Jul 28, 2013  Mac mini comes as standard with dvi-hdmi cable, power lead and booklet. Haven't experienced any problems with video dropouts. Beany31 - going to stick with asking, but thanks anyway. I'm using a 2012 quad Mini for HTPC duties for about a year now (bought one before they sold out). I'm using Yosemite and Plex, along with the Logitech Harmony Smart Control and their wireless.

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Thanks for that info. I will go that route. Do you use a different remote for your HTPC or do you use the keyboard? I have the apple remote programmed into my universal learning remote (along with all my other A/V gear). But I primarily use an Adesso wireless keyboard/trackball. I was hoping I could program my Logitech Harmony 880 to control it.

Channels / Addons - these are all the added extras like iplayer, catch up TV, Hulu, trakt, Torrent clients etc. Plex calls them channels and XBMC calls them addons, on this XBMC wins hands down, personally I now watch more content on these than I do my own content. So it really boils down to if you want client server and if you would use the addons. Update for anyone interested have put the mac mini to work as the plex server, which it seems more than happy doin (keeps the HD-audio for the client to use), quiet and low power usage and installed xbmc(kodi) as the htpc (plex) client with the plexbmc addon so all the metadata etc is coming via plex server. This seems to be the best solution, for me at least, plex server can be used by mobile devices at home and away, non home cinema tv/playstations that have plex client can also use the data + the htpc that requires all the HD audio can also be accommodated (no stalling).

Thanks for the replies. I would buy either a new Mac Mini or a used one with HDMI and either i5 or i7 proc. Re the up-scaling. Whatever DVD-to-HD up-scaling is happening on my iMac (in QT, DVD Player) is great compared to the up-scaling I've seen on even the more expensive media-players (to my eye it's just plain horrible, and I have a large DVD collection I want to still be watchable). I believe the up-scaling on the Mac is handled by the gpu and I just want to double check that the front-end software of an HTPC would keep that quality. I'll have to look into the HD-audio formats issue on the Mac Mini. (On my iMac, when I connect either toslink or HDMI, the audio prefs show options for DD, up to 96 Hz and 5.1 speakers.) Is there a reasonably priced (or even dedicated) PC option for an HTPC?

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I really do not want to be converting videos and streaming them from iTunes and I want the full 'wife friendly' package, music, pictures, movies, home vids, 1channel, icefilms that xbmc brings, it's just the surround sound issue that's a mare! Very frustrating. 5.1 isn't an issue! How to scan pdf for virus.

National Geographic screensaver. No matter what I do I can't keep my own pictures on the big screen and keep getting a bunch of animals. It's such a long standing bug that to me it's a big 'F U' from apple to the users. Since writing that list I've updated to the latest OSX. So far no National Geo which is good but nothing else is fixed. I have an older mac with mavericks on it that I may revert to just because it is so much easier on the eyes, Or I'm tempted to put Windows 10 on it as it fixes just about everything on the list except itunes and while there is no native blu-ray support my blu-ray players have windows blu-ray apps included.

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My Snow leopard hackintosh was perfect and stable, everything worked out of box, but when i installed lion, i cant get my audio to work, strangely only my mobo has this problem, rest mobos with same sound card ( ALC889 ) are working perfectly. Everything except audio is working fine in lion. Using it for photoshop right now, and it is running good and stable.

Photo import software for mac. Anyhow, here it is -- has the HDMI video problem been solved? I know that Apple released a software update to fix the flickering problem, but I haven't heard or read anything about the blown-out light colors. The only suggestion I have seen is to use the Thunderbolt port with a MDP-converter to HDMI and run it that way. The color problem is only on the HDMI port itself. What is the latest on this? Can I get audio thru the Thunderbolt port using an MDP-converter? I know some Macs do provide audio this way, but I don't think older Mac minis do.