Remember the format war between Betamax and VHS? Sony's Betamax offered a superior picture and technology, but lost out to VHS in the home marketplace. Today Betamax is only used in TV newsrooms across the country. Now Sony's Blu Ray hi-def DVD format is competing with Toshiba's HD DVD format. Sony is trying to lock up the film studios for their format, so Toshiba has countered by lowering prices on its player. The new street price is $149, but you can probably find it for about $110-$130.

The picture with either Blu Ray or HD DVD is shockingly good. We're talking about better resolution than broadcast HDTV. But here's the problem: Nobody knows which format will be the winner, so some early adopters will end up with a player that becomes a dinosaur down the road. Clark has a couple of strategies to help you win this war. The cheapest option is for you to take your traditional DVDs and buy an up-convert DVD player ($60 and up) with an HDMI cable ($5-$50). This setup will use digital voodoo to take the picture from your existing DVDs and simulate what hi-def will look like. The second option is sure to please gamers: Get a Sony PlayStation 3 ($399) that plays Blu Ray. Or you can simply buy the Toshiba player for $149. No matter which choice you make, remember to rent your DVDs for the next several years. Do not own -- that way you lower your risk while the format war rages on. The big risk comes when you develop a library of movies in a format that becomes obsolete.