I just acquired a Power Mac G4 MDD with dual 1Ghz processors, 80GB drive and super drive for $60. The owner said it wouldn't boot, after a bit of trouble shooting it turned out he just had the wrong kinda of RAM in it.

I bought it with the intent of selling it but now that I have it up and running the idea of using it has my media center PC has me thinking I'll just keep it. In my home theater setup I am able to keep this loud machine in a separate room with cables run to a InFocus SP4805 (480p) projector and receiver for video and audio. I know that it can play DVDs just fine but I didn't think to play 720 mp4/mkv files.

So my questions are:
Will it play 720p content?
Will it output surround on the line out port? My receiver is Dolby Pro Logic II only and I've always had success with it when using my XP laptop or Linux server for playing movies.
Other than VLC, DVD Player and Frontrow, what other PPC (non intel) media center apps are available?

The system is running Leopard, if that helps.:)

EDIT: Some other specs...
I added a USB 2.0 card and I hope to later add in a EyeTV USB tuner and software. We get all of our TV OTA and after searching a bit I understand the the G4 just can't display full OTA HD and will bring to 1/4 res. This is perfectly fine for me since my PJ is only 480p anyway.

I have a single G4 800 MHz (iMac) with 512mb RAM, and it can play 720p content fine in VLC. 1080p is hit or miss.

Hi.

Will it output surround on the line out port? My receiver is Dolby Pro Logic II only and I've always had success with it when using my XP laptop or Linux server for playing movies.

Only Intel Mac have digital audio out.

Other than VLC, DVD Player and Frontrow, what other PPC (non intel) media center apps are available?
MediaCentral, but It's shareware.

Hi.


Only Intel Mac have digital audio out.



That is just fine for me since my receiver doesn't have digital or optical anything. My receiver just has normal analog RCA inputs for cd, TV/DVB, video, tape and 5.1 input. It is only capable of Pro Logic II decoding so it takes the stereo signal coming in and decodes the surround info from that.

Hi.
Only Intel Mac have digital audio out.


Simply not true. My G5 tower has digital audio out, and sends a very nice surround signal to my amp.

I'm sure there is some other mac software, but you might be able to find MythTV for PowerPC. I'd recommend Mythbuntu, but I believe it only runs on Intel and AMD. I have the latest build and it's been quite good and very stable.

I'm actually trying to avoid Myth because that is what I have already and I'm really disliking it.

Hi.


Only Intel Mac have digital audio out.


MediaCentral, but It's shareware.

pretty sure you can buy a card and/or outboard unit to export digital audio... I have one but it's been so long since I used my dual 1GHz, I don't remember what mfr it is...

I used to have a PowerMac G4 MDD (1.25Ghz dual) that I hooked up to my surround sound system and also a big screen TV using a DVI to HDMI adapter (secondary monitor though). Worked pretty well but it was loud and could not do 1080p. I could do 720p pretty easily. Also, I had the eyeTV Hybrid hooked up to it using a USB 2.0 card. I sold it about a year ago and got myself a 24" iMac.

...My G5 tower has digital audio out, and sends a very nice surround signal to my amp.
Yes, but this is a G4, and mine only has a "headphone jack" for stereo audio out. You may be able to add some PCI cards that will allow surround sound, but right now, I forget the company that does this. A Google search may work for the answer though. I'm about to upgrade from my present G4 tower, and this intrigues me, knowing that my present system has no "market value"...$60??? Hell, that's a Big Mac meal supersized!

I just acquired a Power Mac G4 MDD with dual 1Ghz processors, 80GB drive and super drive for $60.

you got a great deal, there's a lot of life left in that--market value for that machine is probably $300-400 on Craigslist. I have two MDDs up and running in my house, a dual 1.25 FW800 MDD and a single 1GHz FW800 MDD, both store and serve up content over gigabit, only one of them is connected to a display, a bedroom 32" HDTV. Which video card is in your model?

And as you've correctly identified, no digital audio out and no USB 2, otherwise these were great performers and values.

My recommendation, put a faster, better drive in there as your boot drive and max the RAM to 2GB.

