If you've watched a DVD movie recently, you'll no doubt have marvelled at its excellent picture quality. Well, it's hard not to, with the industry as a whole assuring you that it's the best thing since sliced bread.

While considerably superior to VHS and a significant improvement over Laserdiscs, it's easy to be blinded by hype and forget that even mighty DVD pales compared to high-definition (HD) video, something that has been available for some time.

Well, available to select consumers in the US and Japan anyway. Back in the UK it looks like we're locked into standard definition content for the time being.

Or are we? Believe it or not, HD content could make a surprise appearance in the UK after all, and not by the traditional route of tape, disc or broadcast. The unlikely Trojan horse in this story is the PC running Windows Media 9 (WM9).

While most people will use WM9 to compress audio files, it's also surprisingly good at delivering HD video.

First, its efficient compression system allows HD video to be delivered on existing media or even over the internet. Second, instead of requiring special players, HD WM9 can be viewed using standard PC equipment.

Capacity is a serious issue for HD video. If you're using traditional mpeg2 compression, you'll need at least 25GB for a two-hour HD movie, which is way beyond conventional DVDs.

There are currently only two consumer formats with sufficient capacity to deliver HD using mpeg2 with decent playing times: the recently released Blu-ray DVD format in Japan; and JVC's D-VHS tape in the US.

Both are primarily used for recording local HD broadcasts, but D-VHS also uniquely offers prerecorded HD content.

Before Hollywood would release HD movies on D-VHS, JVC had to invent additional encryption called D-Theater. Now 34 movies are available. Admittedly, there's only one VCR equipped to decode D-Theater, and it's only sold in the US, but there's no denying that the movies look superb.

While mpeg2 can deliver the goods, it requires high-capacity media, whereas WM9's more efficient encoding allows it to squeeze an entire HD movie onto an existing dual-layer DVD-Rom.

This is what Artisan Entertainment has done with new DVD releases of Terminator 2 and the musical documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, where the second disc features an HD version in WM9 format.

Seeing Terminator 2 on sale as an import at PlayUSA.com for just £16.99 including delivery, I simply couldn't resist.

However, the requirements for playing these DVDs is daunting to say the least. We're all used to software claiming that it will run on overly modest systems, but the T2 Extreme Edition DVD heads in the opposite direction towards fantasy PC specifications.

Read it and weep: the recommended system requirements are a 3GHz processor with 512MB of Ram and a 128MB AGP 8x graphics card. And to see the full benefit of this particular HD video, you'll also need a 1,600 x 1,200 display.

Before I could see whether my 2.6GHz P4 could cope, I had an even tougher challenge. The HD content on this DVD is only licensed for viewing in North America, and Artisan enforces this with more than just regional coding.

When you first try to play the title, your PC has to go online to retrieve a licence and, if it sees a UK-based IP address, you'll be rejected. The solution is to hide behind a friendly North American proxy server, but even then Artisan's licence management rejects common anonymous servers.

After hours of trying different public proxy servers I found one which fooled the system into delivering a licence, and the movie started playing. Or should I say jerking, as my system really wasn't up to it after all.

Fortunately it seems that the most crucial component for HD WM9 is a 128MB graphics card, and after fitting one I achieved smooth playback even on a slower 2GHz system.

It looked fantastic, with tons more detail than the accompanying standard definition DVD. I went searching for more HD WM9 content. Microsoft's Windows Media website has several three-minute HD WM9 clips for download at around 80MB each.

Unfortunately for UK enthusiasts, Artisan has the last laugh. Its strict T2 licence expires every five days and needs renewing online, but sadly my friendly proxy server was no longer playing ball.

The insistence to go online for a new licence every five days, even if you reside in North America, is way over the top, as well as being potentially flawed.

It's a shame that the first taste of commercial HD WM9 content has been soured by over-zealous content protection.

It only takes a glance at the clips on Microsoft's showcase to see that it's really on to something and, while purists may argue that high bit-rate mpeg2 discs are the long-term answer to consumer HD, such prerecorded content could be years away for the UK.

The fact is that modern PCs owned by many people offer an alternative right now. I salute the techies at Artisan and Microsoft for producing these DVDs, but the legal departments have rendered their work virtually unusable.

This is a pity as WM9 could be one of the few means by which people outside North America and Japan might enjoy HD video today.