There is a lot of news coming out about Mac Mini. Now I know I suggested that it could be a PVR. Another random thought - can we daisy chain two of these Mac Minis together, and get better power output than a G5 machine? I am just musing about this stuff, wondering perhaps we could couple the two using firewire or even ethernet. Any tips or thoughts?
2 comments so far
5:59 PM PT
I don’t know the raw performance of a 1.25 GHz G4 versus a 2.something GHz G5 (or even two of them), but I know that Tiger will include Xgrid for cluster computing…so perhaps a cluster of $500 minis will make inroads.
5:59 PM PT
You can definitely run x-grid on any multiple G4 or G5 systems… the issue is getting the software to know about what you want to do to take advantage.
I still think the path is through an external MPEG encoder / decoder. It takes the biggest load from the system and enables you to focus purely on playback and management.
Also - HD has a few formats as I am sure you know. The more optimal display resolution seems to be netting out on 720p rather than 1080i and definitely not 1080p at the moment. The video card can handle it.. just a matter of some additional processing to push it through.
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