Don't buy the Acer IDEA 500 unless you are PC literate, or know someone who is. The manual is hopeless as is Acer support. As a Freeview PVR it is an order of magnitude more complicated than the dedicated hard disk PVRs that are available. It is also considerably more expensive, but much more capable.

The SCART output is not RGB and of very low quality, and I could not get a decent picture using HDMI on my Samsung LCD TV. The only useable output is the standard PC VGA. If you use this, you will not get sound without a converter cable (not supplied). I used Belkin cable F8V3013B1.5M, which converts the RCA output from the Acer into a 3.5mm stero jack plug, which will plug into my TV. You could of course use an external audio system. Once properly setup, the Freeview reception looks as good as, if not better than dedicated freeview receivers. The MCE software seems quite good and intuitive. The TV guide (downloaded from the internet) goes forward 2 weeks, is comprehensive and easy to use.

I have an Acer idea 500 and have also had problems. In theory this device should be good, but it produces a lousy picture using SCART (no RGB) and does not work properly with HDMI. In HDMI mode, the best result is to set the resolution to 1280X720, but this does not display the whole picture. Ideally we need to display 1360X768, but this option is not available with HDMI - how ridiculous is that?

If you have an LCD/plasma that takes PC input (VGA) (like my Samsung), then the Acer does display 1360X768 and does so automatically! The only problem with this route is that you get no sound through the TV. I am still working on that one though - will report back soon.