I already use a Mac Mini as an HTPC. If your TV doesn't handle the signal well (overscan or underscan), you can use SwitchResX to fix that. It will let you define edge to edge custom resolutions. It's not exactly user friendly, but it gets the job done. Although the built-in TV resolutions for 1080p, 720p, etc, are close, they don't fit edge to edge on many TV's due to overscan. SwitchResX will get you around that sort of scenario.
As to HDMI, I just don't care. You can easily convert the existing signal to HDMI with the DVI out that comes bundled with a new Mac. The signals are the same between DVI and HDMI. Just buy a cheap DVI to HDMI and be done with it. About the only benefit is having the audio in the same cable. All Mac's can use a TOSLINK cable to pipe out digital optical audio.
Blu-Ray would be a nice to have for me, but I'm just 'meh' over the whole issue. I only use a BD-Rom to rip titles to my Media PC in any case. I never actually 'watch' BD's on my Mini.
Then why can you get a $700.00 PC with a Blu-ray drive? All Apple does is rip off it's brain dead customers that shell out $1,500 or more for a computer that is no more powerful than a $700.00 PC. And if Apple is having trouble with software it's Apple because quick time is the software.
a picture filling the TV-screen which actually is to large leaving the outer limits of the desktop outside viewable area.
You need to change your tv picture size from 16:9 to "Full" or "Screen Fit" so you get 1:1 pixel mapping instead of the slight overscan you get with 16:9.
$2.33 for a 25GB disc. Do the math and the cost is the same. I also cannot ship my hard drive to MANY people with videos of the kids.
Re: Quality: I disagree. It is NOT good enough. It may be for you, but I think there are MANY people who watch Blu-ray on a 1080P HDTV. It is MUCH better than a 720p download from iTunes. To get Blu-ray quality online...be prepared to wait for a day for that download. The speeds and bandwidth are not there yet.
Blu-ray discs are NOT twice the price ($40???). Please get your facts right. There are many that I have bought for $20 (yes, new titles - the same price as the DVD option). At most, you may pay $5 more. I do at my local Walmart. Here is a sample: http://www.walmart.com/browse/Blu-ra...&path=0%3A4096
You could also argue that EVERY technology is transitional, but seriously...are you kidding me? Blu-ray is being adopted faster than DVD ever did. It won the HD-DVD battle as the new standard.
Blu-ray is going to be here and popular for at least the next 5 years. Whilst you may not think that is long, it is a lifetime in technology. If Apple want to "skip" a generation, that's fine; but not with me.
I also find it ironic that Steve Jobs in on the Blu-ray board!
$2.33 for a 25GB disc. Do the math and the cost is the same. I also cannot ship my hard drive to MANY people with videos of the kids.
Re: Quality: I disagree. It is NOT good enough. It may be for you, but I think there are MANY people who watch Blu-ray on a 1080P HDTV. It is MUCH better than a 720p download from iTunes. To get Blu-ray quality online...be prepared to wait for a day for that download. The speeds and bandwidth are not there yet.
Blu-ray discs are NOT twice the price ($40???). Please get your facts right. There are many that I have bought for $20 (yes, new titles - the same price as the DVD option). At most, you may pay $5 more. I do at my local Walmart. Here is a sample: http://www.walmart.com/browse/Blu-ra...&path=0%3A4096
You could also argue that EVERY technology is transitional, but seriously...are you kidding me? Blu-ray is being adopted faster than DVD ever did. It won the HD-DVD battle as the new standard.
Blu-ray is going to be here and popular for at least the next 5 years. Whilst you may not think that is long, it is a lifetime in technology. If Apple want to "skip" a generation, that's fine; but not with me.
I also find it ironic that Steve Jobs in on the Blu-ray board!
1) Mixing home theater usage with PC usage is not a valid argument
2) You're not including the price of the player for Blu-ray, which makes cost per GB considerably higher for data storage. You're also not considering non-rewritable discs, slow read and speeds and the power usage, which all effect the rationale for including a BRD in a Mac notebook.
3) On top of that, you haven't shown us a 9.5mm ultra-slim slot-loading drive for sale or any stats that show that people are buying and using BRDS in notebooks. For homes theater it's a great tech, but for notebooks it's far from being ideal.
