Apple M1 Mac mini review

[Durgesh Katkar]

Thanks..Regards.

[Stacey Dunleavy]

Thanks for the review. Considering my limited funds, this is the upgrade I may go for. My one big question: can I slave my old iMac to it as a monitor and external storage? What about migrating my apps folder and upgrading all my Adobe apps?

[Oliver Peters]

I have no idea about using the iMac as a display. You will need to re-install all apps fresh, because you want as many of them to be native for the M1 chip as possible. This means all new App Store downloads and new Adobe downloads. Adobe’s release versions are not yet native to my knowledge, but some of the public betas are (or soon will be). You also have to be careful with what works and what doesn’t. For example, the Resolve 17.0 betas are not compatible, but the 17.1 betas are. Quite a few video plug-ins will not work.

[Jay Soriano]

Currently have a 2015 MBP with an Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt(not compatible with Thunderbolt 3/4) going component out to my Sony PVM-14L5.

Looking to upgrade to a Mac Mini M1 with 16GB RAM. Any suggestions of a low cost Thunderbolt 3/USB-C playback option going analog component out to my Sony PVM? UltraStudio 4K is over $2000.

[Oliver Peters]

You might look at Elegato (Video Capture | elgato.com) . The linked unit should work over regular the USB-A ports, but I suspect it only works for capture, not output. The Intensity should work over USB-3 (Blackmagic Design Intensity Shuttle for USB 3.0 BINTSSHU B&H (bhphotovideo.com). That’s the same as USB-C, so you may simply need a USB-C to USB-3 adapter cable. Or the Intensity might simply work plugged into the mini’s USB-A ports. You may need to update the Blackmagic Desktop Video drivers.

If that doesn’t work, they maybe you can find a used BMD UltraStudio Express with the breakout cables. That would be a TB2 device, but *should* work with TB3>TB2 adapter.