Mac mini and lcd tv displays

Question

I currently have a g3 ibook and a g4 imac. I've been debating on what i should buy as an upgrade. I've been torn between virtually all macs including the powerbook, ibooks, imac, and the mac mini. I'm moving in a couple of months to a temporary residence where space will be limited. I just purchased a very nice philips 37 inch lcd display with vga inputs and hdmi inputs. After much thought this is what i think i'm going to do.
Sell the G4 imac or give to my parents. Keep the G3 ibook but install the max ram for it (is 512mb the max for this old cpu) and replace the old airport card with a new airport extreme card. Buy an extreme base station. Get a mac mini w/ wireless mouse and keyboard and run it through the philips. Any thoughts?
If i go this route i keep the ibook for portability and the mac mini gives me a more powerful at home cpu. This would keep costs down and not take up as much space. Anyone have their mini hooked up to their lcd tv?

Answer 1

Hi Martin,
I appreciate your thoughts : I have a G3e key Lime Clamshell 466MHz iBook, I put a 256MB SIMM in to take the iBook up to 384mb and it's now OK for Tiger - I used the Apple Video Out cable to a sony CRT TV via SCART and was able to struggle thru Bridget Jones 2 on DVD , but got a headache! Wife was UNHAPPY. suggestion is avoid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(maybe sell your iBook at a premium on an online auction website?)
I'm pretty sure that Airport Extreme cards - being a different size and shape from the old ones won't allow you to upgrade that way. I did buy an Airport Extreme enabled Mac Mini 1.25GHz 40GB 1GB RAM for driving my Dell 26" LCD TV/Monitor. It is F A N T A S T I C ! The Dell W2600 came with DVI to DVI cable which plugged straight into the Mini's DVI with no adaptors. The Dell was recognised and a profile was loaded by 10.3
Most important point :-
I adjusted the Mac Mini screen output resolution to EXACTLY the Dell W2600 Native Resolution of 1280 x 768 (WXGA) (720p HDTV).
with a mismatched native resolution the modern TV's like your Philips 37" will start to resample and might make artefacts (mine did!)
The Mini's 32MB video RAM will not drive much higher screen resolutions than 720p anyway!
Well, after some playing , and loading of helper programs like VLC and MTR , then you'll find that Mac Mini to big LCD is the best ever quality that you've seen your DVD's played. When you download the Apple QT7 H.264 HDTV 720p trailers, you'll have seen the best ever TV quality imaginable!!!!
for extended use as a desktop PC, the Mac Mini would be better firing into a 17-19" LCD,
the 26-42" displays are so big that you have to stand 6+ feet away from them at least !!
I used a BT dongle (I had it lying around) and the Apple BT keybd and mouse work well, in fact, I can type from the other end of the garden - just I can't see what I'm typing!
I bought my 3rd & last Mac Mini tonight for Euro 399 (£264!!!) as the blowout of the Rev.A 1.25GHz 40GB 256RAM 32 VRAM models. My main Mini really uses its 1GB ramstick when encoding MPG4 via the EyeTV200, but the sub £300 price makes the Mini phenomenal, unbeatable and so versatile!
I'm sure you'd be happy with the Rev.B with the BTO options until Rev.C comes out!
what's the native resolution of your Philips LCD? is it video protected path?