Thanks so much Zed3, make me feel sooooo welcome here.....I have been around on these boards without posting much for the last two+ years because I didn't want to be belittled by people like you......
and now am looking to get into more complex issues of the HTPC, but I am not a Windows user (macintosh die-hard) and am frankly a little timid about getting into a windows based PC system for a scaler.
Now as far as the Christmas wish goes or so you want:
I want to spend very little on a HTPC setup, like $1000 or far less, being that I have seen the Crystalimage and other nice scalers for sale on the used side for around that price. Also I feel like I would like to see major benefits from either a HTPC or scaler over just using standard inputs and internal upconversion. I want to see the computer scale stuff to 1080i type resolutions and make "regular" TV watchable.
As far as the Mits TV, it does have a 480i/p component input and a RGBHV input that accepts 1080i, but the higher end models do have a separate VGA input that I was hoping would do some nice stuff with a HTPC and free up the other two inputs for HDTV sources.
And to those with the 540p hooked up to their TV's...how does it truely look???? Is it a MAJOR improvement?
Thanks for your help...