3) On top of that, you haven't shown us a 9.5mm ultra-slim slot-loading drive for sale or any stats that show that people are buying and using BRDS in notebooks. For homes theater it's a great tech, but for notebooks it's far from being ideal.
Are you still beating that long-deceased horse? Here's a 9.5mm burner. Panasonic was shipping 9.5mm samples two years ago.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism
2) You're not including the price of the player for Blu-ray, which makes cost per GB considerably higher for data storage. You're also not considering non-rewritable discs, slow read and speeds and the power usage, which all effect the rationale for including a BRD in a Mac notebook.
How are you getting the overpriced, overcompressed 720p Apple movies onto your television without purchasing a player? And by your logic an optical drive of any kind wouldn't exist in any Mac whatsoever.
Are you still beating that long-deceased horse? Here's a 9.5mm burner. Panasonic was shipping 9.5mm samples two years ago.
And as usual you haven't read the comment or understood anything about Apple's product line. Where is the slot in that drive? What part of the slot-laoding tech coming after tray-loading at a higher cost often with slower speeds is hard to comprehend? But thanks for pointing out that even the tray-loading drive is selling on eBay for $500 when people claim that they can buy a whole Blu-ray player at BestBuy for under $100.
I'm pretty sure they know it is a fake image since they shopped it themselves. They didn't say they had images of the new mini, they just included that image to help us visualize how the port layout should look.
I also think it would sit better vertical rather than horizontal.
The MCP89 chipset should give us Geforce 210M graphics:
1) Mixing home theater usage with PC usage is not a valid argument
I did not think I was. I am pointing out three separate usages.
1) Burning home movies to distribute to family
3) Burning backup data (in my case native AVCHD files - which I don't want to overwrite)
2) Stating the previous poster had his BRD costs wrong for the home theater usage (I have a blu-ray player for this)
For point one...try buying a consumer camcorder that does not use tapes, is HD and avoids AVCHD. With iMovie and FCE you can't edit in the native format. Even Windows 7 Movie maker can!
Quote:
2) You're not including the price of the player for Blu-ray, which makes cost per GB considerably higher for data storage. You're also not considering non-rewritable discs, slow read and speeds and the power usage, which all effect the rationale for including a BRD in a Mac notebook.
Agreed. I did not specify MBP's (did I?). Also - it takes power (albeit less) to use and burn to the SuperDrive. Still consuming! That's why I would never burn without being "plugged in".
Quote:
3) On top of that, you haven't shown us a 9.5mm ultra-slim slot-loading drive for sale or any stats that show that people are buying and using BRDS in notebooks. For homes theater it's a great tech, but for notebooks it's far from being ideal.
Again...I did not mention notebooks. I'd like to see a decent Apple external drive that has Blu-ray and remove the SuperDrive altogether. The point is: Apple do not support Blu-ray in any shape or form. I think they should. Oh...and if they wanted too...they could design it. That's like saying (a few years back)...nobody can make a laptop high performing with a long battery life...under 1" thick!
What is your argument for not putting a BRD in a Mac Pro or an iMac? Could I not watch a Blu-ray movie on a 27" iMac? You realize this is as big as some folks T.V.'s, with better resolution?
It's fine to bash things, but to bash and not offer an alternative solution (to today's problems) is making Apple fall behind IMHO.
I simply don't believe that EVERY manufacturer of technology (Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Sanyo, Samsung, Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo, Dell...the list goes on), can be wrong about Blu-ray and HDMI.
you don't need more proof than watching your LCD screen from different angle, then you can clearly see the darker gray background around tha HDMI input.
It's because different Color profile setups in Photoshop can misslead your eyes when you do a fake pict like that one, you think you see the same color but it's just not the same.
I'm pretty sure they know it is a fake image since they shopped it themselves. They didn't say they had images of the new mini, they just included that image to help us visualize how the port layout should look.
"An unannounced version of the Mac mini has been spotted with an HDMI connector instead of a DVI."
Back up. Are you telling me that after Apple finally got the Mini DVI to be standard, they are ditching it and going to force new Mac buyers to ditch their existing mini dvi adapters?
"An unannounced version of the Mac mini has been spotted with an HDMI connector instead of a DVI."
they say: has been spotted
they didn't say it's just illustration.
