Toshiba's HD-DVD players will do high-def only via HDMI

Toshiba unleashed their new HD-DVD specification during a recent Toshiba road show (and who wouldn't tremble at the honor to be a roadie for that hoppin' gig, we ask ya), and the takeaway message for us consumers is that the new HD-DVD players are only gonna output HDTV via the HDMI output, while the analog output will be downrezed to 480 lines. What's the big idea? Copy protection. Because Intel's HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is tied into the HDMI spec, it's vastly easier to control the signal and prevent the user from ripping it directly from the HDMI interface (as can be done relatively easily via a DVI interface). Of course, they can't control the analog signal, so the solution is not to output anything remotely high quality via the analog pathway whatsoever. Tricksy! Okay, Blu-ray, here's your chance to breakaway in the heated DVD format war: give the consumer some lovin', aight?

[Via slashdot]