I am guessing the Panasonic dvd recorder dmr-es45v will not play HD dvd's?

Question

and that the HDMI trademark it carries means something else. Am I correct?

Answer 1

Nope, no brand other than Toshiba and one Onkyo piece play HD-DVD's.  Trust me, your player would say it right on the front, and Panasonic currently supports Blu-Ray.

HDMI means that if you want to see any higher resolution from your DVD recorder (720P, 1080i) that you would need a TV that supports HDMI as a connection.  

However, having your DVD recorder output a higher resolution DOES NOT mean your getting HD, it only means it's "Upscaling"  to a higher resolution.  Be careful, because some DVD's do not do a very good job at this, and you're better off having your TV "Upscale" your picture.

Answer 2

Good Guess. It has HDMI scaling or upconversion. It improves DVD above 480P, which is unavailable without HDMI connections.