best clients and apps for Mac Mini media center

I've been using a Mac Mini as a media center plugged right into my tv, but I feel like I've been very lazy about the setup. Right now I just use Transmission to download and VLC to watch my media.

I use these programs because that is what I first used when I had a Macbook back in school. In the past few years, I've fallen out of the loop I think.

Is there now a better client for Mac? A better program for watching hd tv shows and movies?

I've seen references to couchpotato and other apps that seem to automate the process. It would be great if I could set up a very simple automated system to grab my regular tv shows when they are posted.

If anyone can offer suggestions on how to make my downloading and consuming of video more efficient, I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

Plex, you can put the media server and client on your mini. It will playback every codec and auto fill cover art and synopsis. The only issue you may have is if you have a 1.6 core duo or lower you won't be able to playback 1080 mkv files without judder. All this can be done from plex website.

+1 to Plex. It's basically the XMBC 10' interface, but they have closed-source components to manage the media library and share it between machines and over the Internet. I use Plex, Sickbeard, and SABNzbd to completely automate the process.