mac mini as home theater

[ViViDboarder]

one last thing... lol

have you seen how many actual desktop computers Apple sell?..worldwide..per year.

The market for computers in general is close to 300m units.... Apple barely sell 1% of that in desktops and then most of them are iMacs. The Mini might not even sell 1m per year.

Apple still sell it though as 'circus performers' like you, living in the RDF will still buy it. The profit per unit for Apple has to be in the region of $250 - $300
... makes you happy? fine.

yes Apple make pointless products... iWork, Apple TV to name but 2 current ones.

not saying the Mini can't play 1080p but I've got a $200 Acer Revo that does the same but it doesn't fall over with flash sites.

next time..try the real world you may like it.!

Hahaha.... Wow. Just because you have no use for a product doesn't make it pointless. Also, this thread is not about iWork or Apple TV.

From the Engadget review I'd say it sounds like the Revo does worse on flash sites than the Mac Mini...

Also, what the heck does it matter how many computers they sell?

I've built the last 3 desktops that I used. You know how many I "sold" per year? Even just to my self... .25... But they sure beat the hell out of your Revo. Quantity is no measure of quality my friend is a general rule and it's a shame you resorted to that as an argument. That was very foolish.

You don't want a Mac Mini? Great! It may suit someone else's needs very well. So what?

I'd rather buy that Dell I posted the link to than buy that Revo. Haha.

PS: I thought you were out of here?

 

[Seychelles]

Boy you don't give up. My Mac mini falls over with flash sites, does it? Nobody told MY Mac mini.

Did I say I personally loved iWork or Apple TV? I don't see the use of them (though I know a LOAD of people who use iWork for Keynote). Your argument is just getting more and more off-key the more you post.

For me, there is no better media center than my Mac mini. If your Revo is able to torrent pretty hardcore while playing 1080p video with its 1.6ghz Atom processor, you're using a different Revo than the one I've used.

From Engadget's review:

"Startup is fairly quick, but the time to a "usable" desktop can be quite a bit longer -- it took us almost as long to open Firefox as it did to land on the desktop from a cold boot."

And...

"Oddly enough, we found web browsing -- the supposed heart of a "net"top experience -- to be the most lacking. Sometimes we felt like we were having connection problems, and in fact Gmail at times would stop working entirely since it thought it was having so much trouble getting its packets through -- we seemed to fare better on Ethernet than with WiFi. Internet Explorer is a complete nightmare, but while we had a better time with Firefox and even better in Chrome, we wouldn't feel comfortable doing "heavy" browsing on the system on a daily basis."

No thank you!

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/28/acer-aspirerevo-review/

No i don't torrent as I have repsect for both my ISP's bandwith and the law of the land.

Something that seems to escape you.

My comments on ATV and iWork (s******) were in response to your..'Apple don't make pointless products' thats all.

BTW there is more than 1 Revo but in your haste to post the wrong info. you tripped over yourself.

BTW I'm in the UK and over here a perfectly capable Revo can be had for 29%

yes 29% of the base Mini price...that is no contest.

But please stick with the Mini, I feel much more comfortable knowing that mac users like you still exist..

 

[Seychelles]

Hahaha.... Wow. Just because you have no use for a product doesn't make it pointless. Also, this thread is not about iWork or Apple TV.

From the Engadget review I'd say it sounds like the Revo does worse on flash sites than the Mac Mini...

Also, what the heck does it matter how many computers they sell?

I've built the last 3 desktops that I used. You know how many I "sold" per year? Even just to my self... .25... But they sure beat the hell out of your Revo. Quantity is no measure of quality my friend is a general rule and it's a shame you resorted to that as an argument. That was very foolish.

You don't want a Mac Mini? Great! It may suit someone else's needs very well. So what?

I'd rather buy that Dell I posted the link to than buy that Revo. Haha.

PS: I thought you were out of here?

No it doesn't make it pointless, but it's pointless to me and nearly every other user on the planet.

yes this isn't about ATV or iWork i was just quoting other pointless products as per WilliamG's previous post.

It doesn't matter how many computers they sell, again that was in repsonse to one of Mr G's (many) spurious points.

I didn't resort to anything as an argument, I'd rather build my own too. I could still do it with a massive price advantage in my favour and get much better performance.

If a Mini DOES suit someone well then that person would be equally well suited by something half the price on the other side plus Ubuntu. There is no reason to buy a mini (unless you have an aversion to cash)

Yes I should be out of here, not my job to talk sense to the masses... I apologise.

