Mac mini and 52" TV monitor -- menu bars invisible

Last summer I bought a mac mini for my Samsung 22" TV/DVI monitor. The mini immediately recognized the TV as a specific DVI monitor and all was well.
The only problem was the monitor was smaller than my iMac screen. A bigger TV was inevitable. We eventually moved, and the idea of using binoculars to watch TV held little appeal, so I bought a 52" Samsung.
I bought a DVI to HDMI cable, as this TV had no DVI input (unlike the 22" combo TV/DVI monitor) and the mini recognizes it generically as "Samsung" and chooses "1080p" for the monitor resolution. (I assume this is preferred to 1080i, even though the refresh rate is slower?).
I want to use this both as a "Front Row" interface for iTunes movies, etc, and as a conventional monitor for when I want to do computery things.
The menu bar (as well as the bottom of the dock) are invisible. They are there when I remotely display the screen, so I think they might just be hidden by the frame. Is there a viable workaround? Of the 15 or so possible resolutions, exactly one shows the menu bar, but at the expense of lower resolution and terrible color balance (oddly, if I rotate the image 180° in Display System Preferences, the color looks ok).
Also, while I am at it, what is the optimal way to export audio from the mac mini into a stereo input? Right now I am using the headphone jack, and it sounds ok, but I suspect there might be a much better way.

I've been having this same problem! My Mini plugged into my 42" HDTV (via DVI to HDMI adapter, with Overscan enabled) has the desktop overflowing the screen on all four sides. With Overscan disabled, the desktop is too small and has a black band on all four sides.
Now, I know the Nvidia GPU can scale/stretch the display for external displays, I had to do it with my Vista laptop. So, how do I do the same thing on my Mini?
I've called tech support, but I had no luck. The first guy would only say 'You can't do anything else.' and hung up when I asked for someone else. The second guy didn't even understand the issue.

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Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
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Sadly, the result is a fuzzy pixelation of the screen, much like a gently boiling soup. Occasionally, when I hit one of the buttons on the monitor, the screen clears to reveal the desktop, but then it goes back to soup.
The DVI cable is designed for home theatre use, 10 metres long so that I could connect to the TV on the other side of the room, multi-layed shielding, oxygen free copper, etc etc.
When I connect to a pretty ordinary digital television set using an HDMI cable it all works pretty well.
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