8 ms·
> "Unless you used optical audio, audio input, or the SD-card reader" Craftily hidden in a footnote for that paragraph.
by lucideer 8y ago
> "Unless you used optical audio, audio input, or the SD-card reader"
Craftily hidden in a footnote for that paragraph.
- someguydave 8y agoI use optical audio in a mac mini as a home theater TV driver. No thanks.
- someguydave 8y agoNow that I think about it, axing the optical audio ports was probably a deliberate move by Apple to nudge home TV users of mac minis into using Apple TVs, where they have way more control over the interface and content. edit: apparently Apple TV doesn't have optical audio either.
- nsnick 8y agoThe AppleTV doesn't have optical audio either.
- someguydave 8y agoOk well I guess that's even dumber than I thought. I hope apple takes that $2 per device savings in optical audio parts laughing to the bank.
- bluegreyred 8y agoDon't judge, maybe the next version of the mac mini will be waterproof!
- someguydave 8y agolol
- berberous 8y agoI doubt it -- the number of users who use a Mac Mini as an entertainment center is probably so small Apple barely thinks about them. More likely is that HDMI has superseded the optical audio port for most users, so they save money by removing a port few use these days.
- saxonww 8y agoIt's still a little weird. I think a lot of people would have a separate A/V receiver and speakers; maybe this is changing as old equipment gets replaced, but I suspect there are still far more homes with optical-capable A/V receivers than HDMI-capable ones. This is just a standard annoying thing with Apple though. Their designs are very 'forward looking' in that they don't consider what potential customers already have so much as they do what their own future peripherals are going to need.
- chipotle_coyote 8y agoAt this point HDMI is not a particularly new thing; my Marantz receiver from ~2007 had HDMI connections on it. Audio-only digital connections aren't necessarily going the way of the dodo yet, but they're becoming progressively more niche. So are home theater PCs, of course. Anecdotally: I do have a Mac mini with my receiver, which I replaced this year. But the new receiver not only has USB input, it has wifi and built-in clients for Spotify, Tidal, Pandora, TuneIn, Roon, whatever protocol Windows uses for media sharing whose name I'm utterly blanking on right now, and a dozen or so other services, with Apple Airplay 2 theoretically coming in an update.
- throwaway9d0291 8y agoThese days optical audio is dying when it comes to home theater systems, primarily due to its lack of codec support. You can't passthrough DTS-HD over optical, you can over HDMI.
- kalleboo 8y agoI used to use optical audio but it was superseded by HDMI for home theater and USB for hifi. edit: I'd be curious to see what people are using optical for today (I'm under the impression audio pros mainly use USB interfaces as well)
- silversmith 8y agoI bought a soundbar for my TV a couple months ago. Recent Samsung model. Has optical. I beleive the only other option was 3.5mm jack.
- kalleboo 8y agoInteresting. I bought a pretty cheap soundbar this year (from Yamaha) and I think it had optical as an option (along with 3.5mm and Bluetooth) but the main interface was HDMI-ARC. And it works great over ARC! The TV remote's volume buttons get passed through automatically, and it turns itself off and on along with the TV. I don't even know where the soundbar's own remote is anymore.
- mikestew 8y agoShockingly, I need optical for a $300 set of gaming headphones I purchased within the last year (Astro A50). Maybe it’s the only way they can do pass through, dunno.
- kalleboo 8y agoNever would have guessed that for headphones! I guess they have some kind of a dock?
- rsync 8y agoIsn't that little headphone port a combo optical/electrical port that you can plug either headphones or mini-toslink-whatever into ? Isn't that what it was before ? I swear I had previous mac minis with a combo port like that ... why would they not continue that ?
- someguydave 8y agoYes that is precisely the thing that used to be in all macs that they discontinued
- dTal 8y agoI missed that! So not only is 'not any less useful or versatile than the outgoing Mac Mini, including the generous assortment of ports' a shockingly low bar, it's also what might charitably be termed 'rather a bit of a fib'.
- artursapek 8y agoMarco gotta keep those free gifts from Apple coming in
- scarface74 8y agoYou obviously haven’t seen Marco complain about the MacBook, Apple Watch, the existing Mac Pro, the 2014 Mac Mini upgrade, etc. Marco made a few million when Tumblr was sold, has a profitable podcast app and is on either the most popular or second most popular Apple related podcast. I doubt that he’s hurting so much for money that he has to lie to get a loaner Mac Mini.
- djsumdog 8y agoIt also doesn't look like it has a DisplayPort. If I wanted to hook it into my KVM, I'd need a USB-C to display port dongle.
- jdboyd 8y agoWith the old one, you would probably need a mini DP to DP dongle anyway (I did for my displayport KVM on my 2012 Mini), so this isn't really worse, but it might mean you now need a different dongle.
- pkamb 8y agoI'm really hoping there's a good/reliable solution for 30" Apple Cinema Display > Dual Link DVI > Mini Display Port > [INSERT PRODUCT HERE] > USB-C
- dwaite 8y agoFrom what I've heard, you'll want a USB-C to DisplayPort+USB-A adapter, and an Active DVI (with dual link) to DisplayPort adapter.
- stinky613 8y agoIt has four Thunderbolt 3 connectors. Thunderbolt 3 features DisplayPort 1.2
- asveikau 8y agoThey probably figured that people who want these are acceptably served by USB.
- jdboyd 8y agoYeah. For SD cards in particular, having the reader slot on the back has always made it useless for me.
- skykooler 8y agoThe SD card reader was the first thing to break as well. And the cost of replacing it was way more than a SD > USB dongle.
- hahamrfunnyguy 8y agoHa. I completely forgot about the SD card reader. Probably because I plugged it in and never looked at the back again. Having an SD card reader on the back of a device just isn't practical. I've just been using a USB hub with an external reader.
- asveikau 8y agoExternal card readers are more flexible. You can get more options with multiple slots, or card sizes, or whatever. Similarly with audio... I don't know if this is true with Macs too, but on PC laptops I've often found the mic quality sucks or has interference, and I started using USB inputs.