I added a USB 2.0 card and I hope to later add in a EyeTV USB tuner and software. We get all of our TV OTA and after searching a bit I understand the the G4 just can't display full OTA HD and will bring to 1/4 res.

Even at 1/4 res, OTA HD recorded by EyeTV looks great.

As far as adding a USB2 card to be able to plug in an EyeTV tuner, like a Hybrid or 250+, yes that could work--how successful you'll be will depend on the card. I have a 250+ plugged into a USB2 PCI card in one of my MDDs, the thing is, these models have notorious wake/sleep issues with USB2 cards--you may have to leave the MDD on 24/7, and not allow it sleep, if you want the 250+ to record reliably. After testing every card Microcenter stocked, that was the best compromise I was able to achieve with the 250+--so I leave that one on as a server and the 250+ has performed perfectly. I also have an EyeTV 500 plugged in over firewire, and the two work well together.

And yes, like grubavs suggested, you'd have no trouble getting digital AC-3 out with any number of M-Audio devices, over USB or firewire, if you ever upgrade your AVR.

Only Intel Mac have digital audio out.

Simply not true. My G5 tower has digital audio out

That's correct, plus the late model G5 iMac also had built-in digital out.

I have a single G4 800 MHz (iMac) with 512mb RAM, and it can play 720p content fine in VLC

I use VLC all the time with several weakass but still lovable G4 Macs, like your 800MHz, and I have a hard time believing this. What 720p content are you talking about--torrents that have been transcoded and very compressed? Maybe, but no way with anything that's high bit rate and no way with 720p EyeTV recordings (MPEG-2.)

I do agree, though, that the OP's dual MDD can handle the usual 720p torrent suspects...

But, mym6, almost immediately you'll face a transition, where you'll have to ask if spending more money to ever-so-slightly modernize a very old machine is worth it, and that transition might come sooner than you think. It might be better to start thinking about re-purposing the MDD over to server, torrent and storage duty, keep it out of sight and audible range as the back end so to speak, recording your EyeTV HD, draw content from it over gigabit and fill up those 6 drive bays inside. Then get the cheapest Intel C2D Mac you can afford to handle playback, because you'll probably upgrade to a high def projector or display one day. If you're like me at all you'll very quickly get tired settling for SD, even if it's very good SD downrezzeded from an HD source.

Other factors--you'll be missing out on Front Row, Leopard's Apple dvd player.app on that MDD won't do the best job it's capable of doing since that requires at least a single 1.5GHz CPU, you also should really think about a more modern AVR with optical and coax digital audio inputs so you can have true DTS and DD 5.1 surround--the sound accompanying DVD and HD can be as appreciated and immersive--and for what you'd pay for an M-Audio interface (to get digital passthrough for that MDD) you could pick up an excellent used AVR from 4-5 years ago. It won't have HDMI switching, but who cares--it will improve your sound tremendously from that pretend ProLogicII. Get one with analog inputs--meant to connect a SACD or DVD-A player to--and you just might be able to connect your first Blu-ray player to it as well!

Then get the cheapest Intel C2D Mac you can afford to handle playback

mym6, I just read on another thread that you already have an Intel mini--what's that connected to versus the MDD and projector you're inquiring about here?

--snip-- It might be better to start thinking about re-purposing the MDD over to server, torrent and storage duty, keep it out of sight and audible range as the back end so to speak, recording your EyeTV HD, draw content from it over gigabit and fill up those 6 drive bays inside. --snip--

Slightly :eek: off-topic, but if a wired gigabit isn't in the cards (e.g., wife won't let me poke holes into the walls, nor am I allowed to run wires all over the house ;)) would connecting my dual 1GHz via an Airport Express n (I assume ethernet out of Mac to the Express... although the ethernet on that dual is 100, not 1000... at least I think it is :() on an n network give enough throughput to allow it to be my multi-HD storage unit?

although the ethernet on that dual is 100, not 1000... at least I think it is

I'm pretty sure the Quicksilvers had gigabit...and what's nice about that dual 1GHz model is it takes big drives. And yes, I'd think hard wired to an Airport Express could work for you, so, too, an n wireless USB adaptor or even those Netgear Powerline units that jerryny wrote about a while ago.

