[mythtv-users] New mac mini The frontend for mythTV?

Todd Ignasiak todd.ignasiak at gmail.com
Wed Jun 16 22:43:58 UTC 2010


On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 12:41 PM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 16, 2010 01:32:18 pm Brian Wood wrote:
>> On Wednesday, June 16, 2010 01:20:52 pm James Walker wrote:
>> > The wireless debate is an interesting one. But given the theoretical
>> > bandwidth of 802.11n, the actual bandwidth that people I know actually
>> > achieve in the house, then add in the wireless network being used by
>> > others as well as streamed content, well success seems to be mixed.  But
>> > hey, if you have it working in your situation then great.  :-)
>>
>> But no guarantee that it will continue to work. If your neighbor gets some
>> new WiFi device, or a new microwave oven, or even a cordless phone, your
>> network can turn into a notwork quickly, causing you to need to do
>> nightwork.
>
> Speaking of cordless phones. I have discovered that many units that say ""5.8 Ghz." loudly, or something other than 2.4
> Ghz., are only using that non-2.4Ghz. channel in one direction, and use 2.4 Ghz. for the other. So they are not actually
> lying, but they are certainly not telling the whole story.
>
> If buying a cordless phone and wanting to avoid WiFi interference, make sure that BOTH directions use something other than
> 2.4 Ghz. It can sometimes be hard to determine this for certain.
>
> It must be great to be a tech gear vendor. When most of your customers do not know what they are buying, or how to
> diagnose problems with it, it leads to fewer complaints, and the ones you do get can be dismissed easily by lying to the
> customer.
>
> Self-regulation rarely works well, or at all, and vendors will get away with anything they can. Note the problems with the
> self-certification of "Energy Star" devices, or deep water oil wells.
>
> But we never seem to learn.

I have my (previous generation) Nvidia Mac Mini accessing my MythTV
backend via wireless.  I use the dual band Apple Airport base station,
and I have the Mini on the 5GHz N channel, and use all laptops,
phones, etc. on the 2.4GHz band.   All of my neighbors also seem to be
on 2.4GHz.

On 5GHz N, a throughput test using "nuttcp" gave me ~80Mbps, and it
works very reliably for viewing HD programs with MythTV.


My Mini was a pain in the butt to upgrade to 4GB RAM..  I like the new
version with user accessible RAM slots.  The HDMI port is also very
nice for combined audio/video.    But, it's too pricey to justify
upgrading my existing Mini.. especially after Apple bumped the price
up.


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