Excerpt from [Link: neothings.com] ...

A lot of people unknowingly assume that the future of consumer electronics is a predetermined path that has been laid out for the next several years. After all, there are product roadmaps, development plans, and long term agreements in place. In reality there is not one long term plan, but hundreds that, for the most part, work against each other. This is the nature of business. Such is the case with HDMI this week.
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With an HDMI port missing on the PS3, as well as the Xbox360, we may have reached a point of equilibrium, until the next round of game consoles is unveiled, probably around 2010 to 2012

The exectutive summary is that a lower end PS3 will not have an HDMI port, and that the Xbox 360s external HD-DVD drive will not have an HDMI port. Sony, Microsoft, major Hollywood studios, and others may have a informal agreement to not impliment the ICT flag (which disables component video) until 2010 or 2012. Bottom line - This is good news for those of you that build large scale systems.

This would be good news. Would love not to bother running HDMI to monitors and projectors. Was thinking of running 2 cat5 instead for possible adaptor.

Hi Bill:
Based on what I hear from my sources at HDMI (possibly biased), Bill is very optimistic about flag implementation. I believe that it will start to happen by the end of 2007.
Please be prepared. Run 2" smurf.
Realize that MicroSoft is not really aplayer in this.
Sony however is and as with their previous attempts with copy protection they want tto control how you handle the content.

2" smurf is always a good idea. That is what I always recommend.

Regarding Sony, they have sort of put themselves in a pickle. Sure they want DRM, but without a HDMI port on the low end PS3, they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they started using the ICT in Blu-Ray next year.
Call me optimistic, but I'm just going on what Sony themselves is saying:

[Link: soundandvisionmag.com]
"Eklund noted that Sony's key piracy concern isn't with analog HDTV signals but with the digital HDTV signal coming off the disc, which both Blu-ray and HD DVD are protecting with the robust Advanced Access Content System (AACS) endorsed by the Hollywood studios. If analog copying does become a problem down the road, the policy could change, he said � but for now, "we have no plan to implement the Image Constraint Token. All of Sony's titles will come out of the analog output at full definition."