Yes, I got a fantastic deal on the machine and I might even get ram for free from a buddy.

I have a mac mini hooked up to a 22" gateway monitor that I use as my primary computer for doing internet tasks as well as web devel. I do tinker around on it quite a bit so I've played with Plex/XBMC and Linux on it. Right now I want to keep it right where it is.

I'm out of town for the weekend but when I get back I'm going to spend a bit more time with the machine and decide if I want to keep it. I knew the machine was worth more when I saw it on craigslist so I jumped right on it. Like I said, once I got it home and running so good a lot of ideas started rushing in on how I could put it to use.

Thanks for the input guys!

I've got one question...

Are you running Mac OS 9 or OS X 10.2/10.3/10.4/10.5?

As M-Audio has the Revolution 7.1 that compatible with Apple's Core Audio for Mac OS 9.2.2 and 10.2.6 to 10.4.6 (but not 10.3.9 according to their website (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Revolution71-main.html)).

And as for you video card, your might check out this old posting (http://lists.apple.com/archives/QuickTime-Users/2004/Oct/msg00109.html) that I found Googling.

So, you might consider upgrading your video card, RAM, and hard disks to higher performance for 720p and 1080i.

Nice

I might even get ram for free from a buddy

or look on Craigslist, lots of older RAM shows up there, very cheap.

So, you might consider upgrading your video card, RAM, and hard disks to higher performance for 720p and 1080i.

That's a good idea for many reasons...but he could do ALL that and still won't be able to handle playback of 720p and 1080i high def programming from an EyeTV tuner...a dual 2.0 G5 PowerMac couldn't, let alone a dual 1.0 G4...

Not to mention I currently don't even need true HD. The point for me is to display content on a 480p projector. I understand where many of you are coming from with the upgrades but that just isn't going to happen with it. I was curious what I could do with what I have.

Simply not true. My G5 tower has digital audio out, and sends a very nice surround signal to my amp.
It's true. I was wrong.

dp

Well I played with machine a bit last night on the PJ. The G4 realizes it is connected to an InFocus SP4805 and knows that 848x480 is a resolution but when set to that resolution the PJ says it is receiving 640x480. So I set it to 800x600 and played a movie anyway. I found the image to be a bit soft, as if it was out of focus slightly. There was a lack of detail. I also thought the image just looked wrong with weird contrast and lack of color. Of course, I am using a VGA connection right now since that is what was run to the PJ. I could test with DVI to see how much better it gets.

I also found that it had a real hard time keeping up with h.264 encoded content. A movie encoded in h.264 wouldn't play at all and a downloaded TV show barely worked, but the sound was out of sync and would eventually just go away all together.

Earlier you said you're running Leopard--with how much RAM? and which graphics card?

Of course, I am using a VGA connection right now since that is what was run to the PJ.

does that projector have a VGA input?

I also found that it had a real hard time keeping up with h.264 encoded content

what content?

A movie encoded in h.264 wouldn't play at all

which movie? source?

and a downloaded TV show barely worked

which TV show? downloaded from where?

What are you using for playback--VLC? Something else?

Yes, the SP4805 has a m1 port which will take DVI and VGA using the appropriate adapter. Right now the system has Leopard but only 768 RAM and I am playing the files over a gigabit based network. Watching iStat Menus it appears I am CPU bound when playing h.264 content.

The h.264 file was Transformers converted from DVD using handbrake's 264 preset. The TV show is probably xvid downloaded from a standard torrent site. It comes in at 350MB and is from and HD source. I played both files using Quicktime (perian is installed) and VLC. Neither was able to play either file very well. We had just come back from out of town and I didn't get a chance to try many other files. And to be honest, I don't have a lot of encoded files to test anyway as I prefer to rip to VIDEO_TS/VOB files.

Well, I connected my Quicksilver to the new Express-n, copied LoTR vol1 video_ts to it, put an alias of that copy into my mini's movies folder, cranked up Front Row, et voilà! I love technology! Now I need to add some BIG drives to the G4, and a SATA PCI card.