They also didn't state that the image shown was the unit that was spotted. It's irrelevant as is the image as long as the information in the article is true.
I'm kind of tired of hearing about how often they mess with display adapter technology when we're STILL stuck with USB 2.0. I can't stand syncing my iPhone because it takes forever. Where's eSATA?
That's assuming the problem is the data link. I don't think the data link is the limiting factor. The flash chips used in the iPhone aren't very high performance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oomu
the DVI connector is PERFECTLY AND TOTALLY FINE ! DVI _IS_ HDMI (without sound and hdcp crypting and some color space which not concern us, for your purpose : DVI = HDMI !)
It would be nice to have sound in the same cable to be able to drop what should be a superfluous cable. This can be done with DisplayPort though, Apple just needs to support DP audio, as well as offer the audio signaling for HDMI adapter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by libertyforall
SHOW the proof, don't just claim it.
You missed this person's post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by requieminadream
Clearly a fake image, come on guys, check your sources:
Quote:
Originally Posted by paulinskip
HDMI may be coming but teh image is clearly faked, half a second with levels in PS shows that
The article don't say it was a photo of an actual product. The original looks like a rendering anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlituna
You are correct about this. However, for all we know, Apple is leading the drive to create new codecs and compressions to have 1080p files that aren't 6 times the size of a 720.
1080p files aren't necessarily 6 times larger than 720p files, that's just an encoding decision. Check out Apple's Quicktime HD trailers page and compare file sizes there. The same codec would be at worst 2x the data for the same quality, I think it scales up better than that. The raw data rate per frame is only 2x. The main reason that BDs have higher data rate is because they have the room, and that scrimping on data rate to rates comparable to Internet purchases is easily noticable.
What is your argument for not putting a BRD in a Mac Pro or an iMac? Could I not watch a Blu-ray movie on a 27" iMac? You realize this is as big as some folks T.V.'s, with better resolution?
Apple has many reasons and their pushing the blame on other because of tricky licensing isn't the crux of problem, it's just a scape goat that tries to make Apple look like the victum, as any decent company should do.
On one front, they are pushing their convenient streaming option which is why they haven't at elast added AACS support to their OS and then let users deal with BRDs themselves, internally or externally.
On another, they can't compete with companies selling 2" notebooks with tray-loading drives that cost a fraction of what Apple would have to pay. Sure, they could thicken their machines up and use tray-loading BRDs but that isn't going to happen because it wouldn't help their sales as BRDs in notebooks is not the reason people are buying PCs.
Since they aren't support AACS the only use is for data backups. Since BRD+disc costs compared to an external HDD cost and tremendously increased performance even over USB trumps Blu-ray it becomes a moot point. If you are going to go on vacation you're best to copy your discs to disk as it will load faster and play with less drain to the battery.
Apple is also moving to reduce power usage in their machines and reduce the moving parts. The biggest problem here is the oft used ODD taking up 25% of a 13" MB/MBP. That is a lot. I bet Apple removes the IDD before they Blu-ray to their popular notebooks.
again...i did not mention notebooks. I'd like to see a decent apple external drive that has blu-ray and remove the superdrive altogether. The point is: Apple do not support blu-ray in any shape or form. I think they should. Oh...and if they wanted too...they could design it. That's like saying (a few years back)...nobody can make a laptop high performing with a long battery life...under 1" thick!
What is your argument for not putting a brd in a mac pro or an imac? Could i not watch a blu-ray movie on a 27" imac? You realize this is as big as some folks t.v.'s, with better resolution?
It's fine to bash things, but to bash and not offer an alternative solution (to today's problems) is making apple fall behind imho.
I simply don't believe that every manufacturer of technology (sony, panasonic, canon, sanyo, samsung, pioneer, denon, onkyo, dell...the list goes on), can be wrong about blu-ray and hdmi.
Back up. Are you telling me that after Apple finally got the Mini DVI to be standard, they are ditching it and going to force new Mac buyers to ditch their existing mini dvi adapters?
No. It still has the Mini DisplayPort. They just swaped the Mini DVI port for HDMI. The Mini DisplayPort connector remains.
All I can say is Apple had best firmware update the existing Mini DisplayPort Macs to add audio over the port! If not, there will be many angry customers...
