It’s taken a while, but high-definition (HD) television is finally starting to take off in Europe.

Widescreen HDTV sets are selling in their millions ­ in fact, you can no longer buy CRT (cathode ray tube) sets in high street stores such as Currys.

However, an HDTV is only the first part of the story. You can, of course, continue to watch conventional
standard-definition TV or DVD films on your HDTV set (standard-definition refers to the 720x576 resolution of the UK’s standard television format), and these will still look pretty good.

But to really get the best out of your expensive HDTV, you need proper HD films or TV programmes to play on it. These are filmed in the same 1,280x720 or 1,920x1,080 resolutions offered by HD television sets.

For sports on TV, you could subscribe to an HD service such as Sky HD. However, the real attraction of an HDTV for many is for watching films on DVD. As we’ve mentioned, you can watch standard-definition DVDs on your HDTV, but because they weren’t originally recorded in HD, they’re not going to make the most of your new TV’s HD screen. The next step ­ in theory ­ is to get an HD-DVD player as well.

The winner takes it all
Unfortunately, this is where things get a bit tricky. As you’ve probably heard, there are currently two rival formats vying for control of the HD-DVD market. Sony’s version is called Blu-ray (because it uses a blue laser beam to read the image data on the disc), while Toshiba and a number of other manufacturers are pushing a format called HD-DVD (high-definition DVD).

Both formats are technically impressive, providing five times the image resolution of standard-definition DVD discs. But, needless to say, the two formats are completely incompatible. A Blu-ray player can’t play films that are stored on an HD-DVD and vice-versa. In other words, the giant brains of the electronics industry have saddled us with yet another format war along the lines of the original VHS versus Betamax rivalry from the early days of videotape, although dual-format players are available.

Because of this, many people are reluctant to buy either Blu-ray or HD-DVD players ­ let alone upgrade their entire film collection ­ as they’re worried that they might end up backing the wrong format. In fact, we’d recommend that readers steer clear of buying discs and players in either format until things become clearer.

Sharper image
However, there is one other option that might appeal to owners of HDTV sets. It’s possible to buy a standard-definition DVD player that includes a feature called upscaling (sometimes also known as up-conversion). Your existing player may have the feature if it’s new enought.

An upscaling DVD player will play your existing standard-definition DVD films, using video-processing techniques to improve the DVD image so that it comes close to HD quality.