Let me know where you find your SATA card and what the price is.

I did some searching on the EyeTV and there seem to be some disgruntled users out there that aren't entirely happy with the software and also mention that the hybrid is actually a Hauppauge product.

Anyway, I've ruled out the Turbo.264 and I'm wondering if I should go with the Hybrid tuner or the HDHomerun. The advantage with the HDHomerun is the dual tuners and it is network based. It would also work with Windows, two licenses for Mac computers and rumor has it it even streams TV via WiFi. Huge bonus.

Plenty of threads here on EyeTV...

I've ruled out the Turbo.264

That product ONLY comes into play after you've recorded something and want to transcode to another format, say for an iPod or aTV. Presumably, if you're recording ATSC and watching in on your Gateway LCD and projector, you'll have no need for it.

there seem to be some disgruntled users out there that aren't entirely happy with the software

No one is entirely happy with any software, anywhere. EyeTV is excellent, for what it is, and yes, there are still a few kinks to be ironed out. Most long time Mac users are happy with the current version, though, especially since PyeTV puts EyeTV back "inside" Front Row.

and also mention that the hybrid is actually a Hauppauge product

it's a cheap USB stick, who cares who makes it? how it performs for the price is what matters.

I'm wondering if I should go with the Hybrid tuner or the HDHomerun. The advantage with the HDHomerun is the dual tuners and it is network based...two licenses for Mac computers and rumor has it it even streams TV via WiFi.

I think you've pretty accurately assessed this. If you have cable and would like to record NTSC (while it's still around) in addition to ATSC/QAM, you'll need a Hybrid or 250+ (And as I mentioned earlier, using a USB tuner with an MDD can sometimes be problematic.)

Well, I connected my Quicksilver to the new Express-n, copied LoTR vol1 video_ts to it, put an alias of that copy into my mini's movies folder, cranked up Front Row, et voilà! I love technology!

it's really nice when things work out, isn't it?

Well, I connected my Quicksilver to the new Express-n, copied LoTR vol1 video_ts to it, put an alias of that copy into my mini's movies folder, cranked up Front Row, et voilà! I love technology! Now I need to add some BIG drives to the G4, and a SATA PCI card.

--snip--
it's really nice when things work out, isn't it?

It surely is! There's nothing more frustrating than plugging in a simple electrical device and have it hiccup. Here I am plugging in very complex electrical devices (with simple interfaces) and it works from the get-go! I just wish I had had this ability before I spent some of my wife's hard-earned money on a couple external drive enclosures to match my mini. They're going to be moved immediately (too noisy, slow, etc).

BTW: DTS & DD come through, too.

Let me know where you find your SATA card and what the price is.

I'm probably going to try the FirmTek SeriTek/1V4 PCI-X to SATA Controller - 4 Port Internal at OWC (https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Firmtek/SATA1V4/). Only concern is it might not be compatible with the drives I'm scoping out: HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000 HDS721075KLA330 (0A35154) 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive... although they were $89 after rebate at Newegg yesterday and today they're $109 :mad:, so maybe I'll keep looking for drives...

The newer drives will usually have a jumper to set them into 1.5 mode (the older mode) and should still work with that card.

The newer drives will usually have a jumper to set them into 1.5 mode (the older mode) and should still work with that card.

Ahhh. It takes me a while, but I usually get it finally when it's spelled-out for me:o That's why the card is a bit cheaper (than say, the Sonnet Tempo). The Sonnet is listed as 3 Gb/s so I assume it would not require any drive modification to work. Unfortunately, the Sonnet is not bootable... as far as I can tell. Anyway, thanks for the info.

And just in case I still do not get it... will using that card and the Hitachi drives set to 1.5 mode get me the data transfer rates I'd need to do HD TV storage/retrieval from cable (say, EYE TV)? In fact, would Parallel ATA (IDE) drives be able to do that transfer rate? I already have a four-socket IDE/PATA PCI card for my G4.

it's not a jumper issue with those particular drives, it has to do with SSC being enabled on those early Hitachi drives and conflicting with that Firmtek/Seritek card. read the OWC FAQ you linked to about it...and an old PATA drive over dog slow USB 2 can handle high def from EyeTV, so you won't have any trouble with any SATA drive connected to that PCI card.

