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[park]

I'm about to buy a Mac Mini to use as a HTPC for our living room. I will use Windows Vista installed in Bootcamp until the mac version of MC gets video support. I have a couple of questions to anyone out there that is already using the mac mini this way.

1. I assume that MC will recognize the apple remote, and that the keys on it can be assigned to MC based functions in MC's options?

2. If so, how do the left/right buttons function? Will they act as a way to jump to next/previous chapters during video playback as well as act as left/right buttons for navigating in Theater View?

3. Will the core i7 be good enough for Red October HQ playback?

4. Does the mac mini HDMI port work ok for bitstreaming dts and ac3 audio to a reciever?

5. Any other issues with HDMI? I've had problems with my VAIO htpc freaking out if I turn my reciever off and the on again (it changes to a wierd small desktop resolution)

All feedback appreciated.

[park]

To answer some of my own questions for other people's reference here is some of my experience so far.

Windows Vista will not work in Bootcamp for since Lion came out. So my old versions of Vista Ultimate, and Windows XP were useless. Had to buy Windows 7 Home Premium which was an expense I hadn't counted on.

1. Windows sees the Apple remote, but inside Media Center I can only get the up/down arrows to function as volume controls. Remapping the buttons inside the Remote options in MC doesn't seem to do anything for me. I got Up to work once, but then when I try to assign Down MC throws a "this command has already been assigned" error.

3. Red October HQ worked for playback but it looked a bit like the computer was struggling when playing a Blu Ray rip so I switched back to standard.

4 & 5. HDMI bitstreaming works great. Switching inputs on my amp or turning it off also pose no problems for the Windows display.

So the next thing I'm struggling with is how to control MC comfortably. I'm considering a blue tooth keyboard/mouse combo, or buying a usb IR reciever and using an old MCE remote. But since I only plan on using Windows until the mac version of MC gets all the Windows features I'm reluctant to spend any more for plastic that might end up being useless again in a few months.

[6233638]

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67848.msg456197#msg456197 This might be a solution for the Apple Remote.

It looks like the current Mac Minis use Intel's HD4000 graphics, which should have no problem running madVR (ROHQ) but you may have to change some of the madVR settings away from the defaults, and disable hardware acceleration. (I would leave hardware acceleration enabled unless you need to disable it though)
Many people report that DXVA upscaling in madVR looks good with the Intel graphics, as they use a variant of Lanczos 4 scaling with their own anti-ringing algorithm.

[park]

Thanks a lot for that reply. Changing the driver type in Windows did indeed make the remote work better. Now I am using a Mac Mini remote template inside an iOS app called "L5 Remote" to control MC. The one final problem with this setup is that the arrow button presses don't repeat if you hold them down. I have tried ticking the box to receive repeat commands inside of MC's remote settings but it didn't work.

I will try Red October HQ again and see how I get on.