In fact the high resolution DVD-H1000 is available now, it's a new entry in the ultra high-end DVD player market.

Progressive Scan DVD players, for those unfamiliar with the term, offer a more crisp DVD viewing experience that's clearly discernable to the naked eye for most people, provided the viewing is being done on a 480p-capable digital television. (The best traditional analog TVs can currently do is 480i, which is the interlaced 480-line resolution that all sub-$1,000 DVD players that have been on the market for three years display).

We've provided a full breakdown (link to the final page of this article, where we breakdown the 480p versus 480i battle.) on the differences between standard DVD players with their 480i (interlaced) presentation and new 480p (progressive scan) DVD players at the end of this article.

For now we'll simply say that we saw multiple progressive scan DVD players running on DTVs and HDTVs, and all of them were clearly superior to non-progressive 480i DVD players running on identical televisions with identical DVD discs.

Better visual quality has a price, and in addition to a costly DTV or HDTV, users will also have to throw down over $2,500 for the DVD-H1000 should they seek the best home movie experience possible today.

Sharky Extreme opinion: If you're investing in a $7,000 - $10,000 home HDTV theater system, what's an additional $2,500 for the appropriate 480p DVD player?

That's pretty much the question given to us by several Panasonic reps at the show off the record, and we loosely tended to agree with their broad statement knowing that by the time HDTV prices fall enough for the masses, affordable progressive DVD players will be plentiful.

In fact by that time, late 2001 lets say, there probably won't be any 480i-only players left on the market to choose from, even at the low end of the spectrum. Instead all DVD players offered by manufacturers will have both 480i/480p interlaced/progressive scan capabilities, and which one the buyer actually sees will be dependant upon if they own an analog or a digital TV.

One thing is for certain: Until High Definition 1080i HD-DVD players arrive sometime in 2003 or beyond, progressive scan DVD players offer the best possible DVD viewing option, period.

The best part of the progressive equation is that unlike the move to HD-DVD in the future, which will require brand new HD-DVD discs to take advantage of the higher resolutions, all previous DVD movies and discs are automatically compatible with the move from 480i to 480p progressive players. 480p DVD players literally unlock the high-resolution images that are already present on all DVD discs.

It doesn't get much better than that, as "backwards compatibility" is largely a foreign concept to most new technology breakthrough products.