HD DVD PLAYERS

You are probably like many of us when you first removed your brand new, shiny high definition TV from it's box. Your hands may have been a little sweaty, maybe even having the slightest shake in them as you were excited to watch your favorite movie in the bright, color filled high definition that you have sat in envy of for far too long. Unfortunately, I'm sure it wasn't long after this that you discovered that your new technology packed home theater display wasn't going to produce the vivid images that you had dreamed of when you first played your favorite DVD. Sadly, as reality in this situation comes crashing down we see the need for HD DVD Players. A HD DVD Player is critical in obtaining the brilliant and sharp display that you demand out of your high definition home theater. Now, when talking about HD DVD Players, it's important to know that we are talking about both up-converting DVD players, and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format players. Both types are intended to produce nearly 1080p resolution and therefore have similar connection requirements.

Fortunately, connecting any of the HD DVD Players to your High Definition Television is actually pretty easy when you look at the connections in terms of hierarchy. There are a few cable choices out there that are simply better than others. They will let your HD DVD Player display it's best video and produce the best audio that it is able it. After you have a grasp of the hierarchy that plays into effect with high definition connections, you will be able to look over the choice of connections that you can use and quickly select the best available option.

If you take someone who is new to home theater, or is connecting on of the many HD DVD Players to a HDTV for the first time, you will likely watch as a wave of confusion washes over his/her face. If you are not new to home theater, you are able to look at the rear panel of an HDTV and not be intimidated by the connections to choose from. But to someone who is unfamiliar with all of these holes, tabs and screws it's easy to understand why they would be very confused by the options presented to them.

Not all cables are capable of handling the high definition signal from the HD DVD Players out there. Amongst the ones that are capable of handling it, there is often a large difference in the quality of the signal that they produce or are capable of producing. Some DVD Players have high definition connectors built into them for easy of use. However, you need one of the HD DVD Players to really make use of the bandwidth provided by a high definition connections. Now, that goes for up-converting HD DVD Players that have a scaler built directly into the unit, or one of the true high definition format players, such as a blu-ray player of a true HD DVD Player. If you only have a few high definition capable cables and have to make a choice on how to use them - always use them with HD DVD Players instead of standard definition players that simply have that connection available.

True digital connections are at the top of the hierarchy for high definition connections. These include HDMI, DVI-D, and also FireWire. These are the best connections to use when hook up any of the HD DVD Players to your HDTV or other home theater device.

Unfortunately some of the earlier HDTV's and other high definition components (including a few HD DVD Players) were built using a variety of these connections, or sometimes not all of these connections since the market had yet to establish a "Standard" or unified connection that all companies or parties would agree to. DVI-D was at first the most popular connection, and as of now has been all but phased completely out of production. You may find yourself in a situation where you would want to use this type of connection, or conversely you may have to get around this connection if it is the only option offered by your HD DVD player or other high definition home theater component.

HDMI is the current industry standard for connecting your HD DVD Player to your high definition television set. If your older HDTV uses DVI-D input and you have on of the newer HD DVD Players that use HDMI exclusively, you still have options. Luckily they have made this easier for us by making conversions available to switch from DVI-D to HDMI. These modules are roughly $50 and seem to last just as long as the rest of the home theater components on the market making them a one step solution for this problem.

In theory the HDMI cable is the best connection that you will be able to use to connect your HD DVD Player to the rest of your home theater. The have the most bandwidth to transfer data from one component to the next. Bandwidth is simply a term used to define the amount of data or information a digital connection can transfer in a given amount of time. This means that the HDMI cable will be able to transfer more data, more quickly from your HD DVD Player up to your high definition television.

In the real world, you will notice very little difference between the three primary types of digital connections for HD DVD players. It's only under the most significant and tight scrutiny that the differences can be seen, but the conditions under which those very subtle differences become apparent are so precise that they are almost impossible to duplicate in most home environments. If you recently purchased a HD DVD Player, don't get all worked up or upset if your particular unit doesn't offer a HDMI output, but it does offer one of the other option digital high definition outputs. HDMI is the most common output currently, so almost all recently designed and built HD DVD Players have those already so this shouldn't be too much of a concern for you.