From a DVD player to Sony SXRD TV, HDMI, I-Link or component?

[BKSinAZ]

From a DVD player to Sony SXRD TV, HDMI, I-Link or component connection for best picture?

[edtyct]

All right, BK, after all that fuss about various plasmas, you owe us an explanation of how you arrived at the Sony SXRD. It's a great choice, but just how did you find it? You never once brought it up on the board.

I-link isn't relevant. So far as picture quality goes at a true resolution, component and HDMI are neck and neck. The advantage that HDMI might have for performance concerns its ability to keep a signal in the digital domain into a TV like yours without ever changing the signal to analog, as component requires, thus eliminating certain kinds of noise and picture softness. HDMI is also the only conduit from a DVD player that permits upscaling of non-HD signals to HD pixel counts--a job that a fixed-pixel TV has to do by itself if no other device intervenes, but sometimes a DVD player can do better. The proof is in the pudding. Many people in your situation don't notice much of a difference; some do. I do on my display. HDMI, however, is by no means mandatory on any equipment yet, though it will be an immense convenience for both audio and video when the standard is completed, passing HD and pseudo-HD video, as well as SACD, DVD-A, and all of the new HD audio formats from Dolby and DTS. Arguaby, its most important role is to enable a digital copy protection scheme that could selectively disable true HD broadcast and DVD feeds via component to guard against piracy.