Originally Posted by alanw
BTW, recording a TV show != media center. See Meedio, XP Media Center Edition, MyHTPC, Freevo, MythTV, etc. PC-based, 10-foot interface, integrated remote control, no need for mouse, keyboard, or a half-dozen contraptions hanging out of every USB port.
MyHTPC, which is now known as Meedio (the commercial version of MyHTPC) is not a media center in the sense that it has no built-in functionality -- it uses external applications to play DVDs, etc. Freevo and MythTV are, OTOH, media centers but they do _not_ run under Windows, only Linux.
As you probably know, the XP Media Center was orginally a hardware/software product that sold for what? $1,300+ or more, IIRC.
I am not sure what, other than possibly MCE, you are referring to with the "integrated remote control, no need for mouse..."
This new Apple box might make a good platform for such a thing, but there is no software even close to doing it (and a Google search turns up absolutely nothing likely in development).
Using a Mac (including the Mini) for a media center is actually not that bad an idea. Assuming you get the Airport card with the machine, you can then buy an AirPort Express Base Station with AirTunes ($129) which gives you: 1. a wireless router (up to 10 machines plus a printer port) and 2. provides a optical output to connect to an audio amplifier. The audio for a DVD is sent wirelessly to the amp via the base station.
There is also the Keyspan Express Remote ($59) which gives the Mac remote control.
You can read about both products here:
http://tinyurl.com/3pexv
For software, there is Apple's DVD Player, plus there are Videolan (VLC) and MPlayer. Just like with Windows, as the hardware becomes more popular, the software will come.