Watching HD videos via DVI out to a projector?

I've been thinking about AppleTV, but will be mainly showing family/friends photos and watching 1080i home videos (not the best for streaming, small localized drives, and ATV doesn't support 1080i iMovie anyway -- down res's to 540p).

So what about using a Macbook? They're easier to take from place to place and have DVI out, work with large external drives, and are easy to find used.

Anyone try watching a 720p/1080i video through DVI out? I have on a C2D MacBook Pro and it worked great. Wondering if a MacBook would be any different and if it matters whether its a Core Duo, Core 2, which graphics card it has, etc.

Probably won't be jumping up to 1080p any time soon -- I'd have to upgrade all my A/V components. Is a Core Duo able to playback 720p/1080i as h.264 through Front Row without dropping frames, rebuffering, etc.