How much memory for hd movies

[MoL]

Hi everyone
I have a 2Ghz mini with only 1GB of memory. For divx movies and ripped dvds, no problem. But for mkv movies, it's sometimes (most of the times ?) too slow. And i think i will add, one day, an elgato tv receiver ...
How much memory should i add in it ? the most i can ? will it be then possible to watch to mkv without any problem ? (i don't want to pay extra memory and still have problems with mkv files)
I use vlc to read mkv files, frontrow for others ... (frontrow much slower than vlc with mkv)
Tks for your help
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Sorry for my english, i'm french
(yes, like the ones who eat snails and frog legs ^^)

[khisayruou]

I always put in as much ram as I can afford. VLC and frontrow arent the best to playback mkv at 1080p. Give plex/xbmc/boxee a shot and see if it runs it smoother.

I have a 1.8 c2d mini w/ 2gb ram, plex plays mine without problems

[MoL]

More details about the mini : i bought it in April 2009 : C2D 2GHz, 1Go DDR3, Geforce9400 128Mo.
I've just noticed that it's only MacOsX 10.5.6 and not 10.5.8 on my other computers ...

So 'ill first try with Plex/Xbmc/Boxee, and then add memory if needed ... my pb with Plex is that it can't read the dvds i've ripped in video_ts format, frontrow is the only one which detects these ripped dvds as a dvd and not as some files.

I'll come back when the test is done (maybe this evening)

Tks

Edit > another idea : i suppose that it won't change anything for hd playback, if i change the harddrive by a quicker one (or a small ssd) ? it will only increase boot speed ... ?
_________________
Sorry for my english, i'm french
(yes, like the ones who eat snails and frog legs ^^)

[philiparcario]

you have to upgrade your ram does 1GO mean 1GB? even the bare minimum of a second 1gb stick will help. your graphics card will go from 128Mo to 256Mo.
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2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station

[MoL]

Go is the french version of GB (and not Gb ...). So i let you imagine how french people have difficulties to understand theses Go/GB/Gb when they're not really interested in computing science

If i put 4GB in my mini, it will still have 256MB of graphic memory or 512 ?
_________________
Sorry for my english, i'm french
(yes, like the ones who eat snails and frog legs ^^)

[Tilpots]

[MoL]

Ok, but i think 256MB is enough ... so no pb

I'll try to open my mini this evening ... need some tools ...
_________________
Sorry for my english, i'm french
(yes, like the ones who eat snails and frog legs ^^)

[Smithcraft]

Plex does play Video_TS folders. You have to take one or two extra steps to play them. I did it once, and found it too annoying to have to deal with the menus.

Or you could just use MakeMKV to rip the features out of the DVD. It doesn't transcode so it only takes as long to make the file as it does to copy the data from the V_TS into the MKV container.

SC
_________________
Grumpy old man of computing.

[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8

[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)

Make sure it has pins!

[Jades Dark Heart]

[MoL]

The advantage of making video_ts ripp is to keep dvd structure with menus ... whereas mkv is a container like avi, so maybe without any menu, only multi language ?

Why i want to keep dvd structure ? because i ripp only my music dvds: so they contain some live sessions, and many other things, sometimes pictures too, etc ... so i don't want to keep only the main movie.
_________________
Sorry for my english, i'm french
(yes, like the ones who eat snails and frog legs ^^)

[Smithcraft]

[Jades Dark Heart]

[MoL]

I've tested Xbmc and Plex on my mini : mkv files are faster than before, but not yet perfect.

I read my mkv files from an external hard drive which is 5400rpm in usb2, so not noisy ... but slower than a 7200rpm hard drive. So maybe mkv playing would be better from my drobo, in firewire ... (it contains 7200rpm drives). Or would the difference be really small compared to the 5400rpm usb2 drive, for mkv big files ?
_________________
Sorry for my english, i'm french
(yes, like the ones who eat snails and frog legs ^^)