New Mac Mini has 9400M !!!!!

[cusquinho]

Is it only me?

I've been waiting for a long time to have mac minis with 9400m for Boxee. Ok, it does not work *yet*. But isn't GPU acceleration in ffmpeg the next step? I've seen messages in ffmpeg mailing list about working patches for ION platform acceleration with 9400M and ffmpeg. My guess is that we're pretty close to this.

Right now, mini/atv/iMac wont play most HD 720p/1080p videos. Especially if we are talking about Matroska containers or high profile bitrate. IMHO, standard GPUs such as 9400M ION platform will benefit a lot from future versions of ffmpeg/xbmc and, off course, Boxee.

[unisonband]

My Apple TV struggles on most high def content, and even some Sd content, but my Mini plays back everything flawlessly...I don't think the GPU acceleration issue applies to the Mac mini (other posts about the minis confirm this).

I do however look forward to improvements in ffmpeg :D

[marcel]

will be nice to see boxee running on the machine..:)

[tnn]

I just got mine ordered. :-D

[burnsds]

I work at a university; I will get academic pricing (nice).

What is the preferred setup for Boxee?

Do I need 3GB to 4GB of memory?
Do I need the 2.26 Ghz Intel Chip ($150 extra)
Is the big Hard Drive the way to go or use an external drive

I have a Pioneer Elite Kuro 60" 1080p (Model #PRO-141FD) television, and plenty of HDMI slots. How do I convert DVI from the Mac-Mini to HDMI? The DVI output usually does not have audio, I have normally had to run separate audio line to the set or HD Receiver.

The Pioneer set has a network LAN terminal connection input for Media Center network, but I have never been able to get to work when connected to a computer or router. Any suggestions?

[sudonim]

Im pretty interested to see hardware acceleration so that 1080p will be smooth as silk. As soon as someone tests 1080p videos on the $599 mini with good results, I'm buying one.

[Carniphage]

Im pretty interested to see hardware acceleration so that 1080p will be smooth as silk. As soon as someone tests 1080p videos on the $599 mini with good results, I'm buying one.

Quicktime uses hardware acceleration.
Boxee does not.

C.

[JasonBelec]

As posted above, Boxee and other apps on AppleTV are not accessing the hardware graphics acceleration. If they did you would not have any issues. The AppleTV is an amazing appliance that is not fully exploited as yet. Most of the cross platform apps are designed to work on a 'set' of systems, not specifics, but that doesn't mean you can't.... ;)

[Carniphage]

As posted above, Boxee and other apps on AppleTV are not accessing the hardware graphics acceleration. If they did you would not have any issues. The AppleTV is an amazing appliance that is not fully exploited as yet. Most of the cross platform apps are designed to work on a 'set' of systems, not specifics, but that doesn't mean you can't.... ;)

It's not rocket science.

If Boxee allowed the option of Quicktime playback for certain file types then we'd get the hardware acceleration for free.

C.

[ruthlessdog]

Im pretty interested to see hardware acceleration so that 1080p will be smooth as silk. As soon as someone tests 1080p videos on the $599 mini with good results, I'm buying one.

I'm not buying one until it has HDMI and you can actually get HD movies from iTunes w/out the ATV. Otherwise why bother? And with Netflix 'Watch Instantly' in Boxee...

By the way...unless you're ripping 50GB BluRays you're not 'Boxeeing' 1080P anyhow. Save your cash...the current Mini does everything you need. Put the money in decent speakers and a decent receiver and you'll get way more for your money. A decent BluRay player and a good HT setup can't be beat for true Audio/Videophile content.

[ruthlessdog]

I work at a university; I will get academic pricing (nice).

What is the preferred setup for Boxee?

Do I need 3GB to 4GB of memory?
Do I need the 2.26 Ghz Intel Chip ($150 extra)
Is the big Hard Drive the way to go or use an external drive

I have a Pioneer Elite Kuro 60" 1080p (Model #PRO-141FD) television, and plenty of HDMI slots. How do I convert DVI from the Mac-Mini to HDMI? The DVI output usually does not have audio, I have normally had to run separate audio line to the set or HD Receiver.

The Pioneer set has a network LAN terminal connection input for Media Center network, but I have never been able to get to work when connected to a computer or router. Any suggestions?

There's a $30 DVI-HDMI adapter from Monster (overpriced) at Best Buy. Then just run an Optical Audio from the Mini. On my Mini, I had to get the cable from Apple because it needs an adapter as wekk. Why are you running right into the Kuro? With such a nice TV, you should have a decent receiver...one that processes HDMI. Run all sources into the receiver and then one HDMI out to the TV...a good receiver will upconvert any SD sources and process all sound obviously. Really you only should have two cables coming from the TV: power and one HDMI.

[davilla]

It's not rocket science.

If Boxee allowed the option of Quicktime playback for certain file types then we'd get the hardware acceleration for free.

C.

Not true. Hardware acceleration is only present in Apple native apps. There is no hardware acceleration available using the current Quicktime API for 3rd party apps.