 

[WilliamG]

No i don't torrent as I have repsect for both my ISP's bandwith and the law of the land.

Something that seems to escape you.

My comments on ATV and iWork (s******) were in response to your..'Apple don't make pointless products' thats all.

BTW there is more than 1 Revo but in your haste to post the wrong info. you tripped over yourself.

BTW I'm in the UK and over here a perfectly capable Revo can be had for 29%

yes 29% of the base Mini price...that is no contest.

But please stick with the Mini, I feel much more comfortable knowing that mac users like you still exist..

I'm sorry you feel that Torrenting is just for piracy. Perhaps open your eyes: There are other uses.

And yes, I happen to realize there are TWO whole Revos! The one with 1GB DDR2 and ION LE, and the other with *gasp!* 2GB DDR2 and regular ION! Both with *gasp* CRAPTASTIC 1.6Ghz ION processors! Boy let me go grab one of those bad boys!


And I'm sorry, but is Apple TV pointless? Please feel free to back up said statements with facts. And iWork is pointless? Feel free to also back up said statement with facts.

So what you've done is provide your OPINION. I've gone ahead and provided facts, e.g. the Engadget review, the slowness of the Ion processors, the lack of Firewire.

Your turn now: Please show me where the Apple TV and iWork is considered pointless and this is an accepted fact.

It bothers me also that you use England as your benchmark for what's worth money. You realize you live in a tiny country smaller than the size of Minnesota, right? Your economy is ailing. Are you surprised Apple products cost more there?

In the USA, the high-end (LOL!) Revo is MORE than half the price of a mini, and it's not like we're talking about tens of thousands of dollars increase in price. We're talking a whole $250 more. And for $250 more you get a whole heck of a lot more computer, with what I consider to be the best OS on the market. But that last part is just my opinion.

It amazes me the gall in which you present your opinion, though. I won't even call this an argument, since all you've done is present your baseless opinions. The base Mac mini is many, many times faster than a Revo, and comes with a 2009 OS. The Revo comes with either an almost 10-year old OS (XP), or Windows 7 that runs like crap on it.

So let's look at this objectively, shall we? The Revo uses a 1.6Ghz ION processor. It's useful JUST as an HTPC and nothing else. Some of us actually want a usable computer, too. End of story.

 

[ViViDboarder]

This thread is getting crazy... I just wanted to put my opinions down on the matter one more time

I don't have a Mac Mini.

I find OSX the most desirable OS to use out of all my computers.

I find EyeTV (for Mac) to be the best TV Tuner application.

I would be more comfortable tweaking a cheaper computer to do what I need it to than buying a Mac Mini, but I would not call it a rip-off. It's just a little awkward... I think it's more powerful than a STB (Set Top Box) needs to be and thus priced above most comparable STB computers.

I do think the Apple TV has no good use that can't be done on a more robust system... PS3 can do everything the Apple TV can and play Blueray and video games for less than $100 more. If you don't want the Blueray you could go with an Xbox 360 which does everything the Apple TV does and play DVD's . Would I take an AppleTV if someone was giving it to me? Yes. It is much smaller than even a PS3 Slim, which does make it nice.

I don't think Macs are the end of discussion in computers. I plan on building my own tower PC because the high end iMac (quads) and Mac Pro are very nice... but are lacking certain top of the line features that I would like to include. As suggested by so many on this forum... I will " just buy a PC".

Right now, for me, if I can't play a video on Xbox (gets my Netflix Instant and uses ethernet so it gets video streamed from my iMac better) or PS3 (blueray as well as web browser for online videos) I just plug my MacBook Pro into my TV with the VGA port and hook the audio up through the Toslink and sit back with my iPhone as a remote control.

Everyone has their own method. Knowledge is power.

 

[Max(IT)]

You're mistaken. A Mini can play Blu-ray discs. You just don't get True-HD or DTS-HD audio from them (yet).



A completely spurious argument. There's a reason why Apple has 3x the market cap of Dell, and is fast approaching Microsoft. They have a highly successful business plan that avoids the low-end, low-margin market. In the final analysis, all that Apple cares about is its ability to produce profit. And they do that very well.



Pages '09 is superior to MS Word in nearly every way, and it sure doesn't crash like Word does. Keynote is also superior to PowerPoint and has been since its inception. Excel is still better than Numbers for data crunching, although Numbers is superior in its graph generation and integration with other apps.

The Apple TV is easily the best interface device there is on the market, despite its limitations.

Are you really arguing with someone that consider an Acer Revo equal to a Mac Mini ?