I'm moving to a new flat soon and I fancy upgrading to HD. However I'm at a slight loss as to what's the best way to do it in terms of value for money, cheapness and quality of HD experience.

On one side I have Sky HD (i have to get Sky, no other way). Now I only watch Variety channels and movies so the HD element won't really affect me much on standard channels, I mean how good can Sky1 HD or BBC HD be? However Movies in HD is what I like, however I fear that Sky Movies will simply repeat a load of rubbish and you'll be forced to spend £16 a month to get Premier channels which may still only show half recent movies.

The other option is to forgo Sky HD (i.e. stick with Sky+) and instead invest in a giant HD plasma TV (got a 32 inch LCD HD at the mo) and get a decent Blu Ray Home Cinema System so that in terms of picture quality and sound when it comes to movies I've got the best viewing experience. I lose out on traditional HD viewing but then movies is really where I reckon I'll see the benefit of HD as I don't like documenataries or sports. My fear of this route is the original investment cost and also the high price of even older Blu Ray films. However the advantage is that I only buy what I really want, focusing on the films I simply can't do without in my collection (i.e. you can bet that the recent Batman films, both Transformer films and James Bond films will begin to feature!)

What advice do other shoppers have who also pride on having the perfect entertainment system in their bachelor pad? :P Any hidden worries or benefits that I'm not aware of?

I can't compare the two directly but can say that there is a world of difference between BBC and BBC HD (but then I like documentaries). What I would suggest is going down to your local hi fi store and listening to and watching a decent blu ray system and then going down to currys and watching sky HD (or the other way round). To get the best out of either you'll need surround sound and you'd need to check that sky HD movies are transmitted in surround sound - no point in excellent pictures if the sound is bad. You also need to decide on a budget to include everything (ie. cables, plugs, mains leads which will be at least £200 if you go for a reasonable quality in a small room) and stick to it - a blu ray system (including sound system) could cost anything from £1k to £25k without the TV but the price will come down as more players as produced and blu ray becomes the industry standard. Films will also get cheaper over time.

Do some research and buy some hi fi magazines and check out the reviews for kit that is in your budget range, go watch / listen and start saving if you decide against Sky HD !