This would be the ideal platform for a HTPC with Mediaportal (2 Viewers)

[samedney]

While I dont speak for the dev team at MP, I can tell you that some of the apps we write (commercial) are working fine on Virtual PC on Apple Powerbook's.

Im not sure of their spec, but they are fairly new machines.

Our software is VB6 and VB.Net based though we dont use any Direct X. However, we havent noticed any problems with the .Net framework.

Our apps also use ADO datasources, simple on screen drawing (GDI) and general disk based file access. Its also multi-user client/server.

Virtual PC actually seems very reliable. You basically get a Windows 'Window' (?) sitting on the Mac desktop. Im not sure about hardware detection / compatibiliy and I dont know anything about Mac TV cards.

 

[samedney]

Apparently, Direct X has issues on Virtual PC (understandably).

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824622

 

[luke]

They also make a usb device that spits out digital audio so your 5.1 point is now moot! i want one of these really really bad.

 

[SiLenTYL]

well..ok its a fairly cheap system to purchase..but how many add-ons do u need????
TV card?, 5.1digital audio? keyboard, mouse, monitor...external HDD, floppy drive, more RAM.....the list goes on

if everything is bluetooth or USB external add-ons..then the low price they claim is moot!

 

[MrMario64]

we can always try this one when it's out..

http://www.mini-itx.com/news/nanode/

 

[Anonymous]

"performs poorly" isnt very specific! And they expklicitly refer to games. So MP might run just fine.

Anybody here who has a G4-Mac (not necessarily the Mini) with Virtual PC willing to try out MP on the machine???

At least the other hardware (ATI 9200 graphics card) should in theory be enough for MP.

 

[MrMario64]

Well, I ordered mine.
A nice 1.42Mhz model with a superdrive and 80GB.

I won't be using it for MP but it will be my daily use mac.
wordprocessing,Pictures stuff Movie making etc etc.

Finally a machine I can simply use without all the shit happening with video editting..........
No virus stuff, spyware, service packs messing up my PC, OS re-installs...
Back to the days a computer would simply work....

(I hope....)

 

[bonemachine]

Porting....

But it would be nice with a MP port to OSX since OSX doesn’t really hava an HTPC software. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

MrMario64: You cant tell us that you are buying a Mini and then not test MP on it. Thats torture and against the Geneva conventions ;-)

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssse )

 

[Anonymous]

my 2 cents about the macmini

OSX 10.4 named Tiger which will be released at the end of the first half of this year has some very important updates which make this little box a killer HTproduct for the home.

The reasons are the following.

Tiger has support for the HDDVD standard, h264, core image, core video and core audio. Spotlight a search tool is also build into the core.

but what do this things do exactly?

Core image, audio and video are a technology that allows realtime filtering of your media or your app stread from the videocard and the audiochip. So stuff like saturation, transparency, moving objects, stuff like that are all supported within the core.
The core of OSX is called darwin and is open source. So you can really build in all this great stuff into your app.

a downside is.

The Radeon 9200 was choosen budget wise and because of the heat issue so this card doesn't support Core image or core video, important for me but no real biggie for a HT app. It only disables realtime filtering, the other icandy like moving windows are still supported.

Ladies and gents: This time apple got it right! But the question remains Who will build the first Multi MediaCenter app for this beautiful box.
Because the mini is perfectly noisless, sleek, small, cheap and it has alot of benafits within the core of the OS which is opensource.
In other words the perfect HTproduct.

I while probably get mine when Tiger is released. growww