I know there are lots of Mini fans here promoting the versatility of Mini as
HTPC. After all, you get a full-fledged mac OSX computer in addition to a home theater.

However, after the ATV2 upgrade, I'm wondering if any of you have changed your minds. Has anyone decided the the simplicity of ATV is just better design for movie watching? Keeping computing for your real mac computers?

What would you do if you had to start over again?

yes - I made that decision recently. But oddly, the kicker for me was the excellent quality of HD downloads and the surprisingly good Handbrake conversion results.

For those that need direct file access (like video ts) and want web browsing etc. on the TV, the mini would still be the way to go. I'm sure I am a minority case...

ken

Not here. The mini is already attached to the TV. If I get the AppleTV I still have to have something with all my media on it. For me, an AppleTV would just be another single point of failure in a long chain from computer to TV.

I'm leaning toward adding an ATV for HD rentals, but I still need something for transport stream playback and editing and/or conversion to AVC/DD51. The lack of transport stream playback is a major holdup with regards to my adoption of ATV.

Per rumors, we may finally see a Penryn chip based mini that can handle all current HD media. Albeit, still minus a single app that can play them all.

I ended up getting an apple TV, It works great with the hdtv, no trying to get the mini to match up the resolution and mess with the overscan, it just works. I moved my mini to the office it is really more of a media server and an extra computer in the office. I stream my dvds through the apple tv and they look great encoded with handbrake, I get 5.1 surround sound with the default settings in handbrake.

Yep. I changed from mini to Apple TV. I find it more consistent than the mini. In particular the fact that you can't back out by pressing the back button once too often which happened a lot with the mini. I've been busy encoding stuff with handbrake and visual hub and so far the results have been excellent.

paul - have you observed any significant differences between handbrake and vhub encodes? quality or otherwise?

ken

I went from using my Macbook to an Apple TV. DVD to mp4 w/ac3 works great using Handbrake. For files like MKV I have been using VisualHub with good results.

I like the following things:
1. Frees up my Macbook for other uses
2. No more messing around with getting plugins to work
3. Love the front end of the AppleTV
4. The rentals work great and the HD quality is awesome imo
5. Small footprint and quiet operation
6. Streaming from my iMac with (2) 500GB external drives in concatenated "raid" mode works great.
7. I like the centralized file management and the compatibility with Handbrake, VisualHub, and MetaX.

What I miss:
1. I hate having to convert MKV files to get them to play. VisualHub works fine, but it is an added step in the process

paul - have you observed any significant differences between handbrake and vhub encodes? quality or otherwise?

ken

Ken

I can't say that I have, but the source quality of the material varies a lot.

I use Handbrake to convert DVD's, using the AppleTV preset and including DD5.1 soundtrack. Typically I leave the bit rate at the preset (2,500 kbps I think) although for Music DVD's I tend to use 1,500 kbps.

I use Visual Hub if the file has already been encoded in a different format. It is these files where the source quality can vary a lot.

The best example I have is Dexter series 2 encoded at 720p H.264 in the mkv container. I used Visual Hub Apple TV preset (not the new 5.1 version as the source didn't have DD5.1 on it) to convert and kept the bit rate at the same as the source (3,000 kbps).

The results were pretty good. Certainly, I was was very happy with it.

I am displaying on a 50" Pioneer 506XDE which is a 720p/1080i panel connected over component at 720p.

My main complaint about Visual Hub is that it takes forever to encode. But I guess that's more to do with my impatience.

But I guess that's more to do with my impatience.

I hear ya on that one !
- thanks much for the feedback

ken