I recommend you go with a card that is bootable.

it's not a jumper issue with those particular drives, it has to do with SSC being enabled on those early Hitachi drives and conflicting with that Firmtek/Seritek card. read the OWC FAQ you linked to about it...and an old PATA drive over dog slow USB 2 can handle high def from EyeTV, so you won't have any trouble with any SATA drive connected to that PCI card.

I recommend you go with a card that is bootable.

Thanks chefklc (btw: my mind still reads your handle as cheflck... sheesh!). I read the disclaimer, but then OWC goes on to say that all the Hitachi drives they offer "comply with this SSC specification", which could mean they work, but also could mean they don't. So I will call them before I buy to be sure of their definition of compliance... I'm still looking at other drive mfrs because of the price change, and no others will have a problem. I do plan to get that card, though.

A last (hopefully :o) question... should I just stick with PATA? As I said , I have an Ultra ATA-133, 4-input PCI card. I also have IDE drives of 80GB, 160GB, 400GB, & 500GB that I could run off it (actually, as you said a while back, I could just run them on the Quicksilver's bus... but it's only a 66 Mb/s I believe). My plan was to go with SATA for upgrading the total storage ability (since the 500GB is already full) and they are newer/cheaper.

if you're buying new SATA Hitachi drives from OWC that means you should be safe...if you already have some Hitachi SATA drives, those are the ones you want to check...

I think you can go either way with a card and drives--especially since you already have a fast PCI card for PATA drives. Some folks have a bunch of decent sized PATA drives and specifically hold on to a G4 tower in order to fill it up with them and serve content...my two MDDs don't have any SATA drives inside them yet, and I'm actually looking at SATA and eSATA PCI cards at the moment as well. I've been accumulating SATA drives for a while, so far they're in external enclosures and on hot-swappable trays, and I'm just looking ahead a bit. This is your opportunity, as well. As usual it will come down to budget, the kind of performance you need, what kind of scalability and flexibility you want to have, etc.

But those PATA drives, inside your Quicksilver, on its internal bus or that PCI card, accessed over gigabit/n wireless will probably be plenty fast for movies and high def EyeTV recordings...

if you're buying new SATA Hitachi drives from OWC that means you should be safe...if you already have some Hitachi SATA drives, those are the ones you want to check...

I think you can go either way with a card and drives--especially since you already have a fast PCI card for PATA drives. Some folks have a bunch of decent sized PATA drives and specifically hold on to a G4 tower in order to fill it up with them and serve content...my two MDDs don't have any SATA drives inside them yet, and I'm actually looking at SATA and eSATA PCI cards at the moment as well. I've been accumulating SATA drives for a while, so far they're in external enclosures and on hot-swappable trays, and I'm just looking ahead a bit. This is your opportunity, as well. As usual it will come down to budget, the kind of performance you need, what kind of scalability and flexibility you want to have, etc.

But those PATA drives, inside your Quicksilver, on its internal bus or that PCI card, accessed over gigabit/n wireless will probably be plenty fast for movies and high def EyeTV recordings...

Thanks again!!! Decisions, decisions....

Last night I ordered up the HD Homerun and EyeTV. I picked the HD Homerun because it was dual tuner, network based and would work with DVR software on any platform. I use a mix of Linux, Windows and Mac at home and I really liked that I could use any of them at anytime.

There are a couple of other things I think I'll need at this point. I need a way to get my MDD hooked up to an older TV using either composite or coax. I know that converter boxes exist but for the price it might make more sense to find a compatible video card with svideo/composite out, if one exists for the MDD. I'll also need an IR box/software but I am already looking at the mira from twistedmelon.

EDIT: If OS X supports NVidia cards, will any old NVidia AGP card work?

