When I first started learning about audio and video with my Playstation 2, which was super cool in 2000 because it doubled as a DVD player, I was rather intimidated by all the terminology involved with gaming and home theater audio/video. Only through constant internet forum perusing have I been able to keep semi-knowledgeable on the subject, and the problem has only gotten worse with the addition of tons of new connections/formats/signals since then. In an effort to help those who may be starting the venture fresh, this article seeks to demystify one of the main sources of confusion: connections and cables. I shall start with video connections. A small amount of basic knowledge may be required when we get into resolutions, HDTV, and bandwidth, but I will try to keep this as entry level as possible. Unfortunately, breaking down the many video formats is outside the scope of this article (the definition of 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p). However, I have linked you to the wiki on each topic, and there are plenty of resources available on the net to better understand video formats. The title of each section also links to the relevant wiki. Without further ado, the following is a comprehensive description of all video connections you are likely to encounter in North America in the year 2007.

[Disclaimer to video geeks: I am trying to make this easy for a beginner, so I am going to present some facts in a way that may not be 100% technically correct (e.g. 480p is SDTV at twice the speed). I am also going to ignore PAL. Spare me the nasty comments on what an ignoramus I am and try to understand the intent. If you think I am genuinely wrong then please point it out and we'll discuss.]

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I'm trying to find a way to view 1080p HD-DVDs for the lowest cost. Now that I have a 1080p TV (or will on Wednesday) I would like to take advantage of it for watching HD-DVDs. I currently possess one Xbox 360 Premium and no HD-DVD addon. However, even if I purchase the HD-DVD addon, the best I can hope for is 720p because it isn't an Elite with an HDMI output, and my TV (like most known to man) won't accept 1080p via component. The TV also does not have a VGA input to accept 1920x1080p60 via that route. The options I can think of:

1. Buy the HD-DVD addon for my 360 premium. Live with 720p HD-DVDs.

For a small sliver of time during the monstrous JANLAN 2007, eight THXers committed sacrilege and cranked up Gears of War in the middle of a perfectly good Halo 1 LAN. Yeah, it was risky. It turned out to be a nice change of pace from Halo 1, and we all enjoyed it, but we soon reverted to 3-shot sweet-ness (well...maybe 4-shot).

(New schoolers in action)

The roster was Old School vs New School. Mintz, PooBerry, Myth, and Phoenix took on Midnight, Oculus, Reverend, and JDogg/Disavowed. We all played on identical 32" Westinghouse LCD HDTVs capable of 720p. Four Xbox 360s displayed Gear of War in local multiplayer splitscreen for eight players.