Apple Media Center : Mac Mini or Apple TV

Well today, I felt the need to do a little speculation about Apple's product line. In the last year Apple has been pushing harder into the consumer electronics market with its iPhone and AppleTV products. Now it's a pretty natural transition to see that Apple hopes to make the iPhone the future of the iPod family and they're well on their way to doing so.

The AppleTV is a slightly different beast in itself, now one could argue that its an obvious derivative of the Mac Mini and based on the design of the device its pretty hard to argue. So I thought it would only be fair to compare the two to see which is better for the home theater. However, the basic functionality of the AppleTV makes it more iPod like than a Mini, which is probably to streamline its core functionality to fit the living room environment. So what did Apple do to make this a reality?

1. Syncing from iTunes
2. HDMI/ Component Cable connections
3. Simplified Software/UI all geared towards playing media

Now the overall problem with this is that though it does its job pretty well but people will always want their Apple device to do more. This is where the Mac Mini fills in the gap quite nicely, after all its a computer that can handle just about all of your media center needs right? Sort of, lets see what the Mini has going for it to fill in the gaps:

1. Ability to manage and play just about any kind of media
2. DVD playback
3. You aren't tied to iTunes or Apple software for that matter

Now it would seem that the Mac Mini is the perfect media center device disguised as a computer, but it has some pretty big deficiencies. Lack of HDMI or any TV standard connection is a pretty big problem for those who aren't tech savvy. Some people just want something they can plug into their TV and have it just work. DVI is an option but converter cables shouldn't be necessary. The other issue is navigation, there really isn't a hand held remote that's good at running OS X so expecting Apple's trimmed down version isn't going to cut it. Note: Front Row is a great software navigation for playing media but not managing it.

So which is the better home media device... well its got to be the Mac Mini simply since it can do a lot of which the AppleTV can do and then some. Now for most Apple fans this article is terribly dated and doesn't tell you anything you don't already know. However, what this does bring to light is that the AppleTV and Mac Mini could merge into a family line that could kick some serious butt in the home media market. Also with lingering rumors that the Mini is doomed it seems that a natural transition would be to fold a lot of the Mini's strengths into the AppleTV line. Giving us a device with the following:

1. HDMI/Component Cable hook up
2. Simplified UI optimized for TV
3. DVD Playback (or ability to import DVDs like CDs)
4. Media Management and Playback

It would seem another winner would be in works if ever happens.