Is the new Mini worth it?

[Kcissem D]

I've been looking around for a decent HTPC to replace my Apple TV i recently purchased as i just don't see the point going from 1080p to 720p. So i was waiting on the mini refresh to see what it would be. so my question is would it be worth it to get the mini for a media server and general compuer usage? I want to make sure though that it can play straight full blu-ray rips using other packages like plex etc.

 

[Hellhammer]

It will play 1080p just fine, not sure about BR rips but if you encode them to other format, it should work fine. Mini went up 100$ in price so if you want to save some $, buy previous gen, it does its job just fine.

 

[flopticalcube]

Wait and see. No confirmation of ability to play straight BD rips. I am thinking heat is going to be an issue with these given the internal power supply. Let a few reviews come in first. It seems awfully expensive for what it is.

Disclaimer: I own a 2.53 mini in a 720p HTPC setup.

 

[ljonesj]

yeah i own a late 09 2.53 4gig model myself i think they should have at least went with 4 gigs of ram and the option of the 8gigs instead of base being 2gigs but hey at least they made it easier to get to the ram

 

[tuna]

I wouldn't hold your breath on the ability to play straight blu-ray rips or blu-rays at 1080p. Maybe someone can confirm that they can even get a high quality h.264 video to play smoothly at 1080p.

 

[johnredcorn]

My late 09 2.26 mac mini handles 1080p content without any issues. Both untouched bluray and reencoded 10mbps+ x264 run with low cpu usage in newest version of plex patched for gpu acceleration.

Even without gpu acceleration, the 2.26 c2d could handle 1080p pretty easily. The gpu assist really helps to quickly ffw and navigate through video while keeping overall system temps lower.

On paper the new mac minis should have no problems playing any htpc content, but I would definitely wait to see reports of how hot these new systems run before purchasing.