DVDs are taking over the High Street this Christmas.
After a lukewarm launch in 1997, sales are booming, helped by increased consumer interest in home theatre and massive advertising campaigns.
Last month, sales of DVD players in the United States exceeded videos for the first time, according to market research company NPD Intelect. In the UK, an estimated 1.5 million players will have been sold by the end of the year, up from 712,000 in 2000.
While 2001 has become the breakthrough year for the format, critics have said there are a number of uncertainties surrounding the future of DVD.
One of the main problems on this side of the Atlantic is the cost of buying a recordable DVD player - more than £1,000 - for UK consumers who record far more programmes than their US counterparts.
The recorders are so expensive because companies are desperate to protect their products. Although we live in a world of "free" content, internet material being one of the most obvious examples, the media multinationals are horrified by the idea of people copying content.
Although this ignores the arguable fact many products have boomed because of copying - from Sinclair Spectrum games to home-videoing to CD-burning, it helps to explain why the 2600 web site has been banned by a US court from revealing the secrets of making unauthorised copies of DVDs.
The decoding content scramble system software, details of which were posted on the site, can be used to unlock the technology safeguards embedded in DVDs.
It is no surprise the Hollywood establishment did not take too kindly to someone publishing this information and took 2600 to court.
Earlier this year, BMG Entertainment won the race to produce the first copyright-protected CD on general release, when it released Natalie Imbruglia's White Lillies Island.
The CD used cactus data shield protection to prevent people ripping the music to MP3 format but, unfortunately, it was rather too effective. Many consumers complained when their legitimate copies refused to play in some CD and DVD players.
While you wait for the outcome of the multimedia war - and it could be a long wait because both sides are committed and resourceful - you might want to consider a more mechanical method of entertainment.
My Christmas recommendation comes from a friend who extols the virtues of the Cat-A-Pult, available on the Exploratorium-store web site. The game comes with five adjustable flingers to catapult five lightweight flying cats up to eight feet. Each Cat-A-Pult has 25 settings to control distance and trajectory. The aim is to get the first cat to trigger the second cat and so on. More fun than most DVD extras.
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