Now that the Apple TV is finally shipping, one must be wondering whether to get one over a Mac mini — which Mac fans previously chose as their media center alternative. Even here, at Mac Recon, we’ve shown you various guides in how to shape a Mac into a media center — but now that there’s a simpler (and cheaper) way to get a media center of your own, which is the best to choose?
Overall. The Apple TV is half the price of a Mac mini ($300 compared $600), and also half the size. But does it have half of the functionality? If we’re talking strictly in media center terms, then no. But it lacks the media center expandability a full-featured computer could give us. Such an example would be that so far, you’ll be stuck running whatever software Apple throws at it. In the other hand, a Mac mini could run Apple’s software, and then expand into one of elGato’s DVRs, or perhaps Democracy, if you wanted to.
Value. The Apple TV is just a media center box — no more. In contrast, the Mac mini is a full-featured Mac — you can use it as a media center, for work, or for whatever software it may be capable of running. But an important thing to be taken into account is that whatever you may choose, you’ll end up spending more than on just either box. For example, the Apple TV ships without video cables, it’s designed to be used in an HDTV (expensive if you don’t have one already), and still needs a computer to stream media to it (but I’m guessing you have one, or you wouldn’t be reading this blog). And the Mac mini ships without a keyboard, mouse, monitor or TV cables. So you still have to get the stuff that makes the systems think outside their small boxes.
Future. The Apple TV has USB ports, so Apple may be thinking to expand it somehow (a DVR, perhaps?) — not to mention that its software is upgradable, making new features for granted at some point of the future. The Mac mini, being the computer it is, the sky’s the limit as to what you may be running on it someday.
Decisions, decisions. If you need a computer besides a media center, the Mac mini’s a no-brainer. But if you already have a great computer setup, and don’t want to lug it into the living room, the Apple TV’s the way to go. So just think about what you need — and Apple’s not making the decision easy for us thanks to their reality distortion field. But in the end, many I know are choosing the Apple TV just because of one fact: it’s cheaper than another computer.
As a sidenote, you might want to check out our Mac Media Center guide if you’re not considering the Apple TV.
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[tags]Apple,Mac,AppleTV,iTunes,Media[/tags]
Arjun Muralidharan on March 23rd, 2007 at 7:46 am says:
Actually the idea of the Mac Mini didn’t occur to me as an alternative… my gripe with Apple TV is the lack of support for videos not in iTunes. Here in Switzerland, I can’t buy TV shows, and downloading torrents is legal if you own the original, so I do that.
I think a Mac Mini would be a good fit.
Frank on March 23rd, 2007 at 9:49 am says:
And the Mac mini can support a variety of video formats, to boot. Are you listening, Apple?
Travis on March 25th, 2007 at 6:30 pm says:
Yeah, they seem to hint that maybe one day they will update Apple TV to make it worth your purchase, but for now it seems pretty useless. I am considering the Mac Mini option myself.