When the calendar flipped to 2011, it officially set in motion a process that manufacturers and content providers have talked about for years -- the phasing out of analog HD component video connections. For now, this primarily affects only new Blu-ray players, but there's a lot of speculation on when TVs, set-top boxes, and other HD sources will follow suit and no longer support analog HD video connections.

The bottomline is if you still use analog component HD video, and you're in the market for a Blu-ray player especially, you'd better act quickly. Your options will dwindle fast over the next few months.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/ele...og-sunset.html

Bye Bye Component Video Outputs
Basically, the first step in the phase out has already begun -- any new Blu-ray players (or any output device using the AACS copy protection) introduced after January 1, will not include any HD component video outputs. The analog video outputs for those devices are limited to 480i composite or S-video.

If you want a Blu-ray player with HD component video outputs, you need to look for a model introduced in 2010 or earlier. Those models can continue production until they are discontinued or in 2013, whichever comes first. For people used to seeing numerous legacy video connections on the back panel of their disc players, Panasonic's newly introduced Blu-ray players look almost shockingly barren by comparison.



The next step in the phase out will occur at the end of 2013. At that time, no analog video outputs will be included with Blu-ray players, period.

Downscaling's Alive! The Dreaded ICT Flag Is No Longer a Dormant Feature
When the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats were first introduced, their specs included a provision to downscale the analog video output to 540p using the Image Constraint Token (ICT) flag. After a major outcry from the home theater community (and the realization that the feature would have killed the market for both formats at that time), the ICT was quietly put on hold until 2010.

Well, 2010 is now in the past and AACS-LA has quietly activated the much-maligned ICT feature.

Unlike the component video phaseout, the ICT activation potentially affects current Blu-ray player owners, because it's built into every Blu-ray player. We're now waiting to see if any studios begin authoring their new Blu-ray releases with the ICT flag activated. This does not affect earlier releases.

Is This Even a Major Issue Anymore? And What Else Lies Ahead?
Surprisingly, very little has been written about this. When the word of an analog phaseout got out around the time Blu-ray and HD-DVD first came to market, you had a lot of angry responses from home theater enthusiasts. At that time, the majority of HDTV owners used analog component video connections. And given how much they paid for those early HDTVs (and how little HD programming was available back then), the last thing they wanted to hear was that the long-awaited HD disc format would exclude them.

The AACS-LA smartly stretched out the timeline to give Blu-ray and digital video connections such as HDMI a chance to grow. Now that Blu-ray gained a somewhat solid footing in the market, and HDMI is the de facto connection standard for the vast majority of HDTVs and HD sources, the time very well might be right for the analog video sunset to begin.

For now, the analog phaseout primarily affects Blu-ray. But, we have already seen HDTVs pretty much eliminate S-video connections, and some of them have already eliminated composite and/or component connections as well.

And with set-top boxes, how much longer will they support analog video? At the very least, the lowest common denominator remains composite video. But, would they continue to support component HD video, especially since cable/satellite providers now have the option to disable analog video output with first run movies and other content.

The phaseout with Blu-ray is the first step, and other components very well might follow suit in quick succession.