I need a way to get my MDD hooked up to an older TV using either composite or coax.

good luck, mym6, the last time I tried to connect a Mac to a TV with composite or S-Video was in 2001 with a G3 iBook...if no one chimes in here, another place for you to check is the official Apple discussion forum for MDDs. I've learned a lot there about my MDDs over the years, and it's surprisingly active (which probably shouldn't come as a surprise since these machines are still so functional.)

http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=114

Thanks for the link, I found this and I might give it a shot.

http://www.ramelectronics.net/audiovideo/htpc-media-pc-mac/pc-mac-tv-connectivity/gez-1000/prodGEZ1000.html

Just a follow up. I'm finding that the MDD just can't quite handle OTA HDTV. It is showing probably less than 20fps. I'm also finding that the storage requirements are incredible at 7.4GB per hour. I'm sure many who record HDTV a lot already knew that but it is a tad more than I thought it'd be. My "free TV" is getting more and more expensive!

I've been using the setup on my mini (1.83Ghz C2D, 2.5GB, 80GB) a lot more than on the MDD. I'm unable to watch live TV if I've set the archive to a network share. I get one second pauses a few times per minute. I've tried both a Linux SMB/AFP server as well as using my MDD as the server, neither work well. I may try configuring EyeTV to just use memory for the live tv buffer.

EyeTV is pretty decent but I do have a couple of complaints that I'll probably bring up in their forums. One is that if the live tv buffer runs out (default is 2GB) then you simply lose video. MythTV just saves the file off and starts a new buffer, you never lose anything. Also, if you're watching live tv and decide you want to record the show, it records from the point you hit the record button, not the whole live buffer. I could be wrong but I believe if I choose to record the show from the program guide while I'm watching it will save the whole program. Not a huge deal, just something to remember.

I'm finding that the MDD just can't quite handle OTA HDTV

mym6, there's no way your MDD could handle OTA HDTV, a dual 2.0 G5 Powermac could barely handle OTA without dropping frames...

I'm also finding that the storage requirements are incredible at 7.4GB per hour. I'm sure many who record HDTV a lot already knew that but it is a tad more than I thought it'd be. My "free TV" is getting more and more expensive!

Well said, but the video storage issue isn't new--rip a dvd with intact menus and special features and that VIDEO_TS folder is often just under 8 GBs. Even without recording any TV the home theater enthusiast quickly faces a storage crunch just by becoming a more voracious consumer. That brings budget into the equation, but that's also where better codecs and good transcoding software comes into play--after you watch your OTA shows that first time, if you want to archive them, you do have some good options to reduce file size.

I'm unable to watch live TV if I've set the archive to a network share

I've tried both a Linux SMB/AFP server as well as using my MDD as the server, neither work well.

And from over in the Linux forum you wrote:

My mac mini is now also unable to playback HDTV

Well, your 1.83 C2D mini is right at the cusp of being able to play back HDTV without occasionally dropping frames--and I don't think it's powerful enough to use the best EyeTV deinterlacing setting, I think a 2.0 C2D is the current tipping point--but, it can certainly "play back HDTV." If you're still using the stock 80 gig drive, you might appreciate an internal drive upgrade--for me, all-around EyeTV performance using a Macbook as "extender" picked up noticeably after swapping a Hitachi 7K200 inside.)

But, there's something about your unique network setup and your archive that's still not quite right. Unfortunately, I can't be much help to you: I have 4 EyeTV tuners around the house at the moment and in 4+ years I haven't once tried to watch "live" TV through them or start a recording from the live TV buffer. For us, Leopard sharing and EyeTV's built-in archive sharing has basically been flawless with regard to playing back recordings over gigabit between Macs .

mym6, there's no way your MDD could handle OTA HDTV, a dual 2.0 G5 Powermac could barely handle OTA without dropping frames...

I remember you saying as much before getting going on the project but just wanted to reconfirm that it is true. It is however watchable.

Well said, but the video storage issue isn't new--rip a dvd with intact menus and special features and that VIDEO_TS folder is often just under 8 GBs. Even without recording any TV the home theater enthusiast quickly faces a storage crunch just by becoming a more voracious consumer. That brings budget into the equation, but that's also where better codecs and good transcoding software comes into play--after you watch your OTA shows that first time, if you want to archive them, you do have some good options to reduce file size.

