After doing some research on the tech side of HD ready and HDTVs I may disagree with you on the above! Quality of 720p30 is just as good as 1080i20 both of which are used widely in European countries. In fact 720p50 is claimed to have a superior picture quality to that of 1080i20. The secret lies with the meanings of i and p, plus the frame rate per second denoted at the end.

The top is 1080p without an argument, but the fact that there are no TV transmissions in that format at this time due to band width limitations, would limit the use of such an expensive item (and they are at least double the price of a 720p) to just personal DVD and games consoles which might support it. In any case, unless your shooting and recording equipment supports 1080p it makes no difference to the quality displayed. It would be a very expensive choice indeed...