Re: Mac Mini v Popcorn Hour A110

[Kenneth Watt <kwatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 21 Mar 2009, at 01:05, Phil Harris wrote:

> One thing I *HAVE* noticed with Plex is that the DVD decoding isn=92t
=
=20
> good =96
> not by any means =96 I see lots of occurrences of random coloured
blocks
> appearing in movies =96 absolutely repeatable in that I can see
it=20=20
> happen,
> skip back and it happens at the same point again, watch the same movie
> again at a later date and it still happens at exactly the same point.

That's why I waited for the new Mini as it's got a much better GPU in=20=20
it and it is comparable to a "reasonable" DVD player for the most
part=20=20
but yes, I've seen the glitching as well although it isn't a serious=20=20
problem, or hasn't been yet.

Audio is fine for the most part.

The buffering when watching Apple movie trailers of iPlayer has been=20=20
an issue, it seems to send Plex into a flat spin at times. :/

I've not had issues with the library, after I figured it out, but=20=20
there is a noticeable delay before some things start to play. Mostly=20=20
that's from the Drobo though which is attached to a Doze box, from
the=20=20
actual NAS drive it seems fine which is a bit odd. But then I'm using=20=20
a wired connection on a 1Gb LAN and it's only having to keep up with=20=20
about 170 movies.

Music is a whole other kettle of fish. Plex seems not to like 2000+=20=20
folders. :)

But then, MCE isn't perfect either, I don't think any media player is=20=20
as yet. However MCE is more "complete" IMO in terms of
functionality=20=20
but you need a decent spec PC and GPU to get the best from it and you=20=20
lose on the size of the box required.

It's horses for courses as usual.

K.

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