I rip a few DVDs so I am aware of the storage requirements, but I was caught off guard by the amount of space the Olympics opening ceremony took. The shows I've recorded in the past using Myth would use less per hour, but obviously the opening ceremony was higher quality. The downer for me is my network troubles.



And from over in the Linux forum you wrote:

Well, your 1.83 C2D mini is right at the cusp of being able to play back HDTV without occasionally dropping frames--and I don't think it's powerful enough to use the best EyeTV deinterlacing setting, I think a 2.0 C2D is the current tipping point--but, it can certainly "play back HDTV." If you're still using the stock 80 gig drive, you might appreciate an internal drive upgrade--for me, all-around EyeTV performance using a Macbook as "extender" picked up noticeably after swapping a Hitachi 7K200 inside.)

I wrote that because the Mythfrontend for Mac went from being able to play HDTV just fine to being unable to play it. There are some issues (in my mind) with MythTV being a bit inefficient. My laptop (AMD Turion 1.6Ghz, 1.25GB) also suffers from the same issue. When I originally toyed with OTA HDTV with my Linux server as a backend and the laptop running Ubuntu with mythfrontend I was able to play HDTV just fine. Recent releases of MythTV are no longer able to play HDTV on the laptop. The mini suffers from the same problem. Now with the HDHomerun and the ability to stream directly from it into VLC my laptop is able to play HDTV just fine when using a wired network. With EyeTV, my mini is able to play HDTV and I even watched a large portion of the opening ceremony on it, it never skipped a beat so long as I was recording locally.

But, there's something about your unique network setup and your archive that's still not quite right. Unfortunately, I can't be much help to you: I have 4 EyeTV tuners at the moment and in 4+ years I haven't once tried to watch "live" TV through them or start a recording from the live TV buffer. And for me, Leopard sharing and EyeTV's built-in shared archives has basically been flawless playing back recordings over gigabit between Macs .

So you're saying you never watch live TV? Just record and watch later? If I did that then putting my archive on a network would probably work better. It *appears* that something about my network just can't handle the multiple streams. Maybe it is a bad gigabit switch or some other goofy thing.

Anyway, Live TV for me is important and will become a lot more important once shows start up again. My little boy goes to bed about the time the shows start, but I like to watch them that night yet if I can so I end up being about 30 minutes behind live. It's important for me at least to be able to timeshift.

I was caught off guard by the amount of space the Olympics opening ceremony took. The shows I've recorded in the past using Myth would use less per hour, but obviously the opening ceremony was higher quality

right, and OTA will always be a little bigger than the same program recorded via QAM.

With EyeTV, my mini is able to play HDTV and I even watched a large portion of the opening ceremony on it, it never skipped a beat so long as I was recording locally

The downer for me is my network troubles.

OK, thanks for clarifying that, and it'll be instructive for all of us to see how you work it out...

So you're saying you never watch live TV? Just record and watch later?

Essentially, yes. I couldn't care less about watching a typical "network" show live.

Whenever the Series 2 Tivo first came out, however many years ago that was, that's when our habits and approach changed. Then, maybe 4-5 years ago, once we got our first HDTV, I turned to the Mac for home theater because Tivo couldn't offer a high def recording option.

My little boy goes to bed about the time the shows start, but I like to watch them that night yet if I can so I end up being about 30 minutes behind live. It's important for me at least to be able to timeshift.

Understood: personal preferences will always impact how we approach our home theater hobby. In our case--just my wife and I and no kids--I don't think I've ever found myself in that situation--where I've felt compelled to watch something "30 minutes behind live" instead of just pulling something else from the archive. It's kind of liberating, actually, but I realize that approach isn't for everyone.

Some sporting events are an obvious exception, I'll watch them live--but just about everything else gets queued up in the "big pile o' content" to watch later. As an example, I was really excited about the Julie Taymor 'Magic Flute' on PBS-HD back in April, but what was most important to me was getting a good recording of it with my EyeTV500. I still haven't watched it critically all the way through yet, though, but will at some point. During the year, something weekly on the networks and "must-see" in high def like 'House' gets recorded--and it usually gets watched sometime before the next episode is recorded. But, we also save entire seasons of things up as well, and then blow through them later. We're going through the first season of 'Burn Notice' right now, that was recorded last year, while we're recording the "current" second season on USA-HD (that's over firewire, not EyeTV.) I have the fourth season of 'Battlestar Galactica' in high def queued up and waiting, and am hoping I get that in before the Fall.

