Once again, the standards nightmare returns to haunt consumers. The ghost of Betamax is on the loose. Here's the deal, folks: You can spend $50 today for a progressive-scan standard DVD player, and find thousands of DVD discs at Blockbuster or Netflix that will play on it. Or you can spend $500 to $2,000 for a high-definition DVD player - Blu-ray or HD-DVD, one of which might be obsolete in a year or two - and take your pick of a few dozen movies available for that particular hi-def format.

Are the high-definition DVDs so much better that they justify the risk of picking the wrong platform? Maybe, if you're rich and already have an expensive 1080p hi-def TV upon which to screen the trickle of new DVDs. Me, I'll wait for some mad scientist in Japan to create The HD DVD Player With Two Heads, able to play both new HD formats.