Over at techie blog Engadget, they've got an article on how to turn your Mac mini into a media centre.
Essentially, it's that you should set up a big fileserver, run the display out to your TV, hook the audio up to your hi-fi and run the computer remotely from another machine using virtual networking. Which is fine... and, well, there's no reason that shouldn't work, but why on earth should it be so awkward?
Once you've factored in all the costs and are using various bits of hardware (perhaps something from Elgato) to get around the fact that it's not really built for this kind of thing, wouldn't it have just been cheaper to buy something else?
If you want a Mac mini to be your media hub, chances are it's because it's small and dinky and looks more like a space-age waffle toaster than a computer. But actually getting it to do those things makes it clunky, awkward and eradicates any savings you've made - and you'll need another computer to run the show anyway.
Although I've said before that I'd have liked to see a Mac media hub, this just isn't it.
