Dan's Media Digest

To HD, or not to HD, that is the question...

For what it's worth, I thought I'd share my thoughts on the HD "revolution" currently taking around the world. Firstly, let's consider the world of TV in the UK...

HD (High-Definition) pictures are now available to Sky subscribers with Sky HD, and high-def channels are planned from the BBC. I don't have Sky (I'm with NTL cable) so I'm very unlikely to buy one of their mega-expensive Sky+ boxes and pay their ridiculous subscription costs. Anyway, what Sky don't advertise clearly enough is that you need a HD-Ready TV to display the crisper HD images, and I have no intention of buying a HD TV. My 32" Toshiba widescreen has served me well for the past 5 years, and the picture quality from NTL is far superior to normal Sky Digital, in my opinion...

So, when my trusty Toshiba TV packs up I'll certainly look at "future-proofing" by getting a HD-Ready set, and by that time a decent 42" HD screen should be down to the £1000 mark. Hopefully. I'm certainly impressed by HD pictures –- you can catch me staring at the HD display in my local Sony Centre most weeks -– but not enough to make me rush out and invest in all the gear.

Of course, the HD revolution won't be led by TV channels transmitting in HD anyway. It will take quite a few years for HD TV to be commonplace (we're still struggling to get the nation 100% behind normal digital TV!) No, the format will undoubtedly be spearheaded by HD discs.

There are two competing formats for HD discs: HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-Ray DVD. Long time readers of DMDB will remember my handy comparison guide here. HD discs are yet to hit the UK marketplace, but when they do... I don’t think I'll be making the switch. Not yet, anyway.

Again, this is mainly because I don't have a HD TV, so a player of any format just won't output its HD picture. But, hypothetically, if I had a HD TV set I would certainly hold off buying a HD-player until the "format war" is won. I still back HD-DVD personally, but we'll see.

If a dual-player is released that plays both formats (for a reasonable price; sub-£300), I'd certainly get one if it could play multi-region discs. I won't be getting a Playstation 3 (Blu-Ray enabled), or X-BOX 360 (with its HD-DVD player add-on), mainly because they won't be multi-region, but also because I don't really play many video games these days...

So that's where I stand: very impressed by the technology, but not financially able to justify the expenditure -– an estimated £1500 for a TV, then £400 for a player. That's nearly £2000 just to see crisper images on a TV! I paid £1500 for a widescreen TV and DVD player back in 2000, but that was justified because of the quantum leap in quality from analogue 4:3 TV and VHS tapes.

I'm just not willing to pay those prices again a mere 6 years later for a technology only moderately superior. Sorry...