First Intel Mac mini Media Portal?

prophetx2 · 2006-03-30, 12:43

Being a big fan of XBMC, I tried out mediaportal on my PC. After playing with it a bit I decided to roll with it for my upcoming move to the new apartment. When it came time to choose a HTPC, the mini came to my head as I'm an apple fan and I wanted something in the quiet ITX form factor realm but, with enough power to process 720p videos.

After a lot of fiddling around with the mini, I now have it perfectly running MediaPortal as well as all the drivers. Thanks for such a great project! I was able to watcha full DVD as well as my fansubbed anime (vobsub works great with OGGS btw). Everything looked crystal clear on my 2405 dell. Now I'm waiting to run it on the Syntax lt42hvi tv I have all boxed up in the basement until the move -=)

I'm still waiting for an hdmi-dvi adapter, my mce remote control, and basicaly my move in May before it's truely all setup. But it's nice to have a fanless, quiet HTPC in a very tiny form factor. If anyone has questions let me know, I just wanted to let you guys know it can be done!

onkl · 2006-03-30, 15:46

Please be as kind as to please our eyes with some pictures :wink:

kamrat · 2006-03-30, 16:14

Maybe I'm stupid but how did you manage to run a Windows XP program like MP on a Mac? Windows XP emulation?

Smirnuff · 2006-03-30, 16:16

I'm confused by the Mac reference too

prophetx2 · 2006-03-30, 16:25

It looks like a lot of people are uninformed.

There was a huge contest, $13k USD prize, held about two months ago to get Windows XP running on the new Intel Macs. The prize was claimed about a month ago and since then the intel mac minis are the first to have all the drivers working near flawlessly. There's obviously issues but, for the most part things work.

The project is still continuing as there are more issues to be dealt with. Heres the link http://onmac.net

If anyone has further questions please let me know.

archaos · 2006-03-30, 16:28

Perhaps you don't know it but now it's possible to install windows xp on the new mac mini, macbook pro and imac !! Because they all have intel inside.

seeya ++

kamrat · 2006-03-30, 16:30

Oh - that's really interesting. I thought there was an issue with the bios being different but it seems like this was not such a big problem after all.

prophetx2 · 2006-03-30, 17:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamrat

Oh - that's really interesting. I thought there was an issue with the bios being different but it seems like this was not such a big problem after all.

that was the major hurdle. the new macs don't use a bios, they use something called EFI. XP doesn't support anything other than a BIOS.
It's really interesting stuff.

Anyways, for the money, I don't thikn there's currently anything out that's as good as a mac mini for the form factor, include dvi, have enough juice to play 720p, and dead silent. It's an awesome system..hope more will jump in the fun =)

Raven · 2006-03-30, 17:28

This is great news to me! I hadn't heard about this before.
Please tell us about your experience with mp on the mac mini.
Is there full support for the graphics adapter? How's the speed of loading, menus, video playback etc? Do you have a tv tuner connected? I use the FireDTV and would love to be able to connect this to the mac mini. Do you know if daemon tools work?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

GitsLM · 2006-03-30, 17:46

Please be all advised that there is still the issue that the Windows XP does not have drivers for the CPU fan and therfore a overheating of the CPU might be possible. Try to find a constant power source for the fan and the issue is solved but the mini will then be significant louder. Anyway just wanted to let you know befor some people have fried CPUs :shock:

2006-03-30, 12:43	#1 (permalink)
prophetx2 Portal Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 16 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	First Intel Mac mini Media Portal? Being a big fan of XBMC, I tried out mediaportal on my PC. After playing with it a bit I decided to roll with it for my upcoming move to the new apartment. When it came time to choose a HTPC, the mini came to my head as I'm an apple fan and I wanted something in the quiet ITX form factor realm but, with enough power to process 720p videos. After a lot of fiddling around with the mini, I now have it perfectly running MediaPortal as well as all the drivers. Thanks for such a great project! I was able to watcha full DVD as well as my fansubbed anime (vobsub works great with OGGS btw). Everything looked crystal clear on my 2405 dell. Now I'm waiting to run it on the Syntax lt42hvi tv I have all boxed up in the basement until the move -=) I'm still waiting for an hdmi-dvi adapter, my mce remote control, and basicaly my move in May before it's truely all setup. But it's nice to have a fanless, quiet HTPC in a very tiny form factor. If anyone has questions let me know, I just wanted to let you guys know it can be done!

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2006-03-30, 15:46	#2 (permalink)
onkl Portal Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Wageningen Age: 32 Posts: 340 Thanks: 5 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	Please be as kind as to please our eyes with some pictures :wink:

2006-03-30, 16:14	#3 (permalink)
kamrat Portal Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 147 Thanks: 5 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Maybe I'm stupid but how did you manage to run a Windows XP program like MP on a Mac? Windows XP emulation?

2006-03-30, 16:16	#4 (permalink)
Smirnuff Portal Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 630 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 1 Post My System	I'm confused by the Mac reference too

2006-03-30, 16:25	#5 (permalink)
prophetx2 Portal Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 16 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	It looks like a lot of people are uninformed. There was a huge contest, $13k USD prize, held about two months ago to get Windows XP running on the new Intel Macs. The prize was claimed about a month ago and since then the intel mac minis are the first to have all the drivers working near flawlessly. There's obviously issues but, for the most part things work. The project is still continuing as there are more issues to be dealt with. Heres the link http://onmac.net If anyone has further questions please let me know.

2006-03-30, 16:28	#6 (permalink)
archaos Portal Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 25 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Perhaps you don't know it but now it's possible to install windows xp on the new mac mini, macbook pro and imac !! Because they all have intel inside. seeya ++

2006-03-30, 16:30	#7 (permalink)
kamrat Portal Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 147 Thanks: 5 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Oh - that's really interesting. I thought there was an issue with the bios being different but it seems like this was not such a big problem after all.

2006-03-30, 17:28	#9 (permalink)
Raven Retired Team Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Stockholm Posts: 124 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	This is great news to me! I hadn't heard about this before. Please tell us about your experience with mp on the mac mini. Is there full support for the graphics adapter? How's the speed of loading, menus, video playback etc? Do you have a tv tuner connected? I use the FireDTV and would love to be able to connect this to the mac mini. Do you know if daemon tools work? Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

2006-03-30, 17:46	#10 (permalink)
GitsLM Portal Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Germany / USA Posts: 31 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Please be all advised that there is still the issue that the Windows XP does not have drivers for the CPU fan and therfore a overheating of the CPU might be possible. Try to find a constant power source for the fan and the issue is solved but the mini will then be significant louder. Anyway just wanted to let you know befor some people have fried CPUs :shock: