Well, this is what I get for going on vacation. digital spy writes an HD-related story, and even Slashdot has to comment on it.

So what’s the deal about this article? Toshiba, HD-DVD, and HDMI, that’s what. Toshiba gave us some nice details about their HD-DVD players that are expected to hit the market late this year. 15GB, 30GB, and 45GB versions of discs. An SD-DVD/HD-DVD version of disc (pretty handy actually). But what has everyone tied in knots is that you’ll only be able to watch HD from these players if you have a digital connection like HDMI or Firewire on your HDTV.

You can pick up your jaw now. What’s that? Your jaw didn’t drop? Well let me tell you why it should have. Say you’re one of the 10% or so of US or Canadian households to own an HDTV. Like me. Or my friend Joshua. There is a large chance that your particular HDTV does not sport a digital video connector of any kind (like DVI, HDMI, or Firewire). And because digital video connections always come with some form of content protection, you can’t add one. So you can’t watch HD from an HD-DVD player! Ta da! Kinda sucks, doesn’t it? So while I’m happy with my HDTV (I have a DVI connector with HDCP) my friend Joshua is not. Joshua’s TV has a component video connection, which is perfectly fine for watching HD content, except that it’s not digital with one of those new-fangled content protection systems like HDCP (used in DVI and HDMI) or 5C (Firewire).

So Toshiba is shutting out a large percentage of HDTV owners from being able to use their new HD-DVD players. They’re probably betting that, because the installed base of HDTV is so small, it doesn’t matter anyway. Once HDTV penetrates most homes, the percentage of owners without HDMI/DVI/Firewire are going to be so low that lost sales to those folks will be insignificant. Which leaves all those people in the lurch.

And for all you people in the Blu-ray camp gloating right now, it’s most likely that the same thing will happen with Blu-ray players. Sony and Toshiba don’t want to alienate Hollwood, so they’ll alienate consumers instead.

Link: digital spy - Analysis: HDTV, future of DVD, and HDMI