Part 2 of the "HDMI" problem is now solved.
questioning_old
Contributor - Level 2

I just bought and hooked up the component video cable for my DVD player.  The only other thing I had to do was add a regular audio cable (red and white) to get the sound (after a process of elimination) and I definitely see a huge improvement in the picture quality of my DVDs.  Even though my DVD player doesn't have the HDMI-DVI capacity, the quality of my DVD pictures with the component video cable looks just as good as the quality of my TV programs with the HDMI cable.  I didn't realize that the composite cable was considered the "lowest quality". 

Now let's see if I can keep the same set up with my existing appliances for the next 10 years....too optimistic?  lol