There's so much good TV, especially if you start dipping into the UK/ITV/BBC stuff, that we've always found it impossible to stay current. So, with a couple of TBs of storage, and a bunch of Macs and EyeTV tuners around the house, we just stopped trying to. (For us, this is where our two MDDs really come into play: to record over firewire and USB, to rip dvds, then store and serve up all that content to the Intel Macs at our HDTVs.)

I'm going to do some testing to see if it is my gigabit switch or something else. What I know is that it doesn't matter if I set my archive directory to a share on Linux (SMB or AFP) or the MDD. On the Linux server I've tried saving to the RAID set (RAID1/Mirror) and a single drive. Both produced pauses in playback. I get the same thing when using the MDD as the storage server. I'm starting to think it is my gigabit switch.

FWIW, I got the FirmTek SeriTek/1V4 from OWC and I didn't have any problems with any of the 500 GB Seagate/Maxtor drives that I got from Fry's in my Dual 1.25 GHz MDD G4.

But, I've since moved up to a 2.0 GHz dual-core G5. :D

if you're buying new SATA Hitachi drives from OWC that means you should be safe...if you already have some Hitachi SATA drives, those are the ones you want to check...

I think you can go either way with a card and drives--especially since you already have a fast PCI card for PATA drives. Some folks have a bunch of decent sized PATA drives and specifically hold on to a G4 tower in order to fill it up with them and serve content...my two MDDs don't have any SATA drives inside them yet, and I'm actually looking at SATA and eSATA PCI cards at the moment as well. I've been accumulating SATA drives for a while, so far they're in external enclosures and on hot-swappable trays, and I'm just looking ahead a bit. This is your opportunity, as well. As usual it will come down to budget, the kind of performance you need, what kind of scalability and flexibility you want to have, etc.

But those PATA drives, inside your Quicksilver, on its internal bus or that PCI card, accessed over gigabit/n wireless will probably be plenty fast for movies and high def EyeTV recordings...

Related question... is there any reason (other than physical space... I believe there's room) I couldn't add double-drive trays in each slot on the bottom of my Quicksilver, a second SATA PCI card, and have 6 (or more, actually) SATA drives in the one Quicksilver?

is there any reason (other than physical space... I believe there's room) I couldn't add double-drive trays in each slot on the bottom of my Quicksilver, a second SATA PCI card, and have 6 (or more, actually) SATA drives in the one Quicksilver?

The practical limits you may have to be careful coming up against would be 1) the internal power supply--how many additional drives could be accommodated without exceeding spec and 2) the internal temperature--as you add more drives, how hot would it get inside? I faced a similar choice, and instead of putting more drives inside an MDD I went with adding a four drive external FW800 enclosure outside--it's very speedy over gigabit, has its own robust power supply and good fans. Since dual MDDs were prone to overheat anyway I'm better off with all that outside the case. The best place to find out about creative mods to older Power Macs is xlr8yourmac, plus the official Apple discussion forums are pretty active, since folks tend to hold on to these models.

Just to update everyone, I actually sold this machine. I just couldn't get it to work well for what I wanted to do vs the cost of running it. It was a good looking machine, I sorta miss it but the iPod Touch I bought with the cash is working out much better.

I have two TVs that work perfectly at 1080p - each connected to a mac mini. Our main TV is a Samsung LN-46A540 and it works perfectly at 1080p. Incidentally, this is basically the same as 2 other Samsung TVs - the LN-46A550 & LN-46A530. Make sure you are using p.mode "Just Scan".

I also have a Panasonic TH-42FD18 and it works too. For this TV, make sure overscan is on, then go into menu | picture | advanced | then put the display mode on -1. That may not be the right name for the mode, but I am at work. I will edit this when I get home.


Added to help someone search for these TVs
LN46A540 LN46A550 LN46A530 TH42FD18