[mythtv-users] How is the Mac mini as a front-end?

Justin Kim justinlkim at gmail.com
Thu Jul 13 20:43:23 UTC 2006


I have a Core Duo mini I'm using as a front end.

At 6:23 PM -0700 7/12/06, Marc Infield wrote:
>- How stable is are the macintel binaries?

Very stable.  Haven't had any crashes.

>- Any limitations or setup issues?

The prebuilt binaries out there are a little bare 
extras/plugins-wise.  The one I use just has live tv and recorded 
library playback built.

>- Will it drive a 1080p monitor? (We just got a Westinghouse LVM-42w2).

Yes and no.  My mini and monitor occasionally have communications 
difficulties.  I've had up to 10 minutes of flickering and distorted 
video before one or the other "dials in" and starts to display video 
properly.

HD playback works, but I have to turn of "scale video as necessary" 
while watching HD video or it will stutter and miss frames.  Scale 
video has to be turned back on for standard video unless you like 
postage stamp sized video.

>- Are there any sound issues? Does the TOSLINK adapter work?

I don't have optical on my tuner, so I can't comment on this.  Sound 
off the stereo minijack could sound better, but it isn't that bad.

>- How is the over all usability? Does it integrate with frontrow?

It works well enough.  I'm hoping that performance will improve so I 
can get more reliable HD playback without having to resort to 
switching settings when moving from standard to HD playback.

One general issue I have is that the integrated video can't drive my 
TV at a stretched 720 resolution.  On my monitor, regular sized text 
is completely unreadable at 1080i.  My monitor only supports 480p and 
1080i, but my PowerBook is able to display a custom stretched 720 
picture that is much nicer looking than the mini's 1080.  I've tried 
SwitchResX, but it doesn't seem to fully support the Mini's 
integrated graphics.


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