Curious appearance of this article as its the very thing I'm researching at the moment... and in fact toddling off to Richer Sounds next weekend to bag a bargain.

You only need 1080p if you have a Blu-Ray player or a PS3, but I don't see any point in getting anything that is only HD-Ready as opposed to Full HD, you want this thing to be as future proof as possible... and when you can pick up a class-winning 42 incher for barely £700, buying anything less would be a false economy, especially, as this article alludes to, HD is likely to take off big time in the next 12 months.

But it's absolutely right that it's well behind the US. Living in the Channel Islands, we're pretty restricted on what we have access to, so the price cut on the HD boxes is great news, although I'll be doing my best to avoid that £60 "flicking a switch" charge which is an absolute gyp.

@Steve Kay : not sure why you're so confused over it all, although I do have a PhD in Computer Science... but grab a copy of What Sound&Vision and it explains it all in kid's speak for lesser mortals.