HDV at MacMini

[agruenebaum]

I did some successful trieouts with my dual G5 2 GHz Mac on a 50" Pioneer Plasma Display. It was great to watch the result as compared to other equipment used so far. : Of course the dual5 (upgraded by ATI X800 graphics) is not suitable for home cinema. For this reason, I was just waiting for an Universal-Binary update of elgato´s EyeTV. Now it`s on the way: I have ordered the macmini core duo and will post further results soon!

Post on eyetv.com:

This version expands support for full-resolution playback of HDTV to Macs with Intel Core Duo processors — a feature previously reserved for owners of high-end dual Power Mac G5 computers. The full 720p and 1080i HDTV experience is now available on portable and consumer desktop Macs such as the MacBook Pro and the new iMac, as well as the Mac mini with Core Duo processors.

[curt]

I think the EyeTV 200 is going to be one of the next purchases I make for my HT setup. What model do you have?
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1.42GHz Mac mini
1.66GHz Intel Mac mini
2.0GHz 2009 Mac mini
46" Sony LCD
50" Sony KDS-50A2000
EyeTV 250 Plus
My Setup

[agruenebaum]

My version is eyetv 610 (cable) with software 2.1 (universal binary). It`s working fine with high quality on my cinema display (23"). Though tests our plasma were quite promising, I would wish to crossgrade to HDV-sat TV such as German pay TV provider "Premiere" offers since a few monthes. However, there is no hardware solution around for the Mac in Germany so far

[agruenebaum]

After some trouble, upgrading the Mac Mini to 1 GB RAM (as posted), the Mac works fine. The downsides are:

Using overscan mode, the Apple Menue Bar is not visible anymore which makes operating MacOS X and applications such as eyeTV difficult.

Disabling overscan results in using only about 75% of the 50" Plasma

Problems with bluetooth: There may be an interference with large Plasma displays. My keyboard or mouse (either bluetooth or radio) did only work about 5 feet from the Mac Mini. This is also true when testing the G5 - though not a Mac Mini problem, this should be treated as an issue. I have solved the problem by using a infrared keyboard from Acer (I was always wondering why they shipped that infrared keyboard with their Windows Media Center Editon PC).

Problems with airport: Maybe related to the problems with bluetooth. I have solved the problem by installing an extra airport express station as relay station. Next I will install a Gigabit Ethernet connection after renovating our house next month.

Upsides:

Lots of power per Watts

Mac OS X looks and feels real fast

All multimedia applications work very well including eyeTV which shows comparable performance as experienced on a G5 2x2 GHz.

absolutely low noise!

[picaman]

[agruenebaum]

DisplayConfigX is not recommended on LCD/flat TV screens. I installed it anyway to figure out if it may help -nop

[jeremyh]

What's the reason that DisplayConfigX isn't recommended for LCD/Flat screens? I used it to configure my CoreDuo for 1366x768. Seemed to work OK...
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-Jh

[picaman]

[ShaneHale]

Here's what DisplayConfigX has to say regarding LCD's.

http://www.3dexpress.de/#LCD

[jeremyh]

That makes sense only if your LCD/Flat Panel uses an digital (DVI/HDMI) connection and your Mac picks up the native resolution #'s from it. For me, I use an RGB (actually VGA) connection so the mini didn't know what was the proper res to display and, as a result, I had to use DisplayConfigX to get the right resolution.
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-Jh