A few weeks ago I was in the market for a DVD Player, and I went through the LG LDA-731 model, and the Toshiba SD4990 Model. I also purchased an HDMI cable to connect it to my JVC brand LCD TV. Through that process I did some research on the subject and I’d like to share my thoughts on the whole HDMI cable issue.

HDMI stands for High Definition Media Interface, and is a new type of a cable that transfers both video and audio data at a very high capacity and at consequentially at a very high quality. For consumer-grade products, this is probably the highest quality connection available.

Here are 4 things to note about HDMI cables and DVD players :

• Most DVD players that you see are not truly HD-DVD players nor Bluray (unless you can afford to spend around $500~$1,000 for one). Most DVD players equipped with HDMI cables are upconversion models, which means it resamples the DVD video to the best of its ability to emulate the HD quality - it’s not a true HD video, hence not using the full potential of the HDMI cable just yet. That being said, the picture quality is still much higher than conventional connections, and I do recommend it anyways. HDMI Upconverting DVD Players can be purchased for around $100~$150.
  
• HDMI cables will be the standard… for the next little while. As you all know, technology in this field changes so damn quick and we need to keep up all the time. I had to purchase a DVD rendition of “Legends of the Fall” - and I’ll make a bet right now I’ll have to purchase it a least 5 more times in my lifetime (of course that depends on how long I live).
  
• The greatest thing I find about HDMI cables is this : the picture quality (although component output has good quality too, the HDMI still surpasses it), and the convenience. One plug handles both sound and video.
• When I purchased my DVD player from Futureshop, I also looked at the HDMI cables. The only brand of HDMI cables that Futureshop carried was the Monster Cable brand, and the 2M cable cost $129.99. The DVD player was only $99.00 - the cable cost more than the player itself. I did not purchase that cable - instead I went to London Drugs, and they had a different brand of HDMI cables (but still with the same gold plating and all that) for $44.99. If I searched other retailers or the internet, I could have gotten a much cheaper deal for sure but I just couldn’t be bothered to spend all the time. But let me state this right now - Anybody who paid more than $50 for a 2 metre HDMI cable has been duped (or is very rich).
  

Hope this helps out people who are in the market for this stuff. Leave comments with any thoughts or different opinions.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 22nd, 2007 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Gadgets and Electronics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.