I'm thinking of getting an AppleTV unit. My setup at home uses a Windows Home Server machine to store all my media files, currently I play them on an XP machine over the network. If I want to watch stuff on my HDTV I have to cart my Macbook through to the room and hook it up with various adapters, then play the media over the network via an alias and Front Row.

If I get AppleTV, will I have to install iTunes on the server machine and import everything in order to be able to watch it on AppleTV? I don't want to have to do this because it's just another thing wasting resources and another thing to potentially go wrong.

Yes, iTunes must be on to stream.

you can just patch your ATV and use it without iTunes