H.264 and MPEG2 at 1080i/1080p you have a winner. The latest and greatist from Nvidia and ATI all support it, and according to people who seem to know more about this than I do, it's possible on much less costly GPU's even...
Anyway, it's still speculation, but apple would be foolish to neglect HD. I will absolutely buy the first thing that gives me a HD DVR that I own and control that works with my cable service be it a Tivo, Windows MCE, Apple, etc.. For the observant, yes Sony has a cablecard DVR but it's incredibly lackluster compared to Tivo or MCE.
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todd said 1:33AM on 11-30-2005
It's a tough call. My vote was "wait for reviews". It has to work well with bit torrent and .avi's. Or at least easily hackable.
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singermornings said 5:16AM on 11-30-2005
It's funny to see the poll results. :-)
It seems it's quite a desired product.
(I admit I'm one of them)
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Small Paul said 11:27AM on 12-02-2005
Mac mini with DVR functionality? Not happening.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051129-5643.html
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arkowi said 8:13AM on 11-30-2005
i would like to see them bypass the recording of TV all together. unless they can support all the formats to make everyone happy (dish, direcTV, cable, OTA, cablecard, on and on).
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motech said 9:40AM on 11-30-2005
first of all,
the mac outputs HD resolution.
it just cant process HD content, which isnt a big deal
because we have cable boxes with built in DVR's that can.
ive already been installing mac minis on all my clients HDTV setups
as a nice music solution along with filling them up with seasons of cheers and seinfeld and random other . . .
the mac mini replaces a standard dvd player as it plays dvd's very nicely and does slide shows as well.
the front row interface looks amazing in HD.
we do not need dvr functionality on a mac mini.
like i said the cable boxes take care of that for us.
if you really want apple to make a difference,
pay attention to how they stream movie trailers through frnt row.
really amazing.
soon they will offer the itunes music store and the itunes movie store
directly through the front row interface.
buy, download and access directly from your tv.
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Faentur said 12:03PM on 11-30-2005
can I buy the software for my current mini? that would be nice. I know it might not be as full functioning as the new mini, but an actual working (dvd) copy of Frontrow would be nice.
as for my vote, I voted for the love of fictitious hardware polls.
-F
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