Mac Mini for Home Theatre?

Hey Guys-

I am brand new here becuase I was finally driven over the edge by my PC and I now have a MacBook on the way and was looking into getting a MacMini to keep in my home theatre console, although I am not sure it meets my requirements.

I built my PC so I have no problems modifying hardware or installing components.....

I am looking for a way to stream music and video from my home based "server" to my TV and surround sound, I know apple has the AppleTV deal but I dont have widescreen so that's out, plus I would like to be able to install a bigger harddrive and use it as a DVR then I could pull the captures off and burn them to DVD on my "server"

Anyone have an opinion on this or other options I should investigate?

Thanks ahead of time.
Josh

123MacMini.com has a small HTPC section:

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=64

AVS Forums has a great Mac HTPC section: (check out the Stickied topics there!)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=115

A list of various Media Center software for Mac:

http://www.pure-mac.com/mediacenter.html

Elgato makes the great EyeTV Tivo-style software as well as hardware for both SD and HD recording:

http://www.elgato.com/

Keyspan makes some nice remotes:

http://www.keyspan.com/products/homepage.2.productList.Remotes.spml

Lacie makes some great external hard drives:

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/range.htm?id=10033

Newer Technology makes some great external hard drives that match the Mini: (up to a Terabyte!)

http://www.newertech.com/products/externalhd.php

FreeNAS is an excellent file server operating system: (my uptime is 22 days, ever since I installed it in my network closet!)

http://www.freenas.org/