High definition has been around for 1 year in the UK and its cracking!!!! For the last few years HD ready plasma and LCD TV sets have been flying off the shelves, they support HD signals at 720p and 1080i and for the thousands of people who have signed up for the Sky HD service they’re enjoying the glorious HD pictures. But over the last 6 months there has been a new competitor to the HD scene and a war is brewing. This time its HD discs, and just like the Betamax and VHS battled it out 30 years ago, its happening again.

Believe it or not, DVD has been with us now for 10 years and has established itself as the choice format today, and when released all the major manufacturers sat around the table and decided on the one universal format, but not this time! Oh no, Sony has done it again, this time with the Blu Ray disc with the backing of many many film studios and manufacturers alike. And Toshiba decided to create the HD DVD disc with backing from Microsoft and a smaller selection of film studios.

The first to arrive was the HD DVD, the product was complete, finalised and ready to go! Microsoft created an add on drive for its Xbox 360 games console to play the discs and Toshiba shortly followed with its stand alone players. Sony meanwhile delayed the launch of the PS3 games console which features a Blu Ray drive built into the console. Samsung and Panasonic have launched stand alone players but they have been considerably more expensive.

So what about picture quality? Well they both look fantastic! Which leads to the next question, which one do I go for? There has been no clear cut winner in this battle, at first it would appear that Blu Ray has the edge with its current catalogue of films dwarfing that of HD DVD, but after reading many debates about the two formats it appears that HD DVD has the edge with picture quality.

Because this battle hasn’t ended as quickly as some had hoped it has forced consumers to stay clear until a format emerges victorious, so now on the horizon is a new breed of player, the multi format player! Currently being developed by Samsung and LG with more to follow. Maybe at last these companys are thinking about the consumer before their pockets!

So here’s my weekly moan, why is the UK once more ripped off? Its no wonder the disc format is being won by the old favourite, DVD! Many new DVD players feature upscaling, you may have read previous posts regarding this, where a DVD picture is upscaled to HD resolution, its not as crisp as a pure HD picture but it adds a whole new lease of life to your DVD collection. But thats not my moan, this is; I’ve recently seen Mel Gibson’s Apocolypto advertised on the TV coming to DVD and Blu Ray, having seen the movie earlier in the year I thought it was great and wanted to buy it in High Definition, my wife thought she would surprise me and headed off to HMV and Virgin, £29.99, I don’t think so! On DVD £11.99, I could buy that and watch it upscaled! But no, off to the internet we went and purchased the Blu Ray for £14.99 from America and that included postage!

So why is Britain ripped off everytime!!!! I think we’re a target, it’s the norm and no one is challenging it! Next time you buy a film, take a look on the internet and shop around, its amazing the savings you’ll make!

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