We don146;t need hi-def DVDs

This month, Toshiba8217;s HD-A1 high-definition DVD player hit store shelves.

This month, Toshiba8217;s HD-A1 high-definition DVD player hit store shelves. It8217;s the first marketplace volley in an absurd and pointless format war among the titans of the movie, electronics and computer industries. Just contemplating the rise of a new DVD format is enough to make you feel played. What8217;s wrong with the original DVD format, anyway? It offers brilliant picture, thundering surround sound and bonus material. The catalog of DVD movies is immense and reasonably priced. And DVD players are so cheap, they practically fall out of magazines.

To electronics executives, all of this can mean only one thing: It8217;s time to junk that format and start over. The new discs hold far more information, enough to display Hollywood8217;s masterpieces in true high definition if you have a high-definition TV, of course.

Unfortunately, this idea occurred simultaneously to both Sony and Toshiba. Each dreamed up its own format for a high-def DVD. Each then assembled an army of partners. Toshiba8217;s format, called HD-DVD, has attracted Microsoft, Sanyo, NEC and studios like New Line and Universal. Sony8217;s format, called Blu-ray, has in its camp Apple, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Pioneer, Dell and studios like Sony, 20th Century Fox and Disney.

The new DVD players will play standard DVDs, but that8217;s as far as the compatibility good news goes. Movies in Toshiba8217;s format won8217;t play in DVD players from Sony8217;s side, and vice versa. At first, pundits guessed that Sony8217;s Blu-ray format might win, because it had signed up so many more movie studios, its discs have greater capacity, and the PlayStation 3, expected to top best-seller lists this fall, will double as a Blu-ray player.

But Toshiba has two aces up its sleeve. First, its first HD-DVD player is available now, giving it a head start; Blu-ray players aren8217;t expected until the end of June. Second, this new player, the HD-A1, costs half the price of the cheapest Blu-ray deck.

The new DVD generation is supposed to offer several sophisticated features. For example, director and actor commentaries can now include video, not just audio. Similarly, the A18217;s built-in Ethernet jack is supposed to let you connect to the Internet for interactive features. On videophile blogs, you can find several cautionary notes regarding the HD-A18217;s audio and video signal outputs8212;details that will cause average people8217;s eyes to glaze over, but may alarm high-end movie buffs.

You should know, too, that you8217;re guaranteed the sensational high-resolution HD-DVD picture only if your TV set has an HDMI connector. If you use S-video or component cables instead, you may see only 25 percent of the resolution you8217;re supposed to get.

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Over all, though, the A1 does deliver the specacular picture and sound promised by Toshiba. Should you buy one, then? No. Reason: the average person can see the difference in picture quality, but only on a big, hi-def screen, preferably side by side with a standard DVD signal. The leap is nowhere as great as it was from, say, VHS to DVD. David Pogue