I'm buying my first HD TV to replace my old 4:3 NEC 51cm which is now about 20 yrs old... The features on it are:

-Panasonic CRT
-76cm 16:9
-100Hz
-1080i 576p

All the PAL HD CRT's here in Australia don't seem to have HDMI inputs (if you know of one that does please let me know), only the Plasmas & LCD seem to have that option. I've seen many HD CRT sets in the US that have HDMI inputs but none here in PAL land.

Do I really need a HDMI input on a HD CRT TV? The set i'm thinking of buying has a 2 x DVD inputs & a S-VHS input, is that good enough? I'm not super fussy when it comes to my home TV but will not having HDMI inputs limit me much?

Thanks in advance...

If you want your HDTV to be compatible with the new crop of HD-DVD players due out this year, you'll want HDMI.

will the HD DVD players have a normal 3 plug DVD output also? And if so would it be a high def output through that plug?

When you say "3 plug" do you mean component?

Specifics have not been released for these new HiDef DVD players, so whether they'll have component output is a mystery. However, a lot has been written about DRM (Digital Rights Management) and the "speculation" is that it will NOT send a high-def signal over anything except HDMI because the signal is protected.

Hope this helps.

I believe that there will be component outputs on the forthcoming HD-Players.

However--if one is playing a "protected" DVD--which means all forthcoming commercial dvd's--the component output will be restricted to regular old 480p.

I imagine, HD discs that are not "protected" will be full HD from the component outs---such as self authored [from DVD Studio Pro or iDVD-HD or whatever in the future]will play.

thanks for the info,

why is the content protected from the HDMI output but not the component output?

This might be of interest: http://www.hdmi.org/consumer/faq.asp

Does HDMI provide a secure interface?
While no security system is one hundred percent secure, HDMI, when used in combination with HDCP, provides an audio/video interface that meets the security requirements of content providers and systems operators.

What is HDCP?
HDCP is a content protection technology available for use in connection with HDMI that was developed by Intel Corporation (with input from Silicon Image).

Found this link from another site...very interesting and pertinent to whether or not you need HDMI on your HDTV set.

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6300812.html

Great Links, thanks guys...

Do you believe the following statement in the article is true?...

"Many so-called HDTV sets are actually capable of displaying only 720 lines of resolution, regardless of the source, so viewers would not be getting full high-def anyway, even over digital connections.
Once the analog image is down-sampled to 540 lines, moreover, players will be permitted to use a signal processor to “up-convert” it to 720 or 1,080 lines.
Although such up-conversion does not restore the detail lost through down-sampling, it does improve overall picture sharpness."

It kinda sucks for me because I don't want to buy a Plasma or LCD right now just for the HDMI input as I prefer the picture on CRT's but no one will put a HDMI input on a CRT!