HDTV in Dubai?

I have been looking around to recommend a new television for my parents. Television Technology has rapidly evolved over the last 3 years, to include a number of (confusing) options, not all of which make the best of sense. I am no expert in television technology nor content programming. However, I believe a few features are essential for every new generation, long term television purchase.

One is the size of the television. Needless to say, the bigger the better is almost always correct. The size is always measured in inches for some reason. Larger models have certain dis-advantages including image quality. Which is the second feature to look for. Image Quality. It is measured in various ways, some are pixals that the television can display. The more image has to be enlongated, the worst the quality of the television. These two always play the balancing act in regards to your television purchase. The rest of the factors involved are sound quality, life of the television itself among many others.

Ofcourse, two main types of the televisions are those which are flat screened, i.e, can be put on a wall and those which have a bulky back to them. Like the regular CRTs we all have at home. The other two popular differentiating features are LCD vs Plasma. Plasma being the older technology is more prominent world-over however, it has a shorter lifespan than LCD. LCD used to be very expensive until huge factories started chucking out the glass displays in korea.
Ofcourse, over the last few years HDTV is the feature to upgrade for.

HDTV is High Definetion Television. Nobody would have cared to upgrade to this technology and the manufacturs would have bothered to market it so high in normal circumstances. However, United States of America decided that all terrestial transmissions would have to be in HD technology by the end of 2007 or 2008 I believe. Most cable operators in united states have already started providing content in both HD and normal trasmissions. DVDs are becoming HD-DVDs which can store more content at better quality than DVDs (HD DVD players are coming out early next year, including new Playstation 3 and rumor has it that mircosoft is releasing HD DVD in XBox 360 next year.) For anyone who is interested in technology format wars, you will already know the battle between Blu-Ray and Tosiba HD.

Now, every technology shop i visit in Dubai, Flat screen LCDs and Plasmas with HDTV technology compatable are the norm of the day. However, there is no current HDTV broadcasting available in dubai. The only research i could dig out what this news article which says E-vision has plans to rollout HDTV channels soon. How soon? and will i be better off waiting a couple of years before paying huge amounts of money for some features i will not be able to use?