The Why
I'm going to be honest here and admit that my original reason for launching this website was that I wanted to try and cut through all the PR fluff and guff surrounding the crazy format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray. But the funny thing is, now that particular HD war has finally been won, far from making this site redundant it actually seems to have opened the floodgates to an ever-greater array of HD sources all vying for our attention.

We're now getting World HD Premiere film broadcasts from Sky and BBC HD; an ever-growing number of HD games appearing on the Xbox 360 and PS3; HD downloads on the Xbox 360; a glut of Blu-ray discs; and more and more 'events' (concerts, big sporting clashes and the like) being shown in HD for the very first time.

Plus, of course, on the hardware side there are continuing format battles between plasma and LCD screens, and all sorts of different HD projection technologies.

So there's frankly more for HD Wars to get its teeth into than ever, with two main points in mind. First, there's just the simple interest value in seeing how the different HD sources are progressing and stacking up against each other. Second, particularly where games, Blu-ray discs and eventually (when I can find a minute to expand the site!) hardware are concerned, I want to offer a fully independent buyer's guide, to make sure you spend your hard-earned cash on only the best of everything.

The How
Obviously the grand ideas outlined in The Why section depend on me being able to objectively compare and contrast HD products with each other, and also put them in some historical context. So for starters I've managed to get myself set up with everything equipment-wise I believe is necessary to make differences in HD gear and sources obvious.

My main screen, for instance, is a 140in VUTEC projection screen, normally fed by JVC's DLA-HD1 projector, as an outstanding yet, crucially, affordable point of reference.

For HD audio I have Onkyo's TX-SR605 AV receiver, complete with its HD audio processing and 7.1-channel playback, piping sound through to a B&W 700 series surround sound speaker system.

For HD sources I have a Sky HD receiver, Xbox 360 Elite and PS3 games consoles, plus four HD disc players: the PS3 and Sony's high-end BDP-S1E for Blu-ray, and Toshiba's HD-EP30 and HD-EP35 HD DVD players.

Why so many HD disc players? Because I think it's important not to just focus on really high end kit when testing, but to also try discs out on the sort of more affordable sources likely to be bought by the mass market.

Actually, this 'mass market' approach to AV has informed much of my thinking when it comes to the reviews. IÕve tried to keep them as untechnical as possible, and even more importantly, I've tried to review things as if I was one of you, rather than as someone employed in the AV industry.

What this means, for instance, is that if I get bored with a new console game, I'll stop playing it like any normal person would - and tell you why I gave up on it in the review. I also only test 'retail' versions of games; none of these 'review' copies where you can skip levels at the press of the button rather than having to put the effort in to play through them.

This approach may mean my reviews aren't always up there as fast as some of those on rival sites, but at least you'll know that I've actually played them properly...

As a final point, I should make it clear here that my review style is informed by a real affection for high definition and the AV experience as a whole. As a result, when reviewing films and games my focus is mostly on the quality of the HD experience; on how good a job has been made of turning a film or game into a fulfilling HD home cinema experience.

The Who
Unlike many review-style websites, this one isn't run by someone who's just decided to put a site together because they like films a bit, or watch a lot of telly. Reviewing AV hardware and software and writing features on technology for newspapers, leading consumer electronics magazines, and various other websites has actually been my job as a technology journalist for the best part of a decade.

In fact, I am pretty confident that nobody currently living in the UK has tested more HD sources and displays than me. Yes, I know – I really should get out more...

That said, I think most people who know me would say I'm still a perfectly normal bloke - wife, kid, mortgage, like the occasional MacDonalds filet-o-fish, etc. I just so happen to be a normal bloke with an unrivalled level of experience in the area I'm writing about.

Hopefully all this will shine through in every word I write for this site. But if it doesn't then heck – it's still worth visiting just to scroll straight down to the final review scores, right?

Yours high definitionally

John Archer