There will, of course, always be room for debate over television's merits, and the opening broadcast for RTE on New Year's Eve, 1961, featured Eamon DeValera's prophetic warning about the new medium . . . "like atomic energy, it can be used for incalculable good, but it can also do irreparable harm". Television has undergone some significant changes over the years, and while some of which are to be welcomed, others should be regarded with a little more caution.

Most people over the age of 30 will be able to remember a time when TV, outside of the capital, consisted of Telefis Eireann, or RTE. Not RTE 1 and 2, but just a single Irish channel. People in Dublin who had "pipe TV" were a little luckier, with not just two stations, but four (RTE, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV). A mini revolution took place in 1978, with the inception of RTE 2, while Channel 4 followed soon after in 1982 (for those who could receive British stations). 1987 saw the introduction of satellite television (with Sky and Super Channels).

Following this mini-digital revolution, which by 1989 included such stations as Sky One, Sky News, Eurosport and the fledgling Sky Movies), little happened on the Irish airwaves until first TnaG (now TG4) and then TV3 came along to offer more choice. We were by then up to about 15 terrestrial and satellite channels available through basic cable packages (if you include such channels as French station TV5), as well as the add-on options such as Sky Movies and Sky Sports . . . which seemed like a lot, until you compared it with what was available in America (where Bruce Springsteen's "57 Channels and nothing on" did not even begin to encompass the scope that was available).

But the new millennium brought with it new TV, and brought Sky, Chorus and NTL Digital services, which included an astonishing array of channels, from lifestyle to news to documentaries to sports, and even a number of foreign language stations.

Which is all very well, as long as you want to pay the monthly subscription fee for all of this entertainment (and, on TV, even news is entertainment). You may find yourself wondering why 90% of the programming is on (you may find yourself wondering what type of person commissioned these programmes in the first place), but at least you will have a good selection to complain about.

But, while you are going to the trouble of getting all of these channels, you should at least do the stations the courtesy of watching the programmes on a decent TV.

The old aspect ratio (4:3) which was prevalent up until the advent of widescreen used to seem so adequate . . .

but widescreen allows for more content, as well as producing a cinema-style view which gives the impression of space.

In addition, given the fact that RTE, along with practically every other station, has gone widescreen (even the news went widescreen earlier this year), by not having the 16:9 format, your signal will be either elongated and squashed to fit the old-style screen, or will have the black lines above and below to display the widescreen signal properly.

There is, naturally, the element of price to consider . . .

and a 4:3 ratio curved screen, complete with reflective glass, will naturally be relatively inexpensive these days.

But most televisions have become relatively cheap, especially those which are not at the absolute cutting edge of TV technology. For example, a large, 28 inch, flat screen model, which could have cost upwards of 1,000 even three years ago, will now be selling for under 500 . . . not only because technology naturally gets cheaper, but also because people are opting more and more for plasma and LCD models which are less bulky and which can offer greater levels of definition.

But while John Logie Baird's cathode ray tube (CRT) may be on the decline, TV popularity is increasing all the time. This is in the main thanks to developments in both LCD and plasma models which make them both more affordable and (especially in LCD's case), able to be viewed from a greater angle . . . think about a laptop screen, and how difficult it becomes to see properly if not viewed head-on.

But, if Sky is to be believed, the future of television is high-definition (HD) . . . and CRT, LCD and Plasma can be HD enabled. According to Sky, HDTV offers better resolution and better sound, and is "the biggest revolution in television picture quality in decadesf offering viewers a cinema-like experience with sharper, clearer, more vibrant pictures and amazing Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound."

Currently the range of programming available in HD is not as wide as in standard TV output, although Sky delivered 117 hours a day of programming originating in HD in November. Most HD offerings are in the movie, sport and documentary sphere, and classic programmes (and bad repeats) will not be HD convertible.

However, older movies which have been filmed on 35mm can be transferred, so new TV formats will not necessarily exclude many movie archives.

It is expected that, by the end of the year, about 10% of British homes will have HD enabled TVs . . . and that figure will probably be mirrored in Ireland.