Comments
As to HDMI, I just don't care. You can easily convert the existing signal to HDMI with the DVI out that comes bundled with a new Mac. The signals are the same between DVI and HDMI. Just buy a cheap DVI to HDMI and be done with it. About the only benefit is having the audio in the same cable. All Mac's can use a TOSLINK cable to pipe out digital optical audio.
Blu-Ray would be a nice to have for me, but I'm just 'meh' over the whole issue. I only use a BD-Rom to rip titles to my Media PC in any case. I never actually 'watch' BD's on my Mini.
Then why can you get a $700.00 PC with a Blu-ray drive? All Apple does is rip off it's brain dead customers that shell out $1,500 or more for a computer that is no more powerful than a $700.00 PC. And if Apple is having trouble with software it's Apple because quick time is the software.
Thanks troll.
if you are smart you would back-up that 1TB drive so now you have $200.00. with content that is locked into your home or iPod.
You sound like a compendium of microsoft talking points. Think for yourself, ever?
a picture filling the TV-screen which actually is to large leaving the outer limits of the desktop outside viewable area.
You need to change your tv picture size from 16:9 to "Full" or "Screen Fit" so you get 1:1 pixel mapping instead of the slight overscan you get with 16:9.
$2.33 for a 25GB disc. Do the math and the cost is the same. I also cannot ship my hard drive to MANY people with videos of the kids.
Re: Quality: I disagree. It is NOT good enough. It may be for you, but I think there are MANY people who watch Blu-ray on a 1080P HDTV. It is MUCH better than a 720p download from iTunes. To get Blu-ray quality online...be prepared to wait for a day for that download. The speeds and bandwidth are not there yet.
Blu-ray discs are NOT twice the price ($40???). Please get your facts right. There are many that I have bought for $20 (yes, new titles - the same price as the DVD option). At most, you may pay $5 more. I do at my local Walmart. Here is a sample: http://www.walmart.com/browse/Blu-ra...&path=0%3A4096
You could also argue that EVERY technology is transitional, but seriously...are you kidding me? Blu-ray is being adopted faster than DVD ever did. It won the HD-DVD battle as the new standard.
Blu-ray is going to be here and popular for at least the next 5 years. Whilst you may not think that is long, it is a lifetime in technology. If Apple want to "skip" a generation, that's fine; but not with me.
I also find it ironic that Steve Jobs in on the Blu-ray board!
+1, great post.
ironic but not entirely surprising...
$2.33 for a 25GB disc. Do the math and the cost is the same. I also cannot ship my hard drive to MANY people with videos of the kids.
Re: Quality: I disagree. It is NOT good enough. It may be for you, but I think there are MANY people who watch Blu-ray on a 1080P HDTV. It is MUCH better than a 720p download from iTunes. To get Blu-ray quality online...be prepared to wait for a day for that download. The speeds and bandwidth are not there yet.
Blu-ray discs are NOT twice the price ($40???). Please get your facts right. There are many that I have bought for $20 (yes, new titles - the same price as the DVD option). At most, you may pay $5 more. I do at my local Walmart. Here is a sample: http://www.walmart.com/browse/Blu-ra...&path=0%3A4096
You could also argue that EVERY technology is transitional, but seriously...are you kidding me? Blu-ray is being adopted faster than DVD ever did. It won the HD-DVD battle as the new standard.
Blu-ray is going to be here and popular for at least the next 5 years. Whilst you may not think that is long, it is a lifetime in technology. If Apple want to "skip" a generation, that's fine; but not with me.
I also find it ironic that Steve Jobs in on the Blu-ray board!
1) Mixing home theater usage with PC usage is not a valid argument
2) You're not including the price of the player for Blu-ray, which makes cost per GB considerably higher for data storage. You're also not considering non-rewritable discs, slow read and speeds and the power usage, which all effect the rationale for including a BRD in a Mac notebook.
3) On top of that, you haven't shown us a 9.5mm ultra-slim slot-loading drive for sale or any stats that show that people are buying and using BRDS in notebooks. For homes theater it's a great tech, but for notebooks it's far from being ideal.
3) On top of that, you haven't shown us a 9.5mm ultra-slim slot-loading drive for sale or any stats that show that people are buying and using BRDS in notebooks. For homes theater it's a great tech, but for notebooks it's far from being ideal.
