Format wars

11:44am Thursday 7th February 2008

Who will be triumphant in the battle of the black boxes?

MANY of us can remember the format wars of the 80s when VHS went head-to-head with Betamax and V2000 (remember those? ). Much money was spent on ownership of these fairly hefty machines and plenty of people were left a little red-faced after backing the wrong box.

It has been happening all over again.

This time it is Blu Ray versus HD DVD.

Both discs offer an eye-pleasing visual display on your HD-ready televisions, but only one can be victorious, and it would appear that Blu Ray has the upper hand: the world's largest "adult entertainment" company chose the format for its productions, Warner Brothers are on board and Woolworths are only putting this type of disc on their shelves.

Despite frantic price-cutting by Toshiba and its HD-DVD partners, the battle may soon be over.

LG BH200
£899.95 at www.bigpockets.co.uk

NO doubt at all, this is a pretty hefty price tag, but this machine can play both disc formats, which could be of real benefit for film fanatics. As the unfavoured format declines in popularity, the discs will be discounted, so you could end up with a fairly hefty collection for much less.

Sony Vaio VGN-Ar series
From £1,799 at www.sonystyle.co.uk

IN the league of laptops, this is most certainly at the premiership end of the price tags, but you'll be in a small minority of folk who can watch high definition films while you're and about. This laptop is a computing powerhouse, showing off all that is good in portable PCs to tempt us into wallet-opening mode. 500GB hard drive is my final word - that'll have the geeks' attention at least.

PS3
£299.99 from www.argos.co.uk

LOOKING to justify your purchase of a console gaming system? Look no further.

This fine machine produces the finest images on your high definition TV set of some of the best games ever made.

The justification comes in the form of the PS3's ability to play Blu Ray discs too, making it possibly the most costeffective option available.

Sony BDPS300
£299.95 from www.richersounds.com

NOT one of the more attractive TV accessories I've witnessed of late - it's one to be kept behind closed cupboard doors. It is, however, a superb standalone player in every way. Grab one from this website and treat yourself to six free discs too.

Philips BDP7100
£447 from www.pixmania.com

THIS premium machine offers up a vast array of added features to its standard Blu Ray disc playing abilities.

Set this one up with a surround sound system and it can support up to seven speakers. You'll never need to visit the cinema again.

Samsung BDP 1000
£329.99 at www.amazon.co.uk

THE cool blue lights that glow from this machine have had me transfixed a few times during testing these past weeks. This excellent machine features a multimemory card slot for viewing video footage and digital imagery on your TV set too.

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