Since the introduction of the Apple TV, users have wondered if the extra price of a Mac mini would be justified when used as a media server. Macworld:
Easy-to-use as the Apple TV may be, it’s designed almost entirely as an adjunct to iTunes and the iTunes Store—bringing the contents of each to your television.
And that’s fine, but it’s also limiting. Unless you hack your Apple TV to allow Boxee and XBMC to run on it, you get only the content Apple wants you to have—no Netflix, no Hulu, no Comedy Central, no PBS, no Pandora, no Radio Time… you get the idea. In a time when people are increasingly interested in streaming Web-based media, the Apple TV is deaf to this desire. And, in a way, that reflects Apple’s approach to the iTunes Store: “People want to own their media.”
Except in an era when so much content is available on the Web (and much of it not worth owning), that sentiment seems increasingly outdated. For those who find it so, the Mac mini media server is a flexible and capable alternative.
I’m inclined to agree with Macworld. The Apple TV is a fine product (and easy as heck to setup and manage), but Apple’s limitations keep it from being the obvious solution for everyone.