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2018 Mac Mini Review

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Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#451

Post by bredren »

fallenhitokiri wrote: post #354
bluedino wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does Marco call the LG 5K “not great”?

Just one data point: I have two of those screens connected to an iMac Pro. This is a setup officially supported by Apple, but sometimes when waking up the Mac one of the displays doesn't turn on and the only option to get it back to work properly is disconnecting either the power or the USB cable. This is reproducible by connecting both screens to a 15" MBP Pro 2016. If the screens would at least have an ordinary pow…

It is somewhat surprising they put so much into the usbc push, but then failed to deliver updated monitors that work as flawlessly as the cinema.

They were like: LG does this now.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#453

Post by baddox »

rconti wrote: post #432
kalleboo wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What OSes are better for a "Home Theater" TV computer I use an Apple TV 4K. For non-netflix/hulu/primevideo stuff, it streams off a Synology NAS (using Plex or VLC for Apple TV) edit: it's funny how your experience pretty much mirrors mine almost 10 years ago. A Mac guy outfitting a machine for a home media center. I was used to Mac media stuff always being behind on codec support and performance so I bought some H…

I'll have to try this again. I put VLC on my AppleTV4, and I don't remember having luck playing things off my Synology. I'm using Kodi on my Android TV-equipped Sony to stream from the NAS, which works, but the UI is a disaster for adding sources. I finally got it to work, but I never want to have to change anything again. For me, using Plex is an utter and complete nightmare. Anything with transcoding and library re…

Plex is the least nightmarish of the video library apps I've used in the last few years (Plex and Kodi are the only ones I've ended up using extensively, though I've tried out several others).

Transcoding is obviously a last resort, but I've used it on rare occasions for streaming live and recorded TV from home to the Plex app on my iPhone and it works reasonably well. For my home theater stuff I absolutely don't want any transcoding at all, and Plex is generally smart enough to figure out what formats my playback device is able to decode on its own. When I first got a Chromecast Ultra, I had to fiddle with some XML config files in Plex because Plex was only aware of the non-4k Chromecast and thus would try to transcode 4k content, but I believe that Plex resolved that issue fairly quickly.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#454

Post by user68858788 »

noja wrote: post #452

Too expensive. If you just want a redundant NAS everything else is cheaper. If you want a non-redundant NAS asingle disk NAS enclosure costs 54 bucks: https://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_cod...

I'm fairly new to this NAS stuff. Is there a reason to have one hard drive per sever, or is that just a limitation of this one in particular? I'm sure that RAID over a network of hard drives is a solved problem, but I wouldn't know where to start.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#455

Post by unfocused »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #110
Jaruzel wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bung Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ - You'll be pleasantly surprised I think. Downside is... 99% of raspberry pi cases are really ugly :(

Just stick the Pi to the back of your TV with some self-adhesive PCB risers. No case required.

That's what I do.

Am I the only one though that uses the Pi with a (Synology) NAS with MySQL (MariaDB) to store the Kodi data, and my NAS (NFS) for the content? you can pick up where you left off from your Pi, to your laptop, or Phone.

I know...it's like Plex in architecture.

As for the remote, CEC will let you control Kodi from your TV's remote. Or if you have seperate audio, like a soundbar or AV receiver, a harmony remote will do.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#456

Post by asveikau »

lucideer wrote: post #59
dTal wrote: post #35

>Number one — and this is a big one these days, especially for this product — is that it’s not any less useful or versatile than the outgoing Mac Mini, including the generous assortment of ports. If the previous one served a role for you, the new one can probably do it just as well, and probably better and faster, with minimal donglage. Wow. This is what it's come to. "It hasn't gotten worse! Yayy!"

> "Unless you used optical audio, audio input, or the SD-card reader" Craftily hidden in a footnote for that paragraph.

They probably figured that people who want these are acceptably served by USB.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#457

Post by seunosewa »

d35007 wrote: post #447
crad wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty happy with mine, but thanks for speaking for us all with your sweeping generalization.

Same. I bought a 2018 MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar this July. Before that, I owned a 2014 MacBook Pro, the last one with the mechanical trackpad. My new machine is absolutely better than my old one.

In what ways is your new machine better, apart from being thinner and just a bit lighter?

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#458

Post by lurcio »

solidr53 wrote: post #442
realradicalwash wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote is a bit out of context. The sentence right above it: >It makes almost nothing worse and almost everything better, finally bringing the Mac Mini into the modern age. So, no, it's not "yayy" because it "hasn't gotten worse", it's "yayy", because "[it makes] almost everything better".

I'm going to hold on to my Mid-2015 MacBook Pro for dear life. I'm hoping it will be good for 3 more years.

You might be alright - I'm still on a 2009 MBP 13" (4Gb SSD) and a 2010 17" (8Gb, SSD) hands down the best money I ever spent.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#459

Post by Someone »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #395
VHRanger wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have small form factor PCs with GPUs. But the exterior won't be as pretty because you have much more thermal to deal with

> But the exterior won't be as pretty There are actually plenty of nice looking small form factor PC cases that can house a full GPU - http://www.louqe.com/ - https://www.dan-cases.com/dana4.php I'd actually say this is one area of the custom PC market that's well served by nice design.

Those are 7 liters or more, or the volume of five Mac minis. So, a different class of “small”.

Re: 2018 Mac Mini Review

#460

Post by kayoone »

phaus wrote: post #341
crad wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty happy with mine, but thanks for speaking for us all with your sweeping generalization.

I work at a company where most of us use Macs. Everyone that has upgraded from a 2013-2015 MBP to the touchbar model absolutely hates it, including me. There's gotta be someone around here that actually likes it, but I haven't met them yet. Its OK if you like it. I'm sure lots of people do, but you know damn well significantly more people have had issues with this laptop than normal, so I'm not sure why you're implyi…

Comparing the keyboard with a $200 walmart netbook is a joke. It might not be everybody's taste, but it's far from terrible. I actually like it and at my company where 95% of engineers have one, there is not more complains than usual about the new model. People that really can't stand the keyboard will usually use external peripherals at their desk.
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