WTB MacMini any Intel processor for media center

[WhiteShadow]

I am looking to set up a media center and would love to power it with a macmini, I'm not sure what the prices of these are here, any discussion and/or offers would be awesome.

I'm not 100% certain what I am looking for so any suggestion of setups and equipment. I have the Klipsch 4.2 promedia but I am currently using just a splitter from my iMac to power them. If anyone knows of a good soundcard/amp to get a better more dynamic sound would be helpful.

I have heard good things about the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, I have direct tv.

I have a Philips Universal Remote Control SRU9600/37 is there some device that will enable me to use this remote with the Mac either with the macs IR or some sort of IR to USB device?

any suggestions would be helpful and prices of equipment and offers.

[SthrnCmfrtr]

If you're able to upgrade to a surround sound system, do it. The Intel Mac mini (not sure about PPC) has optical audio out, which is very, very nice. DVD-Audio and SACD rips preserving the surround sound can be ripped as normal songs (have to keep them lossless) and stored in iTunes. Leopard's Front Row will show VIDEO_TS movies, so you can get surround sound out of DVD rips on your hard drives (although I hear the remote behaves a bit oddly).

Dunno how much of that you already know/care about, but at least you got a free bump :)