Scotty,

Thanks for the response concerning the used Macs. If the decision is made, I will definitely use your services to make sure all is hooked up properly.

Now to another issue, the Vista PC at my church finally gave up and died. I would have preferred to make the transition much more smoothly, we purchased an iMac this week, and I have set it up.

The one issue that I have is getting a Mini Display Port to S Video connection for our Panasonic Switcher. The Apple store at South Park sold me a Mini DVI to S Video connector, but it does not plug in.
As you've discovered, mini display ports and mini DVI ports are two different connectors.  Apple's only recently decided to push video through this new connector.  They're very well known for changing form factors at the inconvenience of their users.  (remember ADC?)  But in this case, Mini Display is the new open standard so it will become more popular in the coming months. Apple didn't invent this technology.   It sounds like you need a mini display to S-Video adapter.  Only one problem.  The mini display port is digital and S-Video is analog.  So essentially, that converter would need a go between.  Ugh.  Couple of different solutions.  It may be possible to go mini display port to VGA then VGA to S-Video.  Silly but works on paper.  

My questions are these:
1) is there a way to make this work with something sold at the Apple Store?
I've not seen it done yet but in theory, mini display to DVI, then DVI to S-Video should do it.
2) does someone locally sell what I need?
Apple
3) if I need to buy from an online store, is there a reputable brand or store I should go to?
I think Apple is your best bet.  


interesting threads:
 DisplayPort to SVideo/Composite? - Mac Forums
Mini DisplayPort to S-Video? - Mac Forums
Mini Displayport: The Missing Adaptor - Mac Forums
Apple - Support - Discussions - Mini DisplayPort to Composite/ S-Video?? ...




As an aside, I have installed Snow Leopard and love it. I have used it for a few days and put it on my wife's laptop last night. I also encouraged my father in law to put it on his 2 machines. This morning I read your posts about your experience. I have subscribed to your RSS feed, but did not get these posts. So, I may be generating work for you. Sorry in advance.
I'm glad to hear you've had a good experience with Snow Leopard so far.  At this point, even with the 10.6.1 update, I'm not ready to recommend others install.  I've just seen too many issues over the past 2 weeks.  

With the new iMac at the church, what are you areas of expertise? We purchased a One To One training package, but if you can train the operator on what we need, we can return the One To One, and just have you do the training.

What is needed:
1) an intro to Macs
2) Pages and Keynote training
no problem on either of these.   I would be happy to provided assistance to your team in learning how to work through both Pages and Keynote as well as the intro to their new iMacs.  

My schedule is a bit full for the next several days but hopefully we can find a common time that will work for you.