[eshapin]

Not true. Hardware acceleration is only present in Apple native apps. There is no hardware acceleration available using the current Quicktime API for 3rd party apps.

@Davilla - Not sure what you mean. Are you referring to Apple TV only? Because many 3rd party games and apps utilize the Mac's video chip.

[davilla]

You said hardware acceleration, we are talking video content decode NOT video content display, very different. Yes, quartz/openGL acceleration is available to 3rd party app but not video content decode hardware acceleration.

Believe me, I program this stuff, while quartz/openGL acceleration is there, video content decode hardware acceleration is not.

[selector1]

Not true. Hardware acceleration is only present in Apple native apps. There is no hardware acceleration available using the current Quicktime API for 3rd party apps.


You said hardware acceleration, we are talking video content decode NOT video content display, very different. Yes, quartz/openGL acceleration is available to 3rd party app but not video content decode hardware acceleration.

This is all so interesting...
Is this just a matter of Apple keeping things locked down as usual?

Cheers to the boxee crew for doing what they can with the scraps available!
:)

[Carniphage]

Not true. Hardware acceleration is only present in Apple native apps. There is no hardware acceleration available using the current Quicktime API for 3rd party apps.

Davilla,

I am confused / amazed by your post.

Prior to Boxee, there were (and still are) a number of plug-ins (frapliances) for the AppleTV - which allowed the playing of media files on AppleTV via Quicktime.

My favorite was ATVFiles by Eric. Which is now open source. ATVFiles uses Quicktime to play 720p MP4 content perfectly. ATVFiles will play files without stalling, or frame-drops. The exact same files will not play properly with Boxee.

Quicktime is a media-playing API. You point it at a file and say "play this" - Are you really suggesting that if you ask Quicktime to play an MP4 - that Quicktime will somehow disable hardware acceleration?

You can download the source. Compile it - and see how AppleTV files will happily play back high bitrate 720p MP4s.

C.

[davilla]

Yes, this is true. ATVFiles uses the frontrow interface to quicktime, not the quicktime API. That's why it performance is similar to that under frontrow. You need to see if the plugin is using the quicktime api or the frontrow built-in video player. Big difference.

If you take any app that uses the quicktime API, it will not be using any hardware acceleration for decoding. An easy way to see this is with the new nvidia chipset Macs.

The new MacBook for example, playing a .mov file in an app that uses quicktime API vs playing the same .mov in quicktime player. On one of the Apple Movie Trailers, I get about 100-120 percent cpu, in quicktime player 26 percent cpu. That's quicktime player using partial hardware decoding. If it was full hardware decoding it would be similar to Linux/VDPAU and cpu percent would be more like 5-10 percent.

[subvertbeats]

I'm not buying one until it has HDMI and you can actually get HD movies from iTunes w/out the ATV. Otherwise why bother? And with Netflix 'Watch Instantly' in Boxee...

By the way...unless you're ripping 50GB BluRays you're not 'Boxeeing' 1080P anyhow. Save your cash...the current Mini does everything you need. Put the money in decent speakers and a decent receiver and you'll get way more for your money. A decent BluRay player and a good HT setup can't be beat for true Audio/Videophile content.

I second this recommendation.

[Carniphage]

Yes, this is true. ATVFiles uses the frontrow interface to quicktime, not the quicktime API. That's why it performance is similar to that under frontrow. You need to see if the plugin is using the quicktime api or the frontrow built-in video player. Big difference.


I find that surprising - so the next obvious question is:

Why does boxee not offer the option to play content in the same way as ATVFiles? At least as an option?

C.

[whodean]

I find that surprising - so the next obvious question is:

Why does boxee not offer the option to play content in the same way as ATVFiles? At least as an option?

C.

Very good question.

[davilla]

a) Someone familiar with the frontrow class methods would have to spend the time doing the programming and testing. That person would also need to be familiar with the internal structure of Boxee to merge this with Boxee source code and make sure it does not cause problems with the other platforms.

b) Only quicktime compatible video content would work, that means forget about MKVs.

c) It would only work under the appletv.

In other words, developer resources are not unlimited and it's not as simple of just changing a few lines of code.

[Carniphage]

a) Someone familiar with the frontrow class methods would have to spend the time doing the programming and testing. That person would also need to be familiar with the internal structure of Boxee to merge this with Boxee source code and make sure it does not cause problems with the other platforms.


As I remember ATVFile was written in days.



b) Only quicktime compatible video content would work, that means forget about MKVs.


But we have *already* forgotten about MKVs. All 720p content is unreliable. It would be good to have one format that worked properly.

What I am proposing is a tick-box option that says "Play supported formats through Quicktime". This tick box would only appear on Apple platforms. On Apple TV this would play through FrontRow - on Mac this would play through Quicktime Player - and would then allow both to benefit from the hardware acceleration.

I'd argue that the quality media playback is at the very heart of a media player. If you deliver anything less than the hardware is capable of, you are at risk of alienating your most enthusiastic users.

C.