You don't need an HDMI port to watch HD-DVD. The component works just fine and if reviews of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD titles are to be believed it looks better than HDMI. Plus there are hundreds of thousands of HD TV sets (like mine) that came out before HDMI existed and don't have a digital input. The manufacturers have all said that they will not limit the resolution of the component output so it is a non-issue for now.