Like a creeping fog in the night Blu Ray and HD-DVD disks have been popping up in DVD retailers all over the shop. It’s getting to be a tad difficult to avoid them. And as it seems now after Universal Studios has just come out in favour of HD-DVD format, the certainty that the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player you buy today will still be viable in a year or two is drifting slowly away.
So what to do?
Get (another) standard DVD player with a HDMI output and enjoy clear crisp digital images with your current DVD library.
If you want to know what HDMI is then here’s one of the simplest I’ve found from Philips.
HDMI stands for High Definition Multi-media Interface. It is a direct digital connection that can carry digital HD video as well as digital multi-channel audio. By eliminating the conversion to analogue signals it delivers perfect picture and sound quality, completely free from noise.
If you can say it in one sentence it must be worth saying.
The digital image won’t be as good, anywhere near as good as what you would get from a HDDVD disk but it ain’t half bad and putting the HDMI inputs on a HDTV to good use while clearing the snakepit of cables behind the telly is always a winner.
So after a fair while checking out the current range of DVD players with HDMI support I finaly found a winner. Philips DVP5960, a Multi-region DVD Player with HDMI. What won me over? Simply put 1080i upscaling and the price, only 40 quid.
So I can, in theory enjoy the wonders of a HDTV in all its crisp digital glory for less then the price of a flight to Belgium.
Video Upscaling is another nifty feature which increases the resolution of normal DVD video signals to High Definition. Simply put the Philips DVP5960 displays your DVDs better than you have ever seen them before. The DVP5960 displays digital pictures and incredible resolution, and also acts as an mp3 player with no loss of sound from digital to analog conversion.
What else… Ah yes, the DVP5960 also supports DivX.
Not bad eh?
