As expected, this year's Consumer Electronics Show was all about high definition. A late round of price cuts sent HDT Vs flying off the shelves this past holiday season, and it looks as if the high-def rush will continue through 2007.The number of HDTV channels continues to grow, and even Blu-ray and HD DVD players are starting to sell. Jack Wrigley, vice president of sales at MusicGiants, summed things up nicely: "This show is all about the high-definition lifestyle." It got me thinking, what exactly is a high-definition lifestyle? Are we just talking about bigger, better-looking TVs? Maybe, but I think the high-definition movement is about much more than big screens. It's about quality--quality of both audio and video.

Take MusicGiants itself. Although the company has started a downloadable high-def video service, it is primarily a source for very high-quality audio. As any musician or audiophile knows, the tracks you download from iTunes are fine for casual listening, but their quality is lacking in comparison with the nice warm sound of an old vinyl record or even the cold clarity of a CD . Connect that iPod or MP3 player to your stereo, and you will hear how digital music often fails. It sounds flat.

Not so with the tracks you get from MusicGiants. Whereas iTunes and most other download services encode tracks at 128 or 192 Kbps, Music Giants encodes its tracks at 1,100 Kbps in Windows Media Audio (WMA) Lossless format. It is truly CD-quality. These are tracks you will want to keep forever. Sure, they take up a lot of hard drive space, but a digital library is still way more compact than that old rack of CDs.

MusicGiants may be overkill for a portable listening experience, but digital music isn't just about iPods. I never listen to CD s anymore: My music comes from satellite radio (admittedly low-def audio), my PC , or from my iPod connected directly to my home stereo. In this environment, high-definition tracks make all the difference. And the tracks costs just 30 cents more than the crappy tracks you buy on iTunes.

In some ways, the case for high-definition video is muddier. Everyone wants to watch "the big game" in high definition, but in fact, most of the "HDTV" you see on cable and satellite TV is compressed, which can introduce artifacts and distortion. Until now, people have been happy simply to have a clear picture. In a high-definition world, TV viewers will demand more. The quality of an HD broadcast will soon become a reason to switch cable providers. Offering 500 channels is less appealing than having 50 great-looking high-def broadcasts. The Internet is better suited for on-demand microcasting anyway.

If you are brave enough to invest in either a Bluray or HD-DVD player, you are guaranteed better quality, but even so, you will need a mighty big TV--50 inches or larger--to really appreciate the added detail. Given the format war, most people will probably be better off with a decent up-scaling DVD player. As it is, people who are willing to buy a Blu-ray or HD DVD movie want it to be the last disc they ever buy. They want it to be future-proof. Until one of these standards goes away, that wish seems unlikely to be granted.

Some have a different wish. At CES , the other big topic of conversation was whether adult movies would be available on Blu-ray discs. Adult titles are just now being released on HD DVD--the first being the poignant, powerful Camp Cuddly Pines: Power Tool Massacre. Conventional wisdom has it that Sony's refusal to allow porn on Betamax led to the format's current role as a technological footnote and easy punch line.

The Blu-ray Consortium has since said it will accept any and all content providers into its fold, so porn is probably not a big issue after all. Personally, I think this is one area where we can do without high definition. And that goes for both audio and video.

Dan Costa is the Senior Editor for Consumer Electronics at PC Magazine and feels you can never have too much definition.