Even if your final viewing destination isn't an HD compatible device, down-converted HDV will, in most cases, look superior to video shot on consumer grade DV cameras. An HDV camera captures more than four times the amount of data that a standard DV camera does. Unless you're competing with a high-end pro DV cam, your down-sampled HDV will be clearer.

Many flat screen and plasma screen TVs will also play back HDV. To get the best effect, you need a resolution of at least 1280x1080.

Until/unless you make a decision on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray (when they finally ship), you may be hard pressed to find a playback mechanism that doesn't involve either your computer or your camera itself.

Apple will let you burn HDV (and HD) to a common DVD via DVD Studio Pro 4.0 for playback on a computer through QuickTime.

Microsoft has a series of codecs which play back 720p or 1080i on your computer as well. WMV-HD (Windows Media Video-High-Definition) discs such as with the documentaries The Living Sea and The Magic of Flight are already available in some stores and from www.wmvhd.com. There is some commercial content available for WMV-HD, including the James Cameron classic Terminator 2 (the WMV-HD version can be found on Terminator 2, Extreme Edition). Authoring guidelines for WMV-HD are available on Microsoft's Web site.

Your computer display is most likely HDV capable, though your computer itself might not be. Microsoft recommends a 3.0GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and a 128MB video card. While sitting in front of the computer screen watching movies isn't really my idea of fun, I'm becoming more acclimated to viewing my laptop as a portable theater; comfortable viewing is often limited to one or, at most, two people. There are applications such as BlazeDVD from BlazeVideo, which are geared towards making your computer as much like a home theater as possible. BlazeDVD supports not only WMV-HD, but also just about every other popular video format and many audio formats including Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS. All you need is that chair from the Maxell ad.

If you're a pro, you may be wondering how long it will take you to recoup your investment cost. Can you offer new services or charge more for HDV? A key deciding factor over your competitors will be the added value in offering HDV. HDV is not going anywhere anytime in the near term.

You'll upgrade eventually, and you're not the only person thinking that if you buy now, you'll be the first on your block offering HDV. You may be one of a thousand videographers with footage of a killer whale snatching a seal out of the surf, but if you have it on HDV, you may be one of three. But then, it might be that nobody's asking for that particular footage in HDV yet.

You're sold, but you still have to convince your spouse that buying an HDV camera is better than a week in Paris. There's nothing like a demonstration to convince the recalcitrant. Download some HDV trailers, watch them in Windows Media Player or QuickTime. Be forewarned that you'll need to have potent computing power at your disposal, and that simply buying an HDV camera and editing software might only be the first step in a long series of upgrades necessary before you're shooting and producing HDV. Many video stores are displaying HD technology; it might be time to drop in for a demonstration.

My friend Robbie lost in his gamble on formats. Eventually he had to buy a VHS player. However, for years, he was king of the neighborhood: we were all in his living room every night watching Superman, The Towering Inferno, and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. And that counts for a lot.