Thanks much for the quick replies! This is the TV I purchased:
http://www.abtelectronics.com/product/23591.html
I'm really excited... that'd be great if I could purchase a Mac Mini because they are so affordable used!
The Samsung does have issues with undefeatable overscan on the HDMI ports. The Sammys have about a 2% overscan, so you'll lose the edges of the screen. I think the VGA port does work 1:1, but it's an analog connection. I doubt you'd see any difference. If you end up using HDMI, you might need to use DisplayConfigX or SwitchResX to generate custom resolutions to account for the overscan.
As for the mini only driving 1080i and not 1080p ... I have to disagree. I have a Macbook, but have read about others using the intel minis. What confuses the issue is how OS X reports 1080p. In the Display System Pref, there's only a choice for 1920x1080 (interlaced). However, if you "futz" around with the TV, you can get the mini to display a 1080p, however, OS X will still report it as 1920x1080 (interlaced). If you look up in the Display icon on the top right, you may see two separate instances of 1920x1080. One of those is 1080p.
You may ask, how do I know the mini is outputting 1080p. Good question. My TV (Sharp 46D62U) reports the incoming signal. When the mini is driving 1080i, the display is unusable. At 1080p, the display is crystal clear.
In response to Taylorwilson's assertion that the mini can't handle videos of higher quality than youtube is IMHO, wrong. Again, I have a Macbook, but the mini is comparable. When set on 1080p, I have tested 1080p WMV material (MariposaHD) through Front Row and the playback is fine. For what it's worth, my Macbook only has 512MB and has the stock 60GB drive.
ft