CBS.com is jumping into the online HD race...sort of. An "HD" flash player has been spotted in the labs area of its site, although all that's available at the moment is 480p. A quick check of the competition shows Hulu is still only demoing HD with movie trailers, ABC.com's streaming player has plenty of HD but is still technically in beta, Fox claims HD in its player but seems to be similarly low-rezzed, while NBC lags behind. In the race to pump pixels through our browser windows, CBS hasn't made it quite to the front yet, but keep trying. Of course a DRM-free download or two certainly wouldn't hurt, but we're not holding our collective breath.

[Via CNet]

Read - CBS Testing HD Streaming
Read - CBS Labs

While finding a Wii system isn't out of the question this holiday season, getting your hands on component cables has been nearly impossible, with the connectors MIA at most retailers so far and occasionally sold out on Nintendo's own website. At times like these we must take matters into our own hands. We've made our own cables before but this time you'll have to follow the lead of the NFG forums, and MacGyver a connection together; since the composite cable included with the system doesn't have all the pins necessary, some clever modders have resorted to paper clip stand ins. We don't know how well this will work as a long term solution, but if you're waiting the long two weeks or so before the official cables hit store shelves this should definitely hit the spot.

[Via Joystiq]

That's what IGN has discovered in testing several PlayStation 3 games. Despite 1080p being "the true definition of HD", most of the titles available are rendered internally at 1280 x 720 and scaled up accordingly... or at least that's what should happen. On many older CRT HDTVs that only support 1080i input and not 720p, instead of scaling to the appropriate HD resolution, the PS3 goes back down to the positively Wii-like EDTV standard of 480p. The problem is confirmed to exist in Resistance: Fall of Man, Tiger Woods 07, Need for Speed Carbon and NHL 2K7 so far, but no word from Sony if this can or will be fixed in a downloadable update. The Xbox 360 scales to 1080i without a problem -- although 1080p results may vary -- if you're not reading this from your place in line already be sure to check your HDTV's manual for supported input resolutions before grabbing a lawn chair (and bulletproof vest).

[Thanks, Michael J.]

We were skeptical about Xploder's HDTV Game Player package for the PS2 back when it was first announced, and IGN's review has done nothing to convince us otherwise. The kit includes a disc that must be inserted every time the PS2 is hard-booted, component cables, and manual to enable setting your PS2 to output games at 480p, 576p, 720p, or 1080i. It's not that the PlayStation 2 didn't support these resolutions, but most games did not include them as an option. IGN didn't have any problems when setting things for 480p, and did notice a slight improvement in quality, however they got distortion and stretching not unlike TNT's "HD" broadcasts when using 720p and 1080i. Apparently, 576p is supposed to avoid some of these scaling distortions but their display could not accept that resolution. All in all, it seems if you really need 480p in games that didn't support it -- for example to avoid gaming lag -- this might be worthwhile but its not suddenly going to turn your PS2 into an HD-pumping beast.

We're not quite sure what is so HD about 480p upconverted DVDs, but Xploder has followed up its HDTV Game Player for PS2 announcement with the the HDTV Movie Player for PS2. While we took the news that a set of component cables and a memory card setting could suddenly improve the resolution of your Playstation 2 games beyond their original capabilities with a grain of salt, this is even more confusing. Every Playstation 2 since the SPCH-50000 revision three years ago is capable of progressive scan 480p DVD playback when equipped with component cables already. That makes this product totally unnecessary for many owners, and of course we have to question if it will work properly with older model PS2's that didn't support 480p for movies, only for gaming.

I remember trading in my PS2 immediately in 2003 when the SPCH-5000 came out for progressive scan DVD support, you can check the model # to see if yours is supported, or just look at the front. If it is missing the FireWire port you should be all set for 480p with the right cables and a change of a setting. With all the attention the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are giving to the HD Era, this may be an unfortunate grab to turn some of that attention into sales of unneeded stopgap hardware.

It's old -school week here at HD Beat, with no Xbox 360 titles debuting we'll take it back to EDTV with a new release for Xbox and PS2, Criterion's Black. This is a shooter in the purest sense of the word. Don't worry about the story, complex enemy AI or online multiplayer here, just blow stuff up. And when it looks this good that is not a bad thing at all.

If you have a high definition TV this really isn't news for you, but for your friends and family who don't yet understand the difference this may be interesting. This guy took captures from Fellowship of the Ring, both on DVD and from a high definition broadcast to compare the two. On the first page is a mouseover comparison of the screens at DVD resolution, but if you click them, you can see the difference when the DVD is upscaled to match the high definition resolution.

There's a lot to be said for additional visual information, but in the end, do you think this provides a powerful argument for upgrading to HDTVs (and high definition DVD's) or is 480p just fine for you?

Thanks for the tip Tyler! [Also via digg]

When you think of front projectors, InFocus has to come to mind. They were the pioneer in the US market and they have continued to exemplify what good projectors should be. Maybe, just maybe though, they're getting a little overpriced. Hey, I'm not saying they are bad projectors but check this out for example.

They have three new projectors coming to the US market in their Play Big line. Sounds great, right? They are of course DLPs that can do 16x9 ratio screen, but the issue is that they start at $1,699. What's the issue you say? $1,699 doesn't get you high definition but rather 480p instead! The big brother isn't HD-capable either, but if you want to spend $2,499 you can have it.

These are going to be released in the first quarter of 2006 and beyond that, there isn't many other details. We're sure that they're great projectors and they have that killer look that is reminiscent of InFocus's ScreenPlay 777, but they are overpriced for the res. Would you spend 1700 bones for a projector that is not HD?