I definitely feel bad for people who have sets without HDMI or DVI/HDCP but there was good info out there two to three years ago that indicated that DVI should have HDCP for HD or they may not work. While it definitely is a pain, it should not be a suprise to anyone. It drives me nuts when a person drives right through a stop sign, then wonders why they are getting a ticket. The signs have been up for a while and people are complaining about their TVs not supporting what the industry has been saying they weren't going to support from the beginning.
I do find it amazing that, at this time, there is any content at all that will be available in HD over component. That's a big thumbs up in my book when compared to what was expected.
As far as the ICT... People are saying that it WILL be enabled in the future. No studios are saying that... just a bunch of rumors. Isn't the ICT all about piracy and protecting content from being grabbed over a digital connection and bootlegged? Well, if content never ends up being copied and bootlegged from the analog connections, then why would the ICT ever be turned on by studios? In fact, it goes against any business sense (read: $$$) to lock out people with older sets unless the component feed is specifically how people are pirating HD discs. Since, this is far less likely than your neighbors 12-year old kid figuring out how to beat HD disc encryption so that we can all properly cop... errr... backup our legally purchased HD discs digitally, I would think that component and analog copying would be a mostly trivial and worthless concern. ICT is more likely dead on arrival than anything else.
I'm also very unsure about the dual-format players. The article claims that 'there will be some'. I don't believe it. The licensing from one, or both camps, prohibits the competing technology in the same player. This may seem counter productive, but as long as one format believes that it can truly come out on top, and bury the other format (make it the new Beta) then why would it want a singular solution that helped the competing format to survive... let along thrive?
I personally will wait for both players and formats to come to market. I don't understand ANYONE who is getting one of these formats right from the beginning unless they have gobs of disposable income. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are neither proven formats. I will be getting a PS3 and using that for HD playback from the beginning, but I will refrain from a stand alone player for at least a year. That is the only thing that makes financial sense to me at all. Anyone betting on HD-DVD or Blu-ray surviving... or that dual format players will come to market ensuring their HD-DVD discs (or Blu-ray) will continue to be able to be played, even years from now, is taking a pretty big gamble.
All indications are that PS3 will put Blu-ray players, that WILL be used for movies, into about 10 times the number of homes as HD-DVD or stand alone Blu-ray players alone. Forget gaming - I'm talking about actual end users using the PS3 for movies. Forget game systems having poor disc quality - the PS3 WILL be used by people for HD movies.
