I am interesting in switching to Plex for the mac mini and I can't find anywhere this question is answered so I figured I would try here first before trying to email Elan.

Does the base 1.8gtz 1gb mac mini have enough power to playback 720p mp4 videos?

Or do I need to get the higher end mini? I dont care about 1080p, just 720p

Any help would be great!

Thanks

I had the first Macbook, 1.83 core duo with 2GB RAM, for a while, and it handled 720p H.264 in either MKV or MP4 just fine.

My 1.6 Core Duo Mini handles handles x.264 .mkv 720p files just fine so you should be good to go.

Thanks, so 1gb of ram should be fine as well, or should I go for 2?

My Mini has 1 GB of RAM.

thanks guys!

I just want to reconfirm what you already know, 720p mkv and mp4 files will play just fine on the mini with 1GB of ram. If you're running Leopard however, adding another gig of ram really helps out general performance. If you're only using the mini to play video files then don't bother, but if you also use it for day to day stuff another gig really helps.

I just want to use it as an htpc.

Can we add ram after market?

Yes you can and it is much cheaper to do so. Search google for other world computing and check out their ram prices. The C2D mini introduced in late 2007 will take a pair of 2GB modules and will use 3.3GB of it (limitation of the chipset). My mini is the 1.83Ghz C2D model and I picked up a single 2GB chip. I now have 2.5GB and it works great. The OWC site has video on how to open up the mini. I have opened mine a couple of times and it really isn't too bad if you're handy.

thanks! no problems there I took all my xboxes apart for xbmc, I just see this an my replacement for my xboxes. It's a sad day, but HD content is calling my name....