Alright guys, it's me again with a ridiculous question on the ATV/Mini debate. I've read up a little and viewed the ATV with Flash video last night and it looks very tempting to go this route instead of the Mac Mini; considering my basic needs of an HTPC with Internet for streaming audio/video and it's much cheaper. I've seen bits and pieces here and there regarding the comparisons and I know it all boils down to my needs, which again at the present time are basic. And since that is the case, I think the Mini may be overkill. However, in these situations as in many others, sometimes you don't realize it until after the fact that you should have spent a little more. In this case, at least it wouldn't be a costly mistake.

Initially I wanted a HTPC to use as an alternate computer for streaming audio/video, since connecting the laptop everytime was a pain in the neck. The ATV was perfect because of its connectivity and ease of use. However, the lack of internet browsing led more to the Mini. I just don't think at the present time I need a full on computer and could use the money for other things. It would be nice to have a Mac one day. I know the benefits of having a Mini over the ATV are endless, but is there any huge single significant something that comes to mind that I would be missing out on if I went with the ATV? Again, my needs are very basic.

As always, thank you all for your time!!!!!

You guys are awesome! :)

Correction: I meant to say browsing, not connecting.

Initially I wanted a HTPC to use as an alternate computer for streaming audio/video, since connecting the laptop everytime was a pain in the neck. The ATV was perfect because of its connectivity and ease of use. However, the lack of internet connection led more to the Mini.

What do you mean by "lack of internet connection"? Apple TV is obviously Internet-attached device. What exactly are you trying to do?

I meant to say browsing. Apologies.

You can browse the web on ATV with CouchSurfer (http://atvflash.com/couchsurfer.php). But if web browsing is your primary goal, I wouldn't bother with Apple TV.

Thanks Alex. It would only use the internet to access Streamed Audio/Video sites. Thanks for the link!

Not sure what streamed audio you're looking for, but you can put Boxee on the ATV which will give you Pandora, Last.FM and a bunch of other audio streaming sites. As for video, Boxee has CNN, Comedy Central, CBS, and a lot more. It also has Hulu, but it's become a contentious issue as Hulu doesn't want their content on TV sets. Check out Boxee.tv for info.

Must be said that boxee will also play on the mac mini, not sure if it's integrated into frontrow, but I'm guessing yes.

B

You might gain some insight from this thread:

Link: http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=55042

Its all about the ATV and the swapping of its wifi-card with a Broadcom BCM70012 Mini PCI-e HD Decoder Chipset.

Let me make this clear from the start, THIS IS NOT OUT YET and while the developers are confidant in the release once some politics are settled anything can and will happen so keep that in mind.

That broadcom card will allow the ATV to decode 1080p content FULL QUALITY without breaking a sweat and reading thru the thread I saw some mention that Broadcom is working with Adobe to get flash supported as well, but since flash has never interested me I just skimmed over the details.

The card can be installed in all ATVs (at the expense of wifi) and any INTEL Mac mini (again at the expense of wifi) PRIOR TO the 2009 model... Apple took away the mini-pcie slot in todays shipping Mac mini model. I guess the wifi is onboard now so the slot went away.

The Broadcom card can also be swapped into (at the expense of wifi) a number of Apples intel based laptops.

Something to consider anyway and that card isn't just for ATV and/or OS X you can buy an intel clone with a mini-pcie slot on it and install linux or windows and (once the new release is out) install XBMC and realize the same advantage.

Hope this helps...

Dave

P.S. Please don't take this to mean that Apple would update ATVs own software to recognize the card... because the chances of that happening are little to none. But XBMC and I'm sure BOXEE and perhaps VLC and some of the other notable home theater software developers will be all over this.

THanks Dave. Sure does!