Mac Mini or Studio Hybrid?

[morphsci]

Well there are more and more rumblings all around about not using University equipment (computers) for non-University functions (music listening). So I plan to head off the whole issue by setting up another computer (personally purchased) to serve the music to my work rig (output to Apogee Mini-DAC).

The question for you is should I buy a Mac Mini or a Dell Studio Hybrid? and more importantly, why?

The unit needs to be small, OS is irrelevant, I'll use itunes on the Mini or J. River Media Center on the Studio, the library will be on an external drive (most likely directly connected), I have my library in both FLAC and ALAC, it will be for playback only, it doesn't have to do anything else.

Right now I am undecided as each has its benefits and price is roughly the same for comparable models. I think I have a pretty good handle on the strengths and weaknesses of each, but I'm sure I'm missing some.

[grawk]

Why not an appletv?

[morphsci]

^^^ Good idea ... Be right back.

[n_maher]

Can you run apple TV as a stand alone device? I thought it had to be connected to something even if you were storing everything on it locally?

[grawk]

You have to connect it to a network to control it (if you dont' have a display), but otherwise, it works just fine headless.

I will confirm that later. My daughter's watching the wiggles on it right now.

[aardvark baguette]

I thought you couldn't add external drives to apple tv.

[grawk]

Patchstick fixes that easily

[aardvark baguette]

huh.

[grawk]

atvusb-creator - Google Code

[JBLoudG20]

You have to connect it to a network to control it (if you dont' have a display), but otherwise, it works just fine headless.

I will confirm that later. My daughter's watching the wiggles on it right now.

What the fuck! Go watch that shit with her. Guess who will be the first actor to kill himself. Man that's a good time.

[morphsci]

Well I just bought a refurb ATV. It looks like it will work with the patchstick hacks. Significantly fewer bucks compared to the mini or studio hybrid.

Dan's The Man

[grawk]

I'm a big fan of the appletv I need another one at some point.

[n_maher]

Is the HD in AppleTV user replaceable?

[JBLoudG20]

Is the HD in AppleTV user replaceable?

Yeah I want me some fresh high defs

[grawk]

The drive is replaceable, tho not super easily. Lots of "how-tos" out there tho.

[morphsci]

Well I thought I'd provide an update. I used patchstick to hack the ATV OS and it was semi successful. I was able to get it to recognize an external drive attached to the USB port and I can get it to play individual songs through the files menu. However, none of the original apps. or third party apps (xbmc and boxee) will play the songs (ALAC rips). Based upon the error message and what others have reported on-line, the prognosis does not appear hopeful. Also I just picked up a refurb Mac Mini which I will use as my server. Hopefully it will sound as good as the ATV. It may be my imagination but the work system sounds much better using the ATV/ALAC as source compared to the windows workstation/FLAC as source. Could also be that the Pop/Pulse USB/AES/EBU converter sucks.

That being said, I am mightily impressed with the ATV and when using it for its intended purpose it is an amazing device. So I am definitely keeping it but it will be moved back home to work with the iMac and the Sony big screen.

[grawk]

that's really weird. What did you use to convert the files to alac?

[morphsci]

The files were transcoded to ALAC from FLAC using dbpoweramp. The files play fine on my ASUS or on my iMac using itunes. The files work fine if they are located on the ATV's internal drive but not when they are located on the external drive. The internal drive is too small to hold my library. Network attached storage can be a problem at work as I do not have any control over the network, and as far as I can tell, neither does anyone else.