Mac mini vs Apple TV 1
Not really a vs situation, but I am currently toying with the idea of upgrading my Mac mini with a larger HDD.
What I am unsure of, is the capability of the Apple TV 1 and whether or not a similarly sized HDD in the ATV 1 would give any benefits over the Mac mini?
An iPhone, iPad and Macbook are also in the household for remote access.
Can't think of any real benefits over a Mac Mini other than price tbh, but only really applies if you're buying from scratch. You can get it to be almost computer-like by rooting it but you have to be pretty sadistic to want to do it on your own, or have to pay 50 bucks for ATV Flash. Further, I found half the most stuff in the latter didn't work.
Stick the drive in the Mini.
Never had an ATV but I don't think thre's anything it can do which a full-blown computer can't do better. Happy to be corrected if I've missed something.
Thanks for the replies so far. I don't expect it to replace the Mac, but perhaps be a low power media server.
TBH the Mac mini is not all that intrusive and a larger HDD might well do the trick, I was looking for different ways to integrate my NAS and have a non computer option for streaming, plus be able to use the ATV as a server for music. The iPad/iPhone can access and play media from the Macbook and Mac mini.
A large HDD in the Mac would perhaps work better than the NAS for music sharing, but there is obviously a higher power usage.
An ATV with large HDD, could be a useful portable media center if the content can be played by other i devices on a shared network.
Decisions, decisions. 
Stop being so cheap - have both 
I have a Synology NAS to store music & movies. I've got an ATV2 jail broken with Firecore connected to my TV upstairs, & a Boxee Box connected to my home cinema system. Both jail broken ATV2 & Boxee Box play every media I've thrown at them. Boxee box has the added advantage of being AirPlay enabled (like ATV), to stream videos from your iPhone / iPad.
Sadly, ATV2 is being sold at a premium now, because ATV3 cannot be jail broken as yet.
Why not install XBMC onto your Mac Mini. Ive just re-jailbroken my Apple TV1 and got the latest version (Eden 11) of XBMC on it, and its finally the complete media player. Saves on the price of a new hard drive and the pitfalls of re-installing your OS.
Ive messed around with it many times over the years from the very early days on the original xbox, but this version is the real deal. Once you have all your NAS shares added to the library, the iOS remote app operates it perfectly. It will even accept Airplay data, so if you have Spotify Premium on your iOS device, you have the ultimate remote control in the palm of your hand.
I believe that you can then use it as a UPNP server as well, but I havent tried this as I have no use for it.
Thanks for the info, but I'm going down the large HDD route and will convert all FLACs to ALAC.
I have used XBMC and like it very much, particularly on Linux machines, it didn't get used much, if at all on the Mac mini though.
An ATV2 with firecore loaded on to it and a NAS works really nicely. Good value too. Never used an an ATV1 so can't help there I'm afraid.
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