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So I take it you are using a Mac display on your Mini? I ask because my latest infatuation is coming up with a good way of controlling external equipment through my Mini. The only way I know of that could be done now with off-the-shelf equipment would be with a USB IR blaster, like the IRTrans or ZephIR. I'm just not sure about the difficulty using their software. With Remote Buddy, I'm very close to ditching my Harmony Remote!
Actually no, I use a Dell (gasp!) W3000 30" LCD TV. It goes into power saving mode when there is no input, i.e. when the Mini's display goes to sleep. As soon as there's any input, the TV comes back on again in couple seconds, about the same as if you actually powered it on. When I'm controlling iTunes with the remote it uses Applescripts, which don't trigger this; but navigating the Applescript menus uses emulated keystrokes, which do (I have Finder call up the menus, so the buttons have different functions compared to when iTunes is active.)
For a while I used the irTrans + iRed to turn the TV on and off, until I discovered this more efficient method. The irTrans was not great because the little wired blasters attached to it were inconsistent. But I am about to bring it out of retirement, to use with the new EyeTV and a digital cable box (can't wait to have cable again!) To get around that problem I'll just position the actual irTrans unit in front of the cable box, and not rely on the wired blasters. I should say that I've heard the ZephIR software isn't (wasn't, anyway) great... but the iRed software is extremely good, and importantly, it has great Applescript support. It was very easy to integrate into my setup.
I should also say that my goals are a bit different from yours, and from most people who do this stuff. I want my Mac media center to be as cheap as humanly possible, and also as simple as possible. So I use a pre-owned G4 Mini; and I bought a refurbished Dell TV dirt cheap. A great thing: it's not technically an HDTV, but it is capable of displaying (not receiving) a resolution of ~1360x768. So As a display for the Mini it can actually show me 720p content (as long as the little G4 can handle it). Likewise, there aren't many other components to control... I use a $100 set of JBL creature II speakers so I'm limited to 2.1 sound at about 50 total watts. I have a small apartment, so it's good enough.
Having a dedicated menu window for iTunes has its advantages (for me). I love getting good use out of my display while listening to iTunes. If I'm not sure what song is playing or who sings it, I walk over to the media center and take a look. Front Row displays the album art quite large, and all the track info is equally large. Very readable.
Certainly. It's a trade off. Maybe I'm stuck in an old paradigm, but I want litening to MP3s to be like listening to a CD. With a CD player you can't see track info or album art, and I'm okay with that.
The other problem I have with FrontRow is that much of my music control is done with my little remote application on the iMac. That app remotely controls iTunes, not FrontRow (which is not scriptable). So there could be conflicts if I play an album through FrontRow, then tell iTunes to play something else from the iMac; if I go back to using the remote, FrontRow won't know what's going on.
But I see your point. You do indeed have to "burrow down" to get to the music from Front Row. And as far as displaying track info conveniently, there are other tools for this. Even Remote Buddy has a "floaty" option for this in the iTunes Behavior. At the moment, it's not very customizable.
I did notice the Remote Buddy 'floaty display' thing, it's very nice. I see that you can tell RB how long you want it to display... it would be great if you could assign it to a button to call it up at will, and then let the display go back to sleep after you've seen it.
I'll have to check out Synergy as well, I've never heard of it.
