Zahra Akkerhuys reports on the recording revolution which looks set to replace VHS, CD-ROM and the rest . . .

For years there was a choice between Betamax and VHS video recorders. Neighbours endlessly discussed which was best but nobody could ever decide for sure.

If anything, those with Betamax recorders felt they had the slight edge because they'd had their machines for longer and knew how to pre-set them in a way that nobody could set VHS recorders in those early days.

But suddenly, before we knew it, Betamax recorders became extinct. There was no place for their cheeky pint-sized tapes in the modern world. All those smug Betamax owners had to swallow their pride and buy a VHS recorder.

Now progress is overtaking the VHS in the same way as it overtook Betamax. DVD players are becoming the new craze.

The DVD, which stands for Digital Versatile Disc, has been designed to supersede a number of seperate technologies including CD-ROM, CDs and VHS/LaserDics.

DVD players look similar to a traditional CD player and have been designed to improve the quality of images shown on our TV screens, easily overtaking video recorders in quality.

Not only is the quality of sound and pictures vastly improved - by being clearer and more defined - but DVDs have other advantages.

Part of the fun of a DVD player is that you can skip whole chunks of a film at the flick of a button rather than wait for a video tape to physically fast forward or rewind the spool of tape.

And included on the DVD is information about the recording of a film, how it was made and an interview with the director.

There is often even a choice in the language you would like your film to be shown.

The trend is sweeping the country faster than CDs did in the 1990s. All major music and video stores have a section dedicated to DVDs and that section is growing.

And sales on the Internet are escalating as people tap into the extensive US market, finding DVDs on all subjects ranging from the wildebeest migration in the Serengeti to classic movies such as Brief Encounter.

However, despite the rapid growth in DVD sales, surveys show that 87 per cent of the population still don't know what the abbreviation stands for or what is the difference between a DVD and a video recorder.

Currys salesman Phil Atkins, based at the firm's Botley Road branch in Oxford, says: "You get a much better quality picture and the sound is so much clearer on a DVD.

"A lot of people are buying large screen TVs with surround-sound and it really makes a difference if your films are played on a DVD player rather than a video.

"It creates a cinema-like atmosphere.

"DVD players have quite a few advantages over videos although at the moment you cannot record anything on to a DVD from the TV. I think that it's only a matter of time before they can do that.

"A big advantage is the fact that your discs will last a lot longer than a video tape does. Lots of people are dropping into the shop to find out a bit more about them. We are probably selling five or six DVD players a week but that is increasing all the time."

Steve Craven, entertainment buyer at WH Smith, says: "DVDs are the latest must-have. They will revolutionise our home-entertainment world and it is estimated that they will replace video players completely within the next few years.

"The irony is that people still don't really understand the full potential and versatility of DVD."

Not only can DVD machines screen visual images but traditional CDs can also be played on them, with the sound being channelled through the TV's speakers.

Inevitably DVDs are more expensive than video recorders but buying one need not break the bank.

Prices start at 180 but can rise to between 700 and 800.