OTHER TECH

Press Entré The Entré provides an interface that lets you access and organize your DVDs as well as audio from a number of sources both within the local system and on the Internet. Far more than a glorified system remote control, it's also a CD recorder that can rip music to MP3 and store it on either a CD-R/RW disc or its own 20-gigabyte (GB) hard-disk drive. Its Net interface not only lets you download information and cover art for discs stored in the changer or songs on the hard drive but also lets you stream audio from Internet radio stations. If you're searching for music to play, it doesn't matter if it's on a CD stored in the changer, saved in MP3 format on the Entré's own hard drive, delivered by AM or FM broadcast, or streamed from a Web server.

What's more, whenever you add a new source - for example, by putting a new CD in the changer - the Entré automatically adds it to its library listing. It goes online to Gracenote's CDDB.com database server to find track titles and cover art, then displays them on your TV screen.

It's the same for DVD movies. A minute after I put in a new disc, the onscreen display showed me the cover art and informed me that I'd loaded Monkeybone - Special Edition, that it was an Adventure PG-13 film released in 2001, that its running time was 100 minutes, and that it was located in Changer 1, Slot 6. (Be warned: When you first connect a fully loaded changer to the Entré, it can take a while to download disc information and cover art - as much as 4 hours with the built-in dial-up modem, much less if you have a high-speed Net connection.)

Like stored music, radio stations are treated equally regardless of their source. On request, the Entré displays a list of the available radio stations, both AM/FM broadcasters and Internet stations. When you click on a station name, Entré either streams it from its own Internet connection or instructs the receiver to tune it in. (The system supports only Internet radio stations that use the Windows Media Audio, or WMA, format.) Stations can be categorized in various ways, then browsed till you find what you want.

How does the Entré know which broadcast stations are available in your area? Easy. It asks for your Zip code as part of the setup and lists all stations in a 75-mile radius - very clever. In addition, it downloads information about each station from another online database.

The great challenge, of course, is to balance decreased operational complexity with increased flexibility and capability. One way Kenwood hopes to achieve this is by making the Entré a "dynamic" component: Its big hard-disk drive doesn't merely store music, disc information, and cover art but also its operating system. As new features become available, that system can be updated via downloads or CD-ROM. Clearly, this is a very modern child of high-tech convergence.