Yea, MACs work. They work quite well. And the software is free. I’ve got a 21” iMac on my desk, and a MacMini hooked up to my 55” HDTV and home theater for sound, in the family room.
Similar here, a MacMini streams via Apple TV to my big screen and surround sound in the family room, pulling movies from a network drive. Pretty much problem free, except for the authorizing nonsense going back to Apple. TunesKit for Mac took care of that, no bouncing back to Apple for viewing. I imagine there is something similar for Windows to keep them from seeing what you use.