apple tv or mac mini?

[edgarbc1]

want to set up something for Mom
she does not use computers at all
thinking front row for home movies of my baby and other kid
and music server through the TV speaker system using Front Row..

which is a better option... apple TV or mac mini?
I will be on hand to update the movie listings and music as needed.
pros and cons...

thanks!!
tia!

Edgar

[C(-)ris]

AppleTV is easier to use, but limited by the formats it can use. If she lives inside the iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie world she will be great with the Apple TV.

[guitarist]

Mac Mini is a computer, no matter how you set it up, it's not an appliance, it's a computer, and your mom will be using a computer, with your help and guidance and set up and maintenance, to watch movies.

An Apple TV is an entertainment appliance, and better recommended for a beginner, or one who just likes to enjoy the content.

[MacArtist]

If your mom hasn't used computers at all, the Apple TV is going to have a fairly easy learning curve.

One thing to remember is to keep an eye on storage. I stream from my Mac Pro to the Apple TV so I went with the 40 GB model.

[lazydays]

Normally I would say appletv but my recent appletv problems have me wishing I had gone the mac mini route. The trouble with the appletv is that you really have no ability to diagnose and fix problems other than to do factory restore. With the macmini you could do...whatever you want.

[guitarist]

C(-)ris wrote:
AppleTV is easier to use, but limited by the formats it can use. If she lives inside the iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie world she will be great with the Apple TV.

The notion of it having "limited formats" is sort of a joke. I seriously doubt his mom knows or cares what media file "format" is. To most of our parents (and many of us) there's no such thing as a "file format", there's just "movies" and "music". And Apple TV plays the only ones that matter.

I can't imagine his mom calling him up, and saying

"Son, I can't play my archive of encoded DiVX clips on my Apple TV, and it can't read my AVI files. My FLAC-encoded music and WMV files don't even show up!"

[abevilac]

I use a mini as a media server and it's wonderful to have all of my DVDs on it as well as all of my music and I just love watching movies on Netflix or just doing a quick web search, but I have to agree that the AppleTV is probably the way to go. I have done tech support for my mom and mother-in-law over the years and if it's possible to click on the wrong thing, they will do it and somehow everything gets mucked up. Yeah, aTV.

[Kramerica]

Apple TV - easier, HDMI, much cheaper, and will do fine for the tasks mentioned.

[kj4btkljv]

Apple TV +1

I personally use a Mac Mini as a media player, but I wouldn't make my Mom do the same.

Jeff

[davester]

The original post says that edgarbc1's mom doesn't use a computer at all. My understanding is that an appleTV is primarily a companion product to a computer and is of limited utility without a computer to stream from. Also, if she wanted to use frontrow to get TV shows or any other content from the internet would require an internet connection. It seems to me that it might make more sense to look outside the apple sphere for the functionality requested.