Mac mini vs iMac vs build my own a/v pc

[happybunny]

Since i'm bored out of my skull and since i also can't make up my mind on this, I thought I'd post a poll to entertain myself.

Here's the sitrep:

I want to plug a "pc" back into my tv/stereo in the living room for the typical mp3/movie watching powers there in.

Here are my options:

1. The easiest is a iMac - very plug and play with its own LCD.

2. Second easiest is a Mac mini with the additional purchase of an LCD panel.

3. iMac/mini but running a linux distro instead since these are nice living room friendly hardwares.

4. Build out my own linux media center box on a living room friendly pc.

5. A laptop. This is here since the iMac is about a thousand bux, but so is a moderate apple laptop, so its an option.

So....which will it be?

[XiaoKJ]

I voted, and I'm first... haha

Anyway, I'd say a custom built hardware is the best of the options. This is because Apple hardware comes with the Apple tax, and you may be able to find a DRM chip on it.

Secondly, though Macs are sleek, a multimedia set top box is meant to be shelved in some corner, not for everyone to see. And Macs may not have the nice hardware you want. (by this I mean the video hardware and audio hardware.) And linux on Macs is still not a all-rounded solution. There are still some things you cannot control, even if you use an all F/LOSS solution.

Needless to say, linux has better multimedia support when it comes to things Apple frowns upon. And you can run things like real videos on cds. You'd only be trading H.264 (and only for a while until it gets rev-engineered) for these nice things.

EDIT: when I typed the post, it was simply funny seeing a poll with 1 vote and getting 100%. Right after I posted, someone else voted... sigh...

[dkeav]

if you are planning to hook up to a HDTV in a HD kinda way, ie DVI to HDMI or the likes, make sure that the newest mac's especially the mac mini have DVI-I or DVI-D output, i know that the first series mac mini's do not, so are pushing a an analog signal over the dvi port, which doesnt work very well for a digital interface like HDMI

that being said, i used a mac mini as my HTPC running linux for a long time until i got a new plasma tv, then i had to switch to a different machine that had a true dvi-i video card, but still if the new ones have this feature or you dont require it, they make great lil home theatre boxes, as a mythtv front end, or just a general media front end

[tucolino]

i have mixed feelings... i love my macbook with gentoo on it, but i can think of a a good reason against you using a mac as a tv/media center.

the MATSUSHI TA dvd drives on these new macs are known to be a pain in the a** regarding the region lock. as far as i'n concerned, some of them cannot be used region-free on linux using mplayer, xine, vlc, or whatever you use...

in any case, be aware that you might not be able to play some of dvd's if they are from a different region than what the drive is set to. i think you can change it up to 5 times or so.

tuco