Personally, I would wait until there are way more than 4 movies to choose from.
Give it at least a month/maybe 2. (or at least until there are at least 50 titles to choose from)
(that's just my opinion)
As far as your HDMI question, yep, that is perfectly fine.
Run it straight to the tv, and just have a digital optical/or/coax to the receiver.
This was just posted 3 hours ago in the Seattle Times paper.
"
HD-DVD discs, players arrive — in small dose
By Victor Godinez
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — The high-definition DVD era begins today with the official launch in the United States of HD-DVD movie players and discs.
Don't expect much fanfare —
only two players ($499 and $799 Toshiba models) and
four movies are available.
And the arrival of a competing format known as Blu-ray is a little over a month away.
But there are hopeful signs for electronics makers and movie studios that HD-DVD or Blu-ray could eventually be a hit with consumers.
The biggest boost for the new formats will be that sales of high-definition televisions — a necessity to take full advantage of high-def movies — are booming.
The total number of HDTVs sold in the United States is expected to surpass standard television sales this year.
No one expects HD-DVD or Blu-ray to be an overnight sensation.
Blockbuster will offer the first batch of HD-DVD movies only through its online rental service, not in its stores. Available today are "Serenity," "The Last Samurai," "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Phantom of the Opera."
"I think with the consumer penetration for high-definition players being really limited at [first], it would have made it really difficult to roll it out nationally in our stores," said spokesman Randy Hargrove.
He said Blockbuster probably will take a similar approach with Blu-ray movies, which are scheduled to arrive on May 23.
One reason firms are being cautious is that HD-DVD and Blu-ray are incompatible formats.
You can't watch HD-DVD movies using a Blu-ray player, and vice versa, and
anyone who ends up investing in the losing format will be stuck with obsolete technology.
As a result, many consumers could sit on their wallets until a clear winner emerges.
Electronics retailer Best Buy will sell HD-DVD movies and players in its stores starting today, and will do the same with Blu-ray when that technology becomes available.
But in a statement, it said, "Best Buy believes that one format will live and one will die."
The higher cost of movies and heavy-handed anti-piracy measures could dissuade others from buying into high-definition DVDs.
On BestBuy.com, for example, the regular DVD version of "The Last Samurai"
is listed at $9.99. The HD-DVD version costs $24.99.
To limit piracy, disc publishers can choose to scale back the video quality when players are connected to HD televisions with less-secure component cables, rather than the latest HDMI cables.
Many older high-def televisions don't have HDMI inputs.
Still, the market is clearly growing for high-definition video.
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 33.2 million televisions were shipped in the United States last year."
Link to that article -
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002936638_hddvd18.html