Is there some reason I should get HDTV instead of a display?

[BLINGMW]

There is a program to run sound from multiple outputs. I don't know if this is what I'm thinking of, but try it and let me know. It's called Sound Source, click here to download it for free.

If that program can do it.... well, I haven't figured it out yet. It gave me a nice little menu that makes switching a little faster, but I wasn't able to get it to do both at once. And the media center apps I've tried usually have their own choice which overrides the system choice anyway, so then it gets messy. I'll play with it some more.

Good luck otherwise! I'm gonna be setting up a Mac-based HTPC in my townhouse this fall. Probably a G4 Mini as a server, streaming to an AppleTV as a cheapo front end. Front Row can't be beat (on the Mac at least) for simplicity.

I was tempted by the AppleTV, but at least for now the hardware specs concerned me. Apparently it's not fast enough to run Silverlight (Netflix) and I read of stuttering problems with some codecs and services. Not a huge surprise, it's a stripped down 1GHZ Pentium something or other... I just wanted a little more headroom for potential future apps. If its replacement comes out soon and hardware is a little more up to date, I bet it'd be the way to go, but I still saw some value in having the DVD drive right there in the same box too.

I was pretty disappointed with Front Row last night, I wasn't able to get it to do Hulu OR Netflix well at all. I could play, but no fast foward, rewind, anything. Oh and Hulu wouldn't play fullscreen. And that Understudy app didn't add in all the streams... bleh. Tried Hulu Desktop on its own, and it's great! But I have yet to find one app that can do the few things that I want. :?