Is the Mac Mini right for me?

Question

I've been fighting with my PC for years, and I am finally giving up. I'm looking forward to joining the Mac community. I want to buy a mac mini with the new Leopard OSX(10.5), however, I have some unique requirements:
- I live on a boat in Avalon Harbor, Catalina Island, Southern California.
- The natural choice for me would be a laptop computer.(Currently a Toshiba)
- Power consumption is an important factor
- I need a new TV, and I've acquired a KVH TracVision II satellite tracker to
use with it.
- I'm looking at a Vizio VX37L with the following specs:
- Native Resolution: 1366 x 768 Format: 16 x 9
- Input Formats: 1080i 720p HD 480p DVD 480i Normal TV
- Inputs Supported: 1368x768 1024x768 800x600 720x400 640x480
- Connections: HDMI w/HDCP
- Inputs: Comb.NTSC/Ant/Cable/ATSC HDTV etc. 2xHDMI Stereo S-Video RGB
I have trouble with my eyesight, and a 37" monitor about 5' away might be a good solution, but not if it doesn't work as a package, and not if the resolution isn't HD-sharp. I've been reading on this forum of several difficulties experienced by mini users. This flies in the face of Apple's salesman, who says the mini is purposed to be monitored by a tv. Am I on the right track, or should I stick with the laptop?
Sure would appreciate your input to my dilemma
Dave

Answer 1

I think the problem you have is not that the mini isn't capable of what you want it to do, and that if it works as expected that it will provide you a workable solution, but that some TVs are just not quite ready for prime time as computer displays, because as yet TV manufacturers are not widely adopting standards and designing their product for this kind of use.
As such, the question is whether the specific TV you are proposing will work well or not. Much depends on whether it signals the correct data to the mini or not. Some do, and many do not.
However, the salesman who claimed the mini is intended to be used with a TV is talking out of his hat. It is designed to be capable of it, and many have used them that way with great success, but if the salesman was right, Apple would hardly have decided to develop and market the Apple TV device, which is their 'official' way to connect an Apple product to a TV, and natively has most of the common range of connectors for the purpose, whereas the mini does not.
In most instances where a modern TV signals correctly to the Mac, the result is excellent, and where it does not, it can usually be configured to work well using one or other of the DisplayConfigX or SwitchResX utilities, but unless there is a user here with a mini and the same make and model of TV and who has reported, or can report, on the result, the only way you can be sure is to take try the combination.
In terms of whether the mini is the 'right' system for you - the answer is that it certainly draws relatively low power in the same overall range as equivalent laptops, and it is a very powerful system in its own right so unless you were into something like professional video or image editing, it's not likely to disappoint. As such, and assuming you are desirous of moving to MacOS and away from Windows, in my view perhaps the best way to approach this is to get the mini, and then take it to your local TV retailer and set it up with the TV of your choice and see if it works correctly. If it does, the problem is solved, and if not, either try a different TV or start playing with one or other of the aforementioned display utilities.
Of course don't forget that with any Intel Mac, including the mini, you can always switch back to Windows using BootCamp (and a copy of Windows of course) if you get homesick!