I would say the apple made adapter is NOT worth it, as you can find a cheaper adapter at Monoprice.com.
I bought a MDP->HDMI adapter, works great! And only $5(minus shipping) to boot. No audio, but its not really their fault. When it comes to cables/adapters, the more expensive ones are not necessarily better, and in most cases perform just as good as a cheaper option.
That being said I would also recommend trying to go through HDMI, as opposed to VGA, as you're likely to loose some picture quality the larger your TV is. I imagine you'd also be able to bypass those issues you were hearing about regarding connecting macs to samsung tvs
if there isn't a free HDMI port, have you thought about getting a switch box?
Not that expensive.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10110&cs_id=1011001&p_id=2786&seq=1&format=2
I've actually been meaning to get one myself, as I only have 2 ports, and 3 pieces of gear that'd I'd like to hook up via HDMI.