Mac Mini is double or triple the price depending on which version you get. I looked at Mac Minis before I bought the Popcornhour but at the time, HDMI wasn't supported. It is supported in the current version.

I'll rephrase: Popcornhour advertises that it will "Play Anything"

These are the formats listed in the specifications:

Supported Media File Formats

Video containers:
MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG, DAT, VOB)
MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
AVI, ASF, WMV
Matroska (MKV)
MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

Video Decoders:
XVID SD/HD
MPEG-1
MPEG-2 MP@HL
MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
MPEG-4.10 (H.264) : BP@L3, MP@L4.0, HP@L4.0, HP@L4.1
WMV9 : MP@HL
SMPTE 421M (VC-1) : MP@HL, AP@L3

Audio Containers:
AAC, M4A
MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
WAV
WMA
FLAC
OGG

Audio Decoders:
Dolby Digital
DTS
WMA, WMA Pro
MPEG-1 Layer 1, 2, 3
MPEG-4 AAC-LC
MPEG-4 HE-AAC
MPEG-4 BSAC
LPCM
FLAC
Vorbis

Audio Pass-Through:
DTS, DTS-HD HR, DTS-HD MA
Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD

Other Formats:
ISO, IFO navigation
AVCHD navigation
Blu-ray** ready (requires addition of compatible BD-ROM and at least 2GB USB memory stick)

Photo Formats:
JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF

Subtitle Formats:
SRT, MicroDVD SUB, SSA, SUB/IDX
DRM

Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)
Janus DRM (WMDRM-PD)

I've played 1080P MKV's residing on a ReadyNAS raid array via NFS without issues. I've also used SMB with a standard defintion transport stream (.ts) file residing on an AZBox networked satellite receiver without issues.

I do most of my viewing from the local hard drive (1TB) because my Popcornhour box travels a lot. I use SMB to load the hard drive from where-ever and the backups are kept on the Raid array.

GoogleTV and AppleTV are low end devices that do not play back all file formats.

Popcornhour http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=catalog is was ahead of the game. The model C200 networked media player will play back any file format and has provision for a local hard drive or blue ray drive.

The C-200 supports NFS, SMB, FTP, and multiple streaming protocols. It also has a built in bit torrent client for media downloads.

I've had mine for a year and am very satisfied. It probably won't work with iTunes, but then, I'm not in to proprietary formats that cost money and are infected with DRM.

It's a great hobby. I have both a 10' and 12' CBand dishes along with a Primestar KU dish installed in my back yard.

Here's a list of free programming available on C band: http://www.global-cm.net/MPEGlistCBandUS.html

$150 to $450 in equipment should get you running. You'll need a digital DVB-S/S2 receiver and a compatible LNBF. You will also need some means of aiming the dish. It could be a hand crank or a linear actuator with an appropriate controller.

I like the AZBox line of digital receivers http://azbox.com/. These are Hi Definition receivers that support the latest DVB-S2 transmission standards and are one of the few receivers that will decode 4:2:2 video used by some of the networks. The Ultra, Elite, and Premium models will allow you to connect a hard drive for program recording.

There's also lots of older used equipment available from ebay. The older equipment will probably not support DVB-S2 transmissions.

And why is connecting amateur radio equipment to the internet illegal?

Amateur radio operators have been using the internet as a transport and control link for many years. An example of this is Echolink: http://www.echolink.org/

Amateur radio connectivity to the internet is not illegal in most if not all of the remaining world. I don't know why France would be any different.

If a licensed service is causing the interference, there is no basis for a complaint. Unlicensed services have no priority with regard to licensed services and must put up with the interference.

If the interference is from another unlicensed source, you still have to put up with the interference. The FCC is not interested.

Now, if an unlicensed service is causing interference to a licensed service, the FCC may be interested, but the licensed service will likely have to track down the source of interference on his own.

The FCC doesn't care. This is unlicensed equipment.

I have moderation points, but I am unable to moderate -- nothing happens.

It was my understanding that Voyager's computers used CORE memory since it is not susceptible to radiation induced soft errors.

You can still use bit torrent to to download the programming that you want!

But then, if your ISP is Comcast, it may take a little longer.