01-24-2005, 04:00 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Mac Mini all About HD Movies? I Don't Think So
"Everyone seems to think the Mini is a media PC, and it has the basic characteristics of one. Though the box has no TV tuner, Apple does offer an analog adapter. And you can burn DVDs with it if you get the optional DVD burner. Still, there were hints in that MacWorld presentation of something bigger to come, and the Mac Mini is a big part of that. Here's my thinking, and it is just thinking -- I have no insider knowledge of Apple's plans, I haven't been diving in any Cupertino dumpsters, and nobody who knows the truth has told me a darned thing. I think the Mac Mini is a fixed component in a system that will extend iTunes to selling and distributing movies."
A very interesting and engaging article penned by Robert X. Cringely - he has an amazing mind, but I'm pretty sure he's wrong on this one. I've been experimenting with different media player solutions over the past year, and integrating a computer with your TV set isn't as simple as it might seem. There would have to be many other pieces falling into place before a Mac Mini could serve as a conduit for HD content, and as it stands right now the Mac Mini itself doesn't fit. Let's start with performance - the Mac Mini simply doesn't have the horsepower to decode HD video, unless AVC H.264-encoded HD video is somehow extremely easy to decode. The video chip set (ATI Radeon 9200) with 32 MB of RAM, and the front-side bus speed of 167 mhz simply don't have the capacity to do HD video. The ATI Radeon 9200 has no HD-specific decoding capabilities, which means the heavy lifting would have to be done by the 1.25 Ghz CPU.
And a 40 GB or even 80 GB hard drive? Completely insufficient - sure, you're doing a progressive download, but at 40 GB you'd only be able to fit a couple of movies on there. There's no optical out for audio on the Mac, nor any indication of support for 5.1 sound - you're not going to connect this to your TV set using a 3.5mm minijack (though it's possible with a cable converter). The pieces of the puzzle are all wrong. Ultimately I think this is a pipe dream - people ascribe God-like precogniscience to Apple and it's business plans, but history has shown they're just as short-sighted as most computer companies. The Mac Mini is a cheap Mac designed to lure in budget-minded computer users who want to try out what Apple has to offer, nothing more. Sometimes a duck is really just a duck.
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