There is a difference between compression technologies, used to fit data on a disk or feed it across a network and display format, used for presenting the picture on a TV. Standard DVD, for example, is compressed using MPEG-2, but the basic signal itself can be in either native NTSC or PAL format. Microsoft's VC-9 is just a more advanced compression system.
(DVDs are recorded in NTSC or PAL and compressed using MPEG-2. The standard for NTSC disks is 480p (progressive) which is the lowest of the HDTV formats, the others being 720p and 1080i (interlaced). The standard output for PAL progressive is 576p, but it doesn't give much of an improvement over normal PAL. You have to have a 1080i PAL picture before you see the improvement.
NTSC and PAL Progressive Scan compared )
There is no European HDTV channel or programme source generally available. Every time the TV companies looked at the market, people were happy with the present resolution and preferred to fit in more channels in the same bandwidth rather than fewer high quality channels. Unless there is an EU directive forcing the TV stations to broadcast it, as has happened in the USA, that is unlikely to change.
It is highly probable, therefore, that when HDTV disks start becoming available that they will be in the US HDTV format and that anyone who wants to watch them will need to watch them on a PC with a suitable card (See Naples' link about the Wonder HDTV) or buy a plasma screen.
There is a PAL HDTV format, but if you want to receive it, you'll have to buy a
Euro 1080 receiver to receive their signal on Astra from 19.2 East. They started broadcasting this month. Euro 1080 has a resolution of 1920 pixels x 1080 lines with a 18Mbps bit-rate stream and 5.1 surround sound. (It's 1080i format, but at 50Hz rather than 60Hz so it avoids the movie conversion problems.)
Thomson and Pioneer are funding Euro 1080 in an aim to kick start interest in HDTV and open a European market for PAL widescreen & plasma HDTV sets. Most of their output will be music concerts and the like, but they will be broadcasting the European Championship from Portugal this summer.
You will be able to watch it on a standard TV, but it will be much better on a plasma screen.
The receivers are due to be sold with a bundled decoder card, supposedly good for the life of the unit. I can't recollect the price off the top of my head, I think it's about £200. Buy one of the satellite TV magazines for more details, they had some details in this months issues.