Current Mac Mini and HD decoding

Hi there,
I am considering buying a Mac Mini as an HTPC to connect via DVI->HDMI to an LCD TV. I was wondering if any of you has experience in playing HD content on a current generation Mac Mini and how does the Mini cope with it. Please note that I am not talking about BluRay since the drive only supports DVD, but rather .MOV, .MKV or .AVI videos encoded at 1080p using codecs like H.264 or similar. Can the Mini decode those without missing any frames on a 1920x1080 LCD TV?
Thanks in advance!

480p seems to be the minis domain with H.264
The processor hits 100% in spots and can find a safe cushion of 9% free CPU from time to time. It seemed to lock on fine at 24fps constant, with the smallest of climbs to 24.57fps on the BBC Motion Gallery Andes Film [848 x 480 resolution].
Full screen locked on fine but I didn't have any fps readouts up. Only stuttered once for a short while, could have been the end of the download stream.
Compression artifacting is still readily visible on this particular 480p encoding when viewed on the much sharper 2005FPW LCD monitor.
This is why I primarily never saw the Front Row package ever being available for the current minis. Apple wants it to be a centrepiece for H.264 which the current graphics and cpu powered minis just aren't up for (H.264 pushes G5's and the fastest Intel CPUs to the wall as well when decoding.) Then again, a mini with all the extra hardware wouldn't be the mini I want. A low powered, silent beast that sips electricity and is perfect as a heavy web browser/email task oriented machine.
--add a G5 and a faster GPU and you end up with an iMac which low and behold is what Front Row ships on
Jan J.

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