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So, you're officially HDTV-ready. By the end of 2006 you'll be in an exclusive club of 10 per cent of Britons who know the pleasure of satellite TV so dazzling it burns the lipid layer from your eyes. Your old-fashioned DVD collection, on the other hand, might start to seem a little fuzzy.
Luckily (if you've any change left over) there are two brand-new, steroidal DVD formats - HD-DVD and Blu-ray - waiting to provide images that will do your new screen justice, carrying up to nine hours of interactive entertainment on a single disc, and a picture five times as detailed as standard DVD. But readers mature enough to remember the VHS-Betamax wars of the 1980s will know exactly what two competing, incompatible formats means uncertainty, winners and losers, money potentially wasted.
You will of course need a new DVD
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Be careful the lure of HDTV doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket, says linton chiswick |
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player, too. HD-DVD has been first to market, and it's cheaper. In the US, you can pick up an entry-level machine for around £300. The first to reach the UK shops cost around £500. Don't, however, expect a huge amount of choice when it comes to HD-DVD titles.
A further problem is that most studios are backing HD-DVD's competitor, Blu-ray. And Blu-ray is expensive - £999.99 worth of expensive. But it's aided by Sony's decision to include a Blu-ray player in its hotly anticipated PlayStation 3. HD-DVD will be available (as an ugly add-on) for Microsoft's Xbox 360, which isn't quite the same.
The First Post's advice is wait and see. By the time there are enough titles on the shelves to make a purchase worthwhile, prices may well have dropped. Or, by then, you could always borrow your kids' games console. 
FIRST POSTED OCTOBER 24, 2006
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