Replacing my Apple TV; some questions

I think it's almost time to replace my Apple TV–it's great for streaming audio, and Boxee is a nice touch, but it just doesn't have the horsepower for things like streaming live baseball or Netflix. I've long thought I'd replace it with a Mac mini–one of the most underrated Macs ever, in my opinion–but I've got a couple of issues to investigate:

• Are there any Mac-compatible USB-to-optical audio converters? My receiver tends to work better with optical audio. I'd like something like this but it doesn't appear to have Mac drivers. Anybody used the M-Audio Transit with a Mac? I just realized I'm overcomplicating this issue; the mini's already got digital audio built-in and I just need to convert it to Toslink.
• I'm guessing DVI-to-HDMI has been sorted out, but I want to do a little homework there as well and I actually have one of that adapters; it came with my HD video kit I bought awhile back.
• Are there any good wireless keyboard/trackpad-type combinations? Or maybe I should just go with VNC, huh?

I'm also not ruling out a Boxee/Ubuntu combo, as I figure I could get some refurbished hardware to support that setup for not a whole lot of money.

If anyone happens to read this and has any insights, I'd love to hear them.

August 9, 2009. Questions or comments? Let me know what you think.