ATI's h.264 Hardware Acceleration and Macs

MacHTPC Mac ruminates about a possible upgrade to or extension of the Mac mini line to include ATI graphics chipsets with hardware accelerated HD video rendition using the h.264 MPEG-4 codec. Sounds like an interesting idea. But I'd prefer Apple to take the same approach it took with the AirPort Express with AirTunes only with video -- remember, the AirPort Express has hardware music decoding. In other words, Apple should make an AirPort Express-sized box with built-in h.264 decoding hardware and an HDMI port.