Okay, I'm trying to piece a few things together here, some of which are related to the iMac Mini-DisplayPort-out thingumy, and I'll start with the questions I think I know the answers to (so that they can be confirmed, and it might be of some help to others):
1) Can the 27" iMac also function as a display for the current gen of consoles (primarily Xbox and PS3, at this stage)? Yes
2) Does the Machine need to be powered on to do so? Yes, OS X has to be running (I'm gonna assume that means that you can't be running Windows in Boot Camp when you want to do this).
And now to the ones that I don't know:
3) Is there audio included in the signal (I believe that recent DisplayPort updates have enabled this, but I can't tell whether this particular version works with it).
4) Is the switchover hardware or software controlled? i.e. Is it done my a key-press, or does the incoming signal simply override the default iMac input to the display? It would be handy to be able to switch between them at the touch of a key.
5) I know that the iMac has TOSLINK optical support, but is there also a way of getting it out in a coax form? I have a pair of Astro A40s, with the associated Mixamp, which has both inputs, but the optical is kinda reserved for the Xbox.
For those of you that can be bothered, the setup that I am theorising is:
iMac running an assortment of OSes (Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and an XP for work, when I need it), connected to my MixAmp via it's coax, with my 360 connected to the iMac via the DiplayPort (Advanced HDMI > Mini DisplayPort), and to the Mixamp via the optical.
Now, I'm not exactly experienced in the Mac World, so can any of you see a problem with this?