Ah yes but as I said I'm after a Media Centre, so I'll be using my TV as a monitor. An all in one Screen/Computer ain't much use to me.....

...and the <submit> button's gone again...Cut 'n paste time....refresh...ah there it is.....

With you now Ernie !! If you are interested I can have a word with my Apple supplier to get you a price ,though Apples do more or less sell for the same price everywhere !! but a couple of quid off is better than nowt as they say

...If Apple are discontinuing the Mini Mac (Did I understand you right?) or are not upgrading the sound output to Multi channel then the chances are i'll go PC/Vista/ Media Centre on the grounds that,

a. I'm not after a built in screen of the imac
b. I'm unlikely to be forking out Mac Pro money on what is essentially a Media Server.

..... but a discount on the iphone when it arrives would be luveeerrrly.

...oh and by the way, when a say Multichannel sound output I mean Dolby Digital/THX/...etc not AAC.

A far as I can see no manufacturers of Home cinema amps are decoding AAC at the mo'

You're right that the Apple TV sound support is poor - If you've a separate amplifier then it can support dolby logic I & II to a point - see http://www.thismuchiknow.co.uk/?p=34 or put apple tv surround sound into google.
otherwise you might need a griffin firewave - http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/firewave/
I use an imac in the kitchen which has a long lead to the TV in the lounge as a second monitor and then I have a 1TB network attached storage drive with movies and music etc on.
That way the imac is available to all to see email etc (also run eyeTV to record freeview TV) and can run movies and recorded shows to the TV in the lounge. (sound via sony surround system)
Network drive means same movies and music are available to G5 mac upstairs.
Only issue with this setup is remote control - luckily bluetooth from mobile works - http://www.salling.com/
I would prefer to have the frontrow interface of an _applet_v but can't justify the cost rihgt now as this setup is working fine.

For a really good setup and some interesting 'workarounds' for the limitations of itunes etc see http://www.buildamediaserver.com/
Worth noting that lots of this is possible at much less expense than this guy did it!

Post edited by: bert, at: 21/06/2007 12:47

This added by Ernie - my software update then mucked it up but I'm hoping all fixed now....

ahh very similar to the heath robinson windows affair I have running now....

I've got 750Gb PC upstairs acting as a movie/music/photo server, I then via a wireless network stream to a Laptop downstairs which plugs into the TV...

I've variously tried on the laptop,

a. Multi front ends (itunes7.0, WMP9.0, Google Picassa)
b. TVedia
c. Windows Media centre

....but I'd really like to go down the Apple front Row route or _applet_V if either,

a. True Multichannel support was possible either as an output from the jack (i'd already read the Thismuchiknow article - Ta anyway)
b. Convert DVD VOB files to H264 with DD/THX sound (Not aac)

On the windows route some clever people are now building an all in one media pc that INCLUDES Sky plus functionality ie. no need for an extra Sky box anymore (and they're working on an HD version too)...just plug your sky lead into your PC and it's all fully integrated into your media centre.

God I hope the wind blows soon so I can forget all this for a while......