After last workweek ’s overdose of mini - associate topics , here ’s one terminal wrap - up , addressing a few undecided questions that were posted in the forum discussions .
Display rotation
Someone inquired about how well the miniskirt worked with the display rotated — there ’s a push button in the Displays preferences instrument panel that get you go around the double 90 , 180 , or 270 degrees . On some former Macs , there was seemingly a carrying into action penalty when using a rotated presentation . I set the rotation to 90 degrees , rotate my head a standardised amount , and spend a few minutes working . thing seemed just as peppy as before , including repeating my prominent - document Word scrolling test , which took basically the same amount of time . typewrite in Word and Excel create no slowdowns , acting just as they did when reckon with no rotation .
AirPort reception
There have been some complaints about AirPort response range in the new mini . I had n’t have any issues , mainly because the mini ’s been sitting about six feet from the Base Station this whole time . But when I hooked the mini up to our HDTV ( see below ) , it was then about 20 feet from the Base Station . I also had my 12 - inch PowerBook there , too , so I was able-bodied to equate the two machine .
My upshot were inconclusive — both machines usually had three out of four bars evince , though the PowerBook more often went to four bars than did the mini . I did n’t move the mini to other maculation in the house , though , so I ca n’t make any general conclusion beyond “ it does n’t seem much worse than my PowerBook at the same locating in the living room . ”
HD playback at high resolutions
Someone necessitate how well the HD telecasting time played back at native , not scaled , solution . In fiat to resolve that question , I had to get the miniskirt relate to my 23 - inch Apple LCD . Unfortunately , this is a first - generation Apple 23 - inch model , which means it uses an ADC connexion , not the DVI connector find on current models . To get the miniskirt utter to the video display , I needed aDVI to ADC adapter . While I was at CompUSA on another mission on Friday , I noticed they had exactly one such unit left on their shelves ( with a 2002 right of first publication date on the box ! ) . I bring it home , plugged everything together , and astonishingly , it worked peachy . These thing are still sold in the online store , too .
The mini drove the 23 - inch LCD without any outcome at all ; the word-painting was crisp and readable at 1920×1200 settlement . I then fired off the same three HD cartridge holder that I ’d been using before , and they all diddle perfectly at full size of it — figure rates did n’t depart , except for a bit in Warren Miller , just as when playing back scaled . They also expect astonishingly nice , of course !
( As long as I had the big admonisher link , I take a minute to re - campaign the Jedi Knight II Universal bench mark demonstration at 1600×1200 solvent . The secret plan fight a still - hefty 53fps at these configurations ; not sorry at all for a 64 MB on - board graphic chip ! )
HDTV connectivity
One of the question about the mini was “ how well will it form with my high-pitched definition TV ? ” Apple hasa KnowledgeBase entrythat covers this very return , make it go surprisingly simple . In my examination , though , I found that the answer will vary from “ easily and perfectly ” to “ fairly well , but only with lots of tweak . ” Which serve apply to you depends on which high defintion TV model you own .
If you ’ve recently purchased an high-definition television set ( within the last couple of old age ) , you probably get the “ easy and sodding ” root . Newer sets include some figure of connecter ( DVI orHDMI ) that make it a zephyr to link up the mini . As discussed in Jonathan Seff ’s review , you just need a couple of cable length for sound and TV connections , and you ’re set . According tothis postat hdbeat.com , that ’s really all there is to it , everything “ just work . ”
Ah , if only I were so rosy . Our high-definition television is an older three - metro CRT rear projector , the Pioneer SD-582HD5 . It ’s nearly five years former , and the only style to connect the mini to it is via an RGB cable . The job with this connection method is that the television fetch dead no information about what resolutions it supports via the RGB cable system . So when you power up the mini , you will , more than likely , wind up with a completely scrambled image on the televsion . That ’s what materialize to me on the first try . You ’re also work quite blindly , as the mini supports only one monitor , so if you ca n’t see anything on the boob tube , well , you ca n’t see anything at all .
After way too many hours on Google , talking with friends , and experiment with more computer hardware in the living room than I care to think about , I did manage to get it working to the limits of my television ’s capability . mellow definition video playback look unbelievable , and the background was ugly but usable ( my television system can only display 1080 interlaced , which leads to averyflickery destkop , but that trouble vanishes when check video depicted object ) . If you ’re wonder why go through the exploit to get the mini playing through the HD set , here ’s a quick model . Below is a split - covert image of the same frame from of the newest Harry Potter movie . On the left is the frame from the high definition trailer from the movie ; on the right wing is the same frame as seen on the DVD ( fall into place on the image for ahuge1643×691 reading ):
Note that these are existent covert grabs directly from the mini , and I have n’t doneanypost processing on the images , beyond a bite of scaling work to make the two side of meat identical — I had to more or less reduce the size of the HD frame to match the DVD frame . So the colors may not precisely be correct , but the essence of the picture is the dispute in the degree of detail provided in each format .
I also made a couple of unforesightful flick ( 836×354 , 548KB,1673×709 , 1.7 MB ) showing a transition from the full DVD chassis to the full HD trailer frame ; these demonstrate even more clearly the visual differences between the two formatting . Having the mini determine up so that it can play HD contentedness , such as that seen on Apple’sHD Gallery site , on a large HD television is clearly deserving the effort .
If you have an older HDTV with RGB inputs and you ’re interested in making it go with the young mini ( or most likely any Mac capable of roleplay HD television ) , I ’ve detailed the process inthis hintover on macosxhints.com . You ’ll need to use a third - party program calledDisplayConfigX($12 shareware ) , and the procedure is a bit time consuming … but the results are deserving the workplace if you enjoy high - quality video on a giving - filmdom HD television .
Overall wrap-up
I suppose the unexampled Core Duo mini is an impressive machine . It ’s not a steal when you factor in the toll of additional RAM , but it performs well beyond its price point — even besting my Dual G5 in a number of area . While there are headache over the onboard computer graphic flake , in my examination it seemed more than up to whatever project I asked it to perform . Yes , it ’s not go to be a bang-up resolution for play today ’s games . But as the Jedi Knight II tests show , it will be subject of playing some intimately - new and still very fun game at unspoilt answer and frame rates .
I was even more bucked up by the HD trial results . HD act back great on the Core Duo mini , and just as well on the big screen ( after visualize out the contour for my quondam set ) . When the automobile is campaign , the buff kick up a notch or two , but never stimulate truly annoying . In my keep way , sitting about eight feet away , I could n’t ever try it if there was any auditory sensation at all from the television .
And now that I ’ve catch the miniskirt set up and make utterly in my home , I ’m going to completely destroy it and hear something wholly different … but you ’ll have to stay tuned to regain out what that ’s all about !
