Atlona's Flat HDMI cable, available soon {Engadget HD}

Sep 28th 2006 12:57AM Regardless of whether he meant component or composite, an upscaling dvd player will only upscale (output at 720p/1080i) using the HDMI jack. Using component (R/G/B) you can get 480p(progressive scan) which will look slightly better than 480i which comes out of the composite (Yellow), throw in S-Video and you see why HD becomes a nightmare for a lot of consumers. Now keep in mind how well a upscaling DVD player will "work" depends on the quality of the source material, that is to say Criterion/Superbit/DVD-9 or any well made DVD (with a good source like a high budget feature film) will look amazing, while that $5 copy of some crappy movie(or anything shot on video) you bought in the supermarket checkout line is probably gonna look even worse on your new HDTV. Garbage in garbage out as they say. Some people would even argue that the upscaler built into most nicer HDTVs will give a better picture from DVD's (using component) anyways. Also your right about HDMI for DirectTV it is the same for the motorola HD cable boxes I think HDMI was kind of an afterthought. Since you will be getting a 720p/1080i signal over component anyways it is usually the better way to go, which is what i'm guessing you meant (not just a single yellow, because otherwise the $30 you spend on decent component cables would be well spent)