Just got a iMac! Should I get a Mac Mini too?

[MiniMoe]

I have PowerDVD 5 and trialed 6. The codecs from 5 also ship with Beyond Media. Most HTPC buffs consider PowerDVD to be the lowest quality of the Windows DVD players, with WinDVD only slightly better. I agree with that. But there's no way PDVD is 10 times better than Apple's DVD player. When viewed on a 1920 x 1200 display, I'd rate them about the same on film content, with PDVD slightly better on video content.

Apple needs to have NVIDIA port the PureVideo codecs to OS-X. They'll run fine with ATI hardware, albeit a little slower than on NVIDIA hardware. You can buy the NVIDIA codecs for cheap, but the audio one only works with Windows MCE or MP. The one that comes with TheaterTek will work with many other applications.

Unfortunately, TheaterTek won't work properly under Parallels, but is reported to work fine on a Mini under Windows.

A $30 USD DVD won't do TV/PVR. I had to work late last night during the final 2 hours of "24" and it was nice to have that as 18GB in Beyond TV's cache on the hard drive as full HDTV rather than have to buy a heavily compressed SDTV version from iTMS. I'm sure one of the EyeTV HDTV tuners would do the same.
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Moe
1.66GHz Core-Duo Mini, 2GB/120GB, Apple 23" Cinema HD Display
Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mouse, Apple iSight Camera
Apple USB Modem (for faxing), Bose Companion 2 Speakers
2.0GHz white MacBook 1GB/80GB

[nascar42]

The Apple DVD player needs a slider. As it is one can only go from clip to clip.

[gammada]

I definitely like the idea of using my Mac mini as a home theather but so far the experience has been less than appealing.

On one hand you've got nice audio quality and input/output options, a small computer case, the simple but excellent remote, you're able to make this all work sans keyboard --in order to save space and have a tidier room- and the fact that theres only one small LED light on the front of the unit helps to make the experience all the more graceful.

On the other, if you opt for the full-spec 1.66 Core Duo model, you're going to end-up with a silly DVD drive that can't be tweaked, cracked or induced into playing DVD's from other regions. Also the damn thing has trouble playing some mirror-perfect discs of mine that work flawlessly elsewhere and let's not mention that some menus on a few titles simply refuse to obey apple dvd player or its remote.

So for those attempting this, consider these quirks before venturing any further!
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Mac mini intel Core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz, SuperDrive (Region-Free), 2Gb RAM, 80Gb + Maxtor OneTouch III 160Gb + Maxtor Basics 320Gb

[Silver Samurai]

[Tenex]

[gammada]

Either VLC does not work on my Mini with alien-region DVD's or am doing something wrong. I went to the DVD prefs to change the default player to VLC but when I pop a disc into the unit, it displays the region-change warning.
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Mac mini intel Core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz, SuperDrive (Region-Free), 2Gb RAM, 80Gb + Maxtor OneTouch III 160Gb + Maxtor Basics 320Gb

[Tenex]