Are you still beating that long-deceased horse? Here's a 9.5mm burner. Panasonic was shipping 9.5mm samples two years ago.
2) You're not including the price of the player for Blu-ray, which makes cost per GB considerably higher for data storage. You're also not considering non-rewritable discs, slow read and speeds and the power usage, which all effect the rationale for including a BRD in a Mac notebook.
How are you getting the overpriced, overcompressed 720p Apple movies onto your television without purchasing a player? And by your logic an optical drive of any kind wouldn't exist in any Mac whatsoever.
Are you still beating that long-deceased horse? Here's a 9.5mm burner. Panasonic was shipping 9.5mm samples two years ago.
And as usual you haven't read the comment or understood anything about Apple's product line. Where is the slot in that drive? What part of the slot-laoding tech coming after tray-loading at a higher cost often with slower speeds is hard to comprehend? But thanks for pointing out that even the tray-loading drive is selling on eBay for $500 when people claim that they can buy a whole Blu-ray player at BestBuy for under $100.
I'm pretty sure they know it is a fake image since they shopped it themselves. They didn't say they had images of the new mini, they just included that image to help us visualize how the port layout should look.
I also think it would sit better vertical rather than horizontal.
The MCP89 chipset should give us Geforce 210M graphics:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...M.17638.0.html
Up to twice as fast as the 9400M (yes it will play Crysis - still on low though). HDMI output would be a welcome addition.
Add on some CPU bumps so the entry level is 2.53GHz and this will be a nice Mini upgrade. I'd expect similar for the Macbook.
If actual models have indeed been seen then this update should occur either tomorrow or next week.
1) Mixing home theater usage with PC usage is not a valid argument
I did not think I was. I am pointing out three separate usages.
1) Burning home movies to distribute to family
3) Burning backup data (in my case native AVCHD files - which I don't want to overwrite)
2) Stating the previous poster had his BRD costs wrong for the home theater usage (I have a blu-ray player for this)
For point one...try buying a consumer camcorder that does not use tapes, is HD and avoids AVCHD. With iMovie and FCE you can't edit in the native format. Even Windows 7 Movie maker can!
2) You're not including the price of the player for Blu-ray, which makes cost per GB considerably higher for data storage. You're also not considering non-rewritable discs, slow read and speeds and the power usage, which all effect the rationale for including a BRD in a Mac notebook.
Agreed. I did not specify MBP's (did I?). Also - it takes power (albeit less) to use and burn to the SuperDrive. Still consuming! That's why I would never burn without being "plugged in".
3) On top of that, you haven't shown us a 9.5mm ultra-slim slot-loading drive for sale or any stats that show that people are buying and using BRDS in notebooks. For homes theater it's a great tech, but for notebooks it's far from being ideal.
Again...I did not mention notebooks. I'd like to see a decent Apple external drive that has Blu-ray and remove the SuperDrive altogether. The point is: Apple do not support Blu-ray in any shape or form. I think they should. Oh...and if they wanted too...they could design it. That's like saying (a few years back)...nobody can make a laptop high performing with a long battery life...under 1" thick!
What is your argument for not putting a BRD in a Mac Pro or an iMac? Could I not watch a Blu-ray movie on a 27" iMac? You realize this is as big as some folks T.V.'s, with better resolution?
It's fine to bash things, but to bash and not offer an alternative solution (to today's problems) is making Apple fall behind IMHO.
I simply don't believe that EVERY manufacturer of technology (Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Sanyo, Samsung, Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo, Dell...the list goes on), can be wrong about Blu-ray and HDMI.
SHOW the proof, don't just claim it.
you don't need more proof than watching your LCD screen from different angle, then you can clearly see the darker gray background around tha HDMI input.
It's because different Color profile setups in Photoshop can misslead your eyes when you do a fake pict like that one, you think you see the same color but it's just not the same.
I'm pretty sure they know it is a fake image since they shopped it themselves. They didn't say they had images of the new mini, they just included that image to help us visualize how the port layout should look.
"An unannounced version of the Mac mini has been spotted with an HDMI connector instead of a DVI."
they say: has been spotted
they didn't say it's just illustration.
