Using Mac to play DVDs on HD-ready LCD TV

This is probably a basic question, but I'm learning so humour me
I am about to shell out my hard-earned cash on an LCD TV (26 or 32" - possibly a Sony Bravia) and a Mac Mini to hook up to it, as well as dvd player/recorder.
I have read in various forums that when a mac is hooked up to a HD-ready LCD TV, and the correct resolutions are sorted out (not always a straight forward affair by all accounts), that viewing DVDs using the mac gives results that are the 'best that I have seen', 'never look at a dvd the same way again' etc etc.
Why should a dvd played on the Mac give better results than quality dedicated dvd player?

Whether or not your Mac is driving the attached display device in interlace mode or progressive scan mode has nothing to do with the DVD player or DVD. If you attach a Mac to a television, say via S-Video, and the television only supports interlaced modes, then everything you see on the screen, even the Finder, will be in interlace mode.
If however you connect your Mac to a TV using DVI and the mode is progressive scan, then even when you watch DVDs at full screen, the image will also be progressive scan.
I think you will find that the Mac mini will play DVDs upscaled as nicely as any mid-range consumer DVD player. But if you have plans to try and record over-the-air television to recordable DVD, you will probably find it simpler to go with a stand alone, consumer DVD recorder rather than try and teach that trick to a Mac.

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