So, are you ready for that large high definition television to finally pay off? Have you been thinking about the taste of popcorn in your mouth as you watch your favorite movie for the first time after hookup up your HD DVD Player? Well, we completely understand the enjoyment that the recent development of high definition home theater has brought many folks and I would agree that it's really fun to watch something for the first time in all the brilliance and detail that 1080p can offer. Unfortunately, there is one part of this that we seemed to skip right passed. That would be the part about actually hooking up a HD DVD player.
HD DVD Players today come with a variety of possible digital connections on the rear of them. Fortunately the industry has come around and established some sort of "Standard" connection that most manufacturers of HD DVD Players are sticking to. That would be of course the HDMI connection. However, you may find that your HD DVD Player has more than one type of connection available to be used. The other possibility is that maybe your high definition TV simply does not support the HDMI standard. These are both very common problems with workable solutions, but to best understand the nature of the issue, we will talk about the different connections so that you can choose your best option for your HD DVD Player and any of your other high definition home theater components.
The first thing to do is to make sure that all of your connections on the HD DVD Players that you are looking at, and any high definition components that you already have are fully active. That means that they aren't software disabled by the manufacturer before having even left the factory. Some manufacturers will disable some of the outputs due to growing concerns over digital movie and film piracy. Often times they will disable the firewire connection due to it's computer friendly nature and amazing data speed. Luckily, most high definition home theaters don't use FireWire so even if the variety of HD DVD players that you are looking at don't offer it, it's not a big deal. Let's look at the 3 digital connections available.
The DVI-D:
Correctly the most common high definition cable connection that you will find in older and newer home theater components. DVI stands for digital video interconnect and the "-D" means that it's meant to be used for digital TV. If you are going to use DVI-D connectors there are a couple things that you should be aware of. The biggest problem is that not every DVI connector is meant to work with digital televisions. Obviously for our needs, this is a big concern! You have to be sure to use DVI-D connectors.
There are also DVI-I connectors. These types of connectors will have 5 extra pins in them.There are 4 pins that surround a centered crosshair pin on one side of the connector. These are meant to work with computers and their video cards. Sometimes they are used for projectors but not often. If you need to you can find an adapter to go from DVI-I to DVI-D, but you will only be able to send digital data, nothing analog will work. DVI-D is also the only digital connection that is not capable of carrying an audio signal.HDMI: The Industry Standard
HDMI connections have a couple of distinct advantages when trying to get the best performance out of the HD DVD Players out there and in fact, it offers some overall benefits that are hard to ignore. First off, you will only need to use a single HDMI cable to get the best video and surround sound digital audio signal out of your HD DVD Player. The second advantage is that the line is capable of 5 gigabytes per second of transfer. With that much available bandwidth, the HDMI line should be dependable for use in future high definition formats.
HDMI connections will often also require a HDCP copy protection system to get truly high definition video from it. If even one of your components does not have the HDCP system, the overall system performance will likely be downgraded significantly.
FireWire: The Bottom Is Lonely
FireWire is currently the least used HD capable connection for HD DVD Players. It can both send and receive video and audio with ease. In fact, if your HD DVD Player requires a two way HD connection a firewire is the only way to give it what it wants. It's the only two way capable connection available for your HD DVD Player or any of the other HD capable home theater items. This two way ability is great for recording HD formats. Firewire is also known as IEEE 1394 or i.LINK.
FireWire still remains our favorite by far. It's ability to both send and receive data is nothing to be overlooked. Unfortunately Firewire isn't a connection that many HD DVD Players feature. In fact, they are very rare. The most common place to find firewire is on a D-VHS VCR. Firewire is also not a part of the HDCP copy protection system at all. In fact it has it's own copy protection system known as 5C-DTCP. It offer a similar level of protection when compared with HDCP.
So now we have discussed the 3 main types of digital video connections that you can use with HD DVD Players. The conclusion is that since Firewire isn't commonly made to be used with HD DVD Players, that HDMI is the best option to go with due to it's phenomenal bandwidth potential. In addition, you only need one cable for doing both audio and video. That's a big headache saver if you have a complex home theater and the HD DVD Player is just one component in the mix. So, now you should have the information you need to make an informed decision to get the most out of your entertainment time and money.
The extras on the discs are as long as the movie, and show how the film was made: the film-makers built their own equipment, and shot the whole thing mostly with 5 people. My respect for the makers went up: these weren't people who shot a ton of film only to throw most of it away; their budget was so low that they had to make every shot count.
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