Acer :: Aspire 8735G/8935G

I am looking for a laptop that I can use as a media centre, as well as my main computer.

It is to replace my desktop (which currently went bang) and my DVD player (seen better days). There are some obvious requirements, but I cannot seem to find definitive answers from the manufacturers (Acer told me to contact Toshiba and vice versa!) or stockists so I am not yet happy to part with my cash (at least without an option to replace or get my money back).

I am looking at an Acer Aspire 8935G / 8735G with a Blue-Ray player.

I will HDMI the laptop into my Toshiba 32” LCD (32WLT66), which has a standard widescreen display (16:9, as opposed to the film-style 2.40:1 ratio that I believe these Acers have) and has a resolution of 1366 x 768. It will display 1080i and 720p, but not 1080p.

Can somebody please answer the following questions, as well as possibly suggesting alternatives around the same budget if they will do a better job (£1k)?

Generally how will the picture look on the Toshiba? Will the Acer output 1080i? Or if not what will be the best resolution possible, and will it be worthy of blu-ray?

When playing a DVD with a tv-style widescreen format (16:9) presumably the Acer itself will have bars down the sides when playing full screen (side panel format)? Is this correct? What about the Toshiba as this already has a 16:9 ratio?

Reversing the question above, when playing a film-style 2.40:1 the Acer itself will look great presumably, will the Toshiba just have the usual bars at the top and bottom and look decent?

The Acer has a line-out with S/PDIF support, which I really want as I will be lining the sound into an AV amp. My AV amp is a few years old, it processes Dolby Digital, DTS as well as the old pro-logic, but it is too old to recognise Dolby Digital Live which is supported by the Acer. Is the original DD backwards compatible with DD Live? i.e. will my amp pick up DD from the Acer?..............