What’s more — as many who were sucked into buying an iPod because of the capability to play movies have discovered — watching content designed for a TV or computer monitor on a 3.5 by 4.5 centimetre screen makes for an eye-straining experience even without the bad artefacting of a heavily compressed download.

Your next purchase of a DVD player or high end DVD laptop will probably be a vote cast between the Sony-backed Blu-ray format and the Toshiba- and NEC-owned HD DVD.

To promote the new chipset, NEC have released the E2000 to the reseller’s specifications, and while they’re cheap everywhere else, they’re cheapest in WA at $2,800.