"An unannounced version of the Mac mini has been spotted with an HDMI connector instead of a DVI."
they say: has been spotted
they didn't say it's just illustration.
They also didn't state that the image shown was the unit that was spotted. It's irrelevant as is the image as long as the information in the article is true.
I'm kind of tired of hearing about how often they mess with display adapter technology when we're STILL stuck with USB 2.0. I can't stand syncing my iPhone because it takes forever. Where's eSATA?
That's assuming the problem is the data link. I don't think the data link is the limiting factor. The flash chips used in the iPhone aren't very high performance.
the DVI connector is PERFECTLY AND TOTALLY FINE ! DVI _IS_ HDMI (without sound and hdcp crypting and some color space which not concern us, for your purpose : DVI = HDMI !)
It would be nice to have sound in the same cable to be able to drop what should be a superfluous cable. This can be done with DisplayPort though, Apple just needs to support DP audio, as well as offer the audio signaling for HDMI adapter.
SHOW the proof, don't just claim it.
You missed this person's post:
Clearly a fake image, come on guys, check your sources:
HDMI may be coming but teh image is clearly faked, half a second with levels in PS shows that
The article don't say it was a photo of an actual product. The original looks like a rendering anyway.
You are correct about this. However, for all we know, Apple is leading the drive to create new codecs and compressions to have 1080p files that aren't 6 times the size of a 720.
1080p files aren't necessarily 6 times larger than 720p files, that's just an encoding decision. Check out Apple's Quicktime HD trailers page and compare file sizes there. The same codec would be at worst 2x the data for the same quality, I think it scales up better than that. The raw data rate per frame is only 2x. The main reason that BDs have higher data rate is because they have the room, and that scrimping on data rate to rates comparable to Internet purchases is easily noticable.
What is your argument for not putting a BRD in a Mac Pro or an iMac? Could I not watch a Blu-ray movie on a 27" iMac? You realize this is as big as some folks T.V.'s, with better resolution?
Apple has many reasons and their pushing the blame on other because of tricky licensing isn't the crux of problem, it's just a scape goat that tries to make Apple look like the victum, as any decent company should do.
On one front, they are pushing their convenient streaming option which is why they haven't at elast added AACS support to their OS and then let users deal with BRDs themselves, internally or externally.
On another, they can't compete with companies selling 2" notebooks with tray-loading drives that cost a fraction of what Apple would have to pay. Sure, they could thicken their machines up and use tray-loading BRDs but that isn't going to happen because it wouldn't help their sales as BRDs in notebooks is not the reason people are buying PCs.
Since they aren't support AACS the only use is for data backups. Since BRD+disc costs compared to an external HDD cost and tremendously increased performance even over USB trumps Blu-ray it becomes a moot point. If you are going to go on vacation you're best to copy your discs to disk as it will load faster and play with less drain to the battery.
Apple is also moving to reduce power usage in their machines and reduce the moving parts. The biggest problem here is the oft used ODD taking up 25% of a 13" MB/MBP. That is a lot. I bet Apple removes the IDD before they Blu-ray to their popular notebooks.
again...i did not mention notebooks. I'd like to see a decent apple external drive that has blu-ray and remove the superdrive altogether. The point is: Apple do not support blu-ray in any shape or form. I think they should. Oh...and if they wanted too...they could design it. That's like saying (a few years back)...nobody can make a laptop high performing with a long battery life...under 1" thick!
What is your argument for not putting a brd in a mac pro or an imac? Could i not watch a blu-ray movie on a 27" imac? You realize this is as big as some folks t.v.'s, with better resolution?
It's fine to bash things, but to bash and not offer an alternative solution (to today's problems) is making apple fall behind imho.
I simply don't believe that every manufacturer of technology (sony, panasonic, canon, sanyo, samsung, pioneer, denon, onkyo, dell...the list goes on), can be wrong about blu-ray and hdmi.
Back up. Are you telling me that after Apple finally got the Mini DVI to be standard, they are ditching it and going to force new Mac buyers to ditch their existing mini dvi adapters?
No. It still has the Mini DisplayPort. They just swaped the Mini DVI port for HDMI. The Mini DisplayPort connector remains.
I bet Apple removes the IDD before they Blu-ray to their popular notebooks.