Last week we completed a five-part HDTV purchasing guide, which explained the tech terms and the differences between LCD and Plasma TVs. That article now leads us to the other gear of HD technology which is HD players.

Having a shiny brand new HDTV is pointless unless you can see HD images on the screen. The logic is pretty simple to work out: No HD receiver or no HD player equals no HD signal on your new HDTV. I think that is a pretty simple logic to understand.

But before we go into HD players, if you need to see the HDTV buying guide it can be seen at www.jamaica-star.com/thestar. Now with that said, let's go directly in our HD player tech guide.

With the introduction of HDTV we all knew it would be just a matter of time for HD discs and players to get in the market. Standard DVD players offer a maximum resolution of 480p (e.g. 704 X 480) which is not a high definition (HD) signal. High definition signals start at 720i (1280 X 720) resolution. To watch a high definition disc on your lovely HDTV, you will need a HD Player.

Initially there were two players waging a war to be the successor of the DVD (digital versatile disc); the HD DVD and the BLU-RAY player. HD DVD, which was supported strongly by Toshiba, will be discontinued as Toshiba will no longer be manufacturing HD DVD players; which leaves BLU-RAY as the winner in the HD player and HD disc battle.

Extremely successful

DVD (digital versatile disc) has been around since 1997 and was extremely successful, wasting not much time getting in on the highly controlled VHS (video home system) and VCR (video cassette recorder) controlled market. Even though DVDs were so successful they also had their limitations for HD technology; most of this limitation was the DVDs data size capacity.

HD DVD was the first competitor to try and replace standard DVDs. It was strongly supported by Toshiba then later got other support from corporations such as Microsoft, Dell and a few others. HD DVD was heading in the right direction and had all the advantages for replacing standard DVD. One of its main advantages was the fact that it was the first known format to try to replace DVDs, giving it room to establish itself on the market before any other formats. Another advantage was its size capacity.

Principles of traditional DVDs

HD DVD also had another significant advantage. The fact that they use the same manufacturing principles of traditional DVDs, manufacturers didn't have to retool their factories to produce this format. This in turn kept manufacturing cost down, which led to HD DVD being relatively cheap for a new technology.

However how successful we thought HD DVD players and its technology would have been, is no longer an issue. On February 19, 2008 Toshiba Corporation chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida announced that they will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.