Hi,

A friend of mine has recently got one of the above. She asked me if it was worth getting a HDMI cable to go with it and to be honest i wasn't sure. I can't see why it has an output in the first place as it doesn't upscale DVDs and it doesn't (I don't think) play HD channels.

Could someone enlighten me please?

Cheers.

yes get one as the telly will upscale

Bit of a confusing answer? - the TV will upscale anyway, via SCART - but if you connect it via HDMI you have the option of either the DVD recorder upscaling or the TV.

It really depends how good your TV is?, I've installed lots of these on Sony LCD's, and you can't see any difference via RGB SCART, Composite, or HDMI (just as you would expect).

I read on the AV forums that picture can get worse if you're basically upsaling twice (from the TV & DVD recorder). So how do I know what's doing what ?. I've messed around with some of the Sony's DVD recorder setting, but don't know whether I should now turn them off ?

You can't upscale twice, as if the DVD is outputing 1080 it can't go any higher - the TV will downscale if it's not full HD, but this is rarely detrimental anyway.

Just try the different settings and set what YOU prefer, that's why they are called 'personal' settings.

Connected a HXD970 recorder up to my Bravia X3500 via HDMI last week and settled on a 576p output, letting the TV only do the upscaling. Couldn't tell much difference between 576p and 1080p playing a commercial DVD but there was a marginal improvement when using the DTT tuner or a HDD recording when set at 576p.

Haven't tried a RGB Scart connection though.