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I remember the minute I set eyes on my shiny new DVD player. It was back in 2001. The player a Pioneer DV717 was the same size as two VHS players placed on top of each other but it looked ten times as sophisticated with enough inputs and outputs to make robot Johnny Five of Short Circuit fame blush. I was in awe as I placed the disc into the player knowing I was about to see crystal clear clarity, perfect sound, additional features including the fantastic director's commentaries, and I didn't have to wind back a tape ever again.

For a movie fan, as I was and continue to be, it was heaven.

Now, as the 21st century rolls onward, we arrive at the next wave of new video technology Blu-Ray and HD DVD. Both are competing for your consumer awareness, vying for that hard cash you'd already spent on accumulating a room full of DVDs only for them now to be seen as second generation knock-offs. Sadly, if you want to enjoy the fruits of these new shiny discs you'll have to buy Pulp Fiction again that'll be the third time after you replaced the dusty VHS copy with the DVD (or fourth if you ventured into the laserdisc market back in the nineties).

However, let's remember that it took DVD a long time to become the favored product of the masses. Most people weren't bothered by its added features and better visual quality, deciding to stick with the ever-cheapening VHS video. In fact, it was only 2004 that VHS players were beginning to be phased out and more households were upgrading to the disc video format. How long will it take people to upgrade again to high-definition formats, baring in mind Blu-Ray and HD DVDs will have no benefit for users who don't have high-definition televisions such as LCD or Plasma? Not only will consumers have to spend hundreds of dollars on a new television set, they'll have to spend similar amounts on new Blu-Ray or HD DVD players, and then buy the discs for each format which will cost, in many cases, three times as much as standard DVDs are selling for now. It's a prospect that will turn off the average consumer and only excite the riches of those with plenty disposable income. It has to questioned whether even film fans will be encouraged into spending more money on re-buying their collections. Because of this, the new high-definition video formats won't become mainstream for several years.

Perhaps we're forgetting why DVD eventually took off? Yes, it offered better picture and sound quality than VHS videos but only technophiles, cinema

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