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I record my own material to 88.2 on IMAC and have no problem WAV and apple lossless

Tunes 9.02

video from sky hd box, not 'puter

Roger

Roger - do you use a external USB / FW audio interface?

Mac support 88.2 with external hardware but as far as I can find the built in SPDIF only support 44.1, 48 and 96 on Intel Mac (officially anyway).

Intel Mac has the following spec (note that it support 88.2 over AC-3):

SPDIF optical digital output

The SPDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format) optical digital output is automatically selected when an SPDIF optical digital output device is detected on the external combination audio port. The SPDIF optical digital output supports pulse-code modulation (PCM) and Arc Consistency Algorithm #3 (AC-3) audio formats with the following stereo data stream characteristics:

PCM: 16, 20, or 24 bits per sample at sample rates of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, or 96 kHz
AC-3: 16 bits per sample at sample rates of 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, or 192 kHz

Power Mac G5 has the following spec:

Optical Digital Audio Specifications
 Data format: Sony/Phillips Digital Interface (SPDIF) protocol (IEC60958-3)  Connector type: Toslink optical (IEC60874-17)  Bits per sample: 16-bit or 24-bit
Optical digital audio out
Based on a typical situation with playback of a 1KHz, -1dBFS 24-bit sine wave, 44.1Khz output sample rate, unless otherwise specified below. Â Output sample rate: 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 64 kHz, 88.2 kHz, or 96 kHz

Does that mean it can only output full HD to 30" display? I only mentioned that it couldn't output full HD as the cool Apple store assistant told me ! (But that was a few months a go)
Cheers
Tom

Just for clarity, the newly released range of Mac mini's can drive an Apple 30" screen as it now has dual link DVI capability in conjunction with the adapter, but NOT the old range of Mac mini's.

The 2009 Mac Mini supports:
720p
1080i
1080p
640x480
480p
720x576
800x600
1024x576
1024x768
1280x960
1344x756
1344x1008
1600x900

"Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports up to 1920 by 1200 pixels on a DVI or VGA display; up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on a dual-link DVI display using Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (sold separately)"

Sorry my question wasn't well phrased - Can the Mac Mini output an HD picture to a screen larger than 30" or is 30" the limit? What happens when the screen is larger than 30" and how does it effect projector use?

Thanks
Tom

For media storage, I'm using several Drobopros each with eight 1.5TB drives, a Mac Pro, two Apple 30" and one 24" LCD monitor.

Video performance with 1080 is quite good, even with the high bandwidth 36MB/sec 1080i ProRes 4.2.2 HQ.
Using the AJA System Test program, a properly maintained Drobopro will show average read speeds of around 75MB/sec with iSCSI.
The read speed is reasonably consistent with few stalls. A typical buffer will easily make the stalls a non-issue for any compressed 1080.

The Drobopro does not have enough bandwidth for uncompressed 720, 1080 or 2k playback.
Bandwidths for this can range from 110MB/sec to beyond 3GB/sec. For this you will need serious optical fiber I/O and very expensive to unimaginably expensive storage.

Incidentally, the Apple monitors have good video quality and performance
Using a Blackmagic HD-Pro converter, the 30" monitor will display a color correct and pixel accurate 2k 4.4.4 RGB video stream.
If you had a source, serious optical fiber I/O and unimaginably expensive storage. Of course.

Wouldn't the required screen resolution be the determining factor, rather than the screen's physical size?

Cheers

George

I am using a mac mini with a projector onto a 110" screen in 1080p.

Not sure what you mean by "effect projector use", but if you mean "does it look good?" - yes, it looks as good as any other source using a similar resolution.

The Number of Pixels (e.g. 1920 by 1080 Progressive or 1080p) is what matters, not the actual size of the screen

You could run a 1080p Movie on e.g. a 17" Macbook Pro screen or to a 65" Plasma or to a Projector and a 10-14ft wide screen.

And as a Corollary to the above, driving that 30" Apple Display at 2560 by 1600 is MUCH more difficult for most Computers, as there would be almost TWICE the Number of Pixels to drive and those would need to be driven up to 60 times per second

So driving that 30" Display is FAR more Graphics Intensive than driving a typcial 65" Plasma or 10ft Wide Projection Screen

I wasn't sure what the reference to a 30" screen referred to. Is there a reason for mentioning it? The Mac mini sounds like a good option.

Is there any technical advantage of an Apple TV over a new Mac mini (excluding price)?

Cheers
Tom