What are your thoughts on having video on a music server?

[RankStranger]

Hi all. Pick your brain, if I may?

 

I currently have a 2010 mac mini that I'm using headless as a music server. It's really just basic config but I have big plans for it when I can afford to do upgrades. I plan to run USB to a DAC and firewire for the storage. Anyway the other day I saw my friend's Boxee setup for his downloaded movies and thought it looked pretty cool. My question is this. If I install Boxee and have all my TV shows and stuff download to a USB drive connected to the mini is it likely to affect the performance of my mini as a music server. It wouldn't be doing both at the same time as both systems are in the same room but would just having the extra software on the hard drive and the extra connections made (HDMI) affect sound quality?

 

Has anyone had experience with this before I go to the trouble to install everything? I'd appreciate any input as I'm pretty sure I wouldn't hear much difference in the current config but I'm worried that it will be more noticeable when I pimp it out.

 

RS

 

[bikemig]

I have a fairly similar set-up with my mac mini. The mini makes a great htpc; I use it to stream music and video but almost never at the same time. I haven't heard any degradation in terms of the sound quality. Now I don't use as high end equipment as many (if not most) of the people on this forum. To stream music, I use a squeezebox duet and audioengine A5s. To stream video, I simply use my browser. I've tried boxee and liked it but it crashed more often than I would have liked on my system. Miguel

 

[mstieb]

I also see no issue with mixed content on a media server, so long as you're not trying to stream the two types simultaneously.