I don't think I need a Mac Mini for my new setup.

Remember when Steve Jobs called blu-ray "just a bag of hurt?" That's what DLNA is like with Macs.

Not to discourage you from trying, but what you'll probably find out is that there's often a difference between reading about the specs and supposed capabilities on paper of something and then actually setting that something up and living with it day in and day out.

The crowd here tends to advocate Macs and Apple TVs at their HDTVs all networked over gigabit whenever possible. There are many reasons for that, but that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself.

FWIW, I use the ATV2 quite often for Netflix and viewing recent pics streamed from the MBP. Netflix doesn't stream in 1080 so I'm fine with 720p. Looks great. If I want to watch something from the MBP that can't be streamed, I just hook up the MBP via mini-HDMI to HDMI and I now have a 47" monitor. Other streaming content I just use the BD player which has built-in WiFi.