Here is my situation, I have an old 51 inch Hitachi S1S500 RPTV. My only digital connection is DVI. I have the 360 HD DVD, but I'm not real happy with it due to the audio issues, so I am looking to buy a regular HD DVD player, most likely the Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player. My question is this.

If I run a HDMI to DVI cable to my DVI port , will I still be able to receieve 1080i or does it do some kind of weird down conversion? Will I run into any problems doing that? Upgrading the TV isn't really an option as of now.

I've got the A3 and do the HDMI to DVI connection. From what I understand the only difference is you have to do a separate connection for audio.. There shouldn't be any difference in picture quality. I'm no expert but I can say that I think the picture looks great on my TV. I've heard that some HDTVs have a "DVI for Computer" port and that that isn't compatible.

Mine is a standard DVI port - so I should be good.

Appreciate the help. I figured it was a stupid question, but at this point, before I invest in another HD DVD player, I want to make sure.

Yes. Your TV supports 1080i over the DVI connection. A HDMI --> DVI cable should work fine. As you probably already know, monoprice.com is an excellent source for the cable.

Remember you can always use component for 1080i as well. I don't believe any HD DVD's have been authored with the ICT flag to force downrez over component.

Should work if your tv's DVI connecton supports HDCP.

I have a HDMI > DVI cable from my A2 to my tv and it works flawlessly*; no degradation of quality. And then I use an optical audio cable; both bought from monoprice.

* Although make sure your A3 has the latest firmware. I know at least with the A2 there was an issue with the HDMI > DVI connection to where it would fuzz out intermittently, which happened to me now and then. The latest firmware fixed that however.

I was under the impression that if you used component, the ICT would down rez it . If that isn't the case, I can go ahead and run it component. Would I even notice a difference between component or DVI?

Run the HDMI -> DVI cable, so you can upscale your existing SD collection, without resorting to methods that can't be discussed on this site. Your set's DVI input is HDCP compliant, so take advantage of it.

Some sets have issues with black crush when converting HDMI to DVI (don't know if your set does, I'd do a search on AVS), but you can always revert back to component if you're unhappy with the picture quality.

There are likely lots of people using component right now, so if and when ICT is invoked, I'm sure it will be well publicized.

Last I read, 2010 was a kind of soft date for starting to use it.

Bretski brought up a lot of good points - you can't use the HD box to upconvert via component. Before I had an HDMI set, I already had the Oppo 971 for upconversion via DVI to my old Tosh RPTV, so I was happy to use the HD player for HD only via component.

Good points all around.
Will go HDMI > DVI.

Upscaling is a big point.