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2018 Mac Mini Review

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Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#281

Post by kalleboo »

dev_north_east wrote: post #151
adamlett wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me get this straight: You would not consider paying a premium for a machine even though your experience tells you, that it has a useful life of 10+ years?

1 - it wouldn't be suitable for me now (nor for the past few years). 2 - I remember there being a big differential in equivalently priced machines back then. One of my current work Dell workstations is a much cheaper option than this Mac, much better specced and I've had no issues with it for over two years. 3 - It's £800 for the thing, seems way out of line with inflation compared to what I bought then.

> seems way out of line with inflation compared to what I bought then

Can't speak for European pricing, but the base model Mac Mini 10 years ago cost $599, and adjusted for inflation it would cost $750 today ($50 less than the current base model).

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#282

Post by endorphone »

muro wrote: post #167
veidr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What OSes are better for a "Home Theater" TV computer?? That's a serious question; I recently replaced a creaking old Mac Mini (that couldn't do 4K) with a new Dell, after going a little bicurious with respect to Windows 10 (for software development work)... and, surprisingly, it's a complete and utter shitshow. I was astonished, actually; I had assumed Windows would be better than macOS as a TV computer, other than…

Why do you need a PC at all? A TV can play movies directly from a NAS.

A couple of years ago I would have argued with you, but we recently added a WebOS TV to the household: 4K HDR+ Netflix and Amazon Prime, perfect playback of seemingly everything on the NAS box (which is just a hard drive hanging off the router), all effortlessly and with zero mental effort or maintenance.

To reiterate what I said elsewhere, this Mac Mini is meant to be a desktop, not a media device (or some sort of perverse NAS). It's being pushed into the home theater niche by people who probably have a big trashcan Mac Pro at their desk and try to justify this lesser device. But it's an extremely competent legitimate PC for most people.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#283

Post by bunnycorn »

3pt14159 wrote: post #237
drej wrote: post #165

Macs aside - this video clearly shows the wonderful experience you can get when an audio/video producer cares about audio quality. Spoken word recorded with clear audio is so lovely. I listen to podcasts and audiobooks on a daily basis and I really really appreciate someone putting the effort into this. Thanks!

He makes Overcast, the best iOS Podcasting app. Many good features to handle all the fiddly edge cases. Almost no complaints[0] and he keeps making it better. [0] The only one thing I wish he'd add would be the ability to limit concurrent downloads to prioritize at least one of them finishing. I routinely get bad wifi and seeing 8 downloads at 55% is maddening.

The only complaint that I have is that the UI is ugly ugly ugly and has so much wasted space. The previous version had so much better UI.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#284

Post by kalleboo »

silversmith wrote: post #203
kalleboo wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to use optical audio but it was superseded by HDMI for home theater and USB for hifi. edit: I'd be curious to see what people are using optical for today (I'm under the impression audio pros mainly use USB interfaces as well)

I bought a soundbar for my TV a couple months ago. Recent Samsung model. Has optical. I beleive the only other option was 3.5mm jack.

Interesting. I bought a pretty cheap soundbar this year (from Yamaha) and I think it had optical as an option (along with 3.5mm and Bluetooth) but the main interface was HDMI-ARC.

And it works great over ARC! The TV remote's volume buttons get passed through automatically, and it turns itself off and on along with the TV. I don't even know where the soundbar's own remote is anymore.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#285

Post by xattt »

myrandomcomment wrote: post #172
dagw wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you use as a remote? Also does RP+Kodi do Netflix/Amazon/HBO etc. streaming in a nice way?

No and that’s the issue. Works great for your local / NAS media. Lots of plugins for all sorts of things, except, Netflix, Amazon, XM. I still use the TV apps for that.

There’s a Netflix plugin that uses the directory structure on Kodi for v18.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#286

Post by y4mi »

cheeze wrote: post #254
Aeolun wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your beef with VLC? It’s the only player that has yet to fail me.

Comparing vlc to a home theater setup is laughable at best. Can vlc scrape Metadata and download art? Can I browse my catalog through vlc? Does it work with my remote? How hard is it to get to the next episode when watching a season? Vlc is great, but it's just a player.

> Can vlc scrape Metadata and download art?

yes

> Can I browse my catalog through vlc?

yes

> Does it work with my remote?

if you got a remote that connects to your pc, yes. there are quite a few of these around, especially if you buy a microserver or similar.

> How hard is it to get to the next episode when watching a season?

pretty easy.. actually, its imo way easier than anywhere else, as you can always use a wireless keyboard/mouse and just jump around

VLC can even cast to a chromecast device and serve its content to TVs if you want that

most of that needs to be enabled through the settings though.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#287

Post by kalleboo »

mikestew wrote: post #218
kalleboo wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to use optical audio but it was superseded by HDMI for home theater and USB for hifi. edit: I'd be curious to see what people are using optical for today (I'm under the impression audio pros mainly use USB interfaces as well)

Shockingly, I need optical for a $300 set of gaming headphones I purchased within the last year (Astro A50). Maybe it’s the only way they can do pass through, dunno.

Never would have guessed that for headphones! I guess they have some kind of a dock?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#288

Post by xattt »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #133
lucideer wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the gp also mentioned NAS and backup, I would presume they're definitely talking about some ∗nix, yes. I'm not sure if Linux would make for a play-for-play better home theatre OS than MacOS, but it would certainly be both better than Windows, and better value than a Mac.

I used Linux Mint on a Lenovo Thinkcentre micro-PC for a while, at 2x scaling on a 1080p TV. Now I've changed over to KDE Neon (because the KDE UI is more flexible) at around 2.5x scaling, and it's a bit more comfortable. The main input device is a Logitech wireless keyboard with a touchpad. I mostly play videos through SMPlayer/VLC, so it doesn't need anything fancy. A dedicated 10-foot UI would maybe work better, b…

Have you considered any of the ELEC releases? These are Kodi on minimal Linux with a diverse plugin ecosystem, with docker support. I am using LibreELEC. There is a live option in the installer to give a whirl.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#289

Post by robotresearcher »

bunderbunder wrote: post #280
rorykoehler wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why it isn't just an option. If you want it give you can pay for it.

Probably because it can't be made to be "just an option". Having seen teardowns of a MacBook, I'm pretty sure that one without a touchbar would be more-or-less a completely different computer - different keyboard, yes. To accomplish that, though, you'd need to also make a different housing to accommodate it, and a different motherboard, too, because this stuff's all soldered together as a single unit these days. And…

They sell a version without a touchbar.

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro

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