Media Center on Standard Def TV with 2009 Mini

Hi all,
I'm recently married and since my wife the chef got every pot and pan she could ever hope for as wedding gifts, I get to treat myself to a Mac Mini media center. I'm hoping someone out there can give me their opinion on resolution quality.
Here's my current setup. I have a five year old 27 inch Sony Trinitron Wega 27FS120 which is limited to 480i. I have a first generation Macbook Pro and currently use a DVI to cable adapter to connect by composite when we want to stream Netflix, Hulu or use Boxee. The quality of streaming Netflix is acceptable for us, and while Hulu is a bit washed out it's still acceptable. The text on Boxee can be difficult to read at times, but we can live with it. iTunes standard definition downloads are great, and the HD obviously doesn't come across on the TV but we're very pleased with iTunes video.
From everything I've read, in order to make this work, I would need to use the mini-dvi or mini-displayport on the Mini to connect to a VGA converter to connect to composite video to make the transition to Mac Mini. My #1 concern is that video quality will deterioriate as a result of the conversion/additional adapter and I'm not going to be satisfied with the quality. We're drive-it-into-the-ground people and shudder at the thought of replacing a perfectly good TV if we can get the same quality out of the VGA-hooked media center as we're used to for a couple of more years. However, if there's going to be a noticable dropoff, with Black Friday coming, we'll bite the bullet.
Can anyone comment on what I might expect the dropoff in video quality to be considering what I'm currently using?
Thank you!
Ryan

My opinion is you won't be seeing much difference between what you have now with the MacBook Pro and the new mini. Whether the video signal translation takes place in the root device or in an external device, the final on-screen quality difference should be negligible between the two because the primary limitations come from other points in your configuration, not the point of translation.
Is S-Video use an option with your TV? You might realize at least a slight improvement over what you see now with composite video.

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