2. pc-audio
  3. 1105542684

Mini Mac as audio server?

OK, I've existed in blissful ignorance of the OSX world, being a Windows dude. But, this little miniMac thing might change my world. Small enuf to stick next to the stereo... Cheap enuf too... With DVI and DVD, probably eliminates my DVD player as well. Check it out:

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore/

Sooo, someone wanna educate a non-OSX user on audio via Macs? Right now I'm 70% through ripping over 1K CDs to WAV files. I'm thinking the files will eventually end up on one of the Buffalo Terabyte NAS RAID 5 devices when they become available next month. So... the questions...

- Can I play the WAV files via iTunes?
- Is iTunes smart enuf to recognize that I've dropped the files into /Artist/Album directory format and create tags?
- Anyone using an Edirol UA-1D via USB out of the Mac? Any compatibility issues?
- Anything better to do PCM output from the Mac than the Edirol?
- If I watch a DVD, and output the video to my plasma via the DVI port, will the Apple media software recognize that I want PCM output, not multichannel?

Any help appreciated.
edesilva
edesilva OP
768 posts
 
Fishpatrol is right on. I've used the mini to playback some 720p and 1080i files, and the fan kicks in almost immediately--it is quiet for a computer, but it is audible to me 9 ft away without any soundtrack.

Apparently iTunes doesn't require the mini to think hard enuf to get hot and bothered. It will sit there quietly pumping out tunes w/o any background noise.
fishpatrol
30 posts
 
In-store yesterday with a Mac mini 1.42 w/512 RAM, I took it to task. iTunes playing music, large-size visualizer, QT playing back a trailer, Photoshop Elements 3 rasterizing a PDF, and me goofing around in Pages. With this little RAM, switching between apps was exceedingly slow, but once to an app it performed admirably. Never actually heard the fan, and I did stick my ear down to it once. (You know, trying not to look too suspicious.) Obviously there was plenty of room noise, but I can sure hear my iBook's fan when it kicks in, noisy room or not. I'd take this as a good sign.

I dearly want to sell my MDD Tower, it's noisy as sin. But for what I'm likely to get for it, it's a pretty lateral move. MDD: faster, room for internal drives, PCI slots, more RAM slots. Mini: smaller form factor, iLife '05, much quieter...
edesilva OP
768 posts
 
I'm guessing you didn't get the fan to kick on. Mine's a 1.4 GHz w/1 GB, but it takes a lot--like HD video rendering--to get the fan to kick on. I'll run iTunes/visualizer without hearing a peep. When it comes on, its audible. Trust me on this one.

Dunno what the MDD is, or how fast, but the mini is basically a G4. Its got a DVI output, which works great for me and the plasma in my living room. Yeah, needs some more disk space, but that is what NAS is for...
pabelson
344 posts
 
Modern computers are designed to handle video processing, which is far more data-intensive than audio. If audio kicked the fan on, video would probably melt it!
talbot8b89
1 posts
 
Hey guys,

Here's a good article on using the new mini as a HD video box.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050120.html
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