<B>Independence Day</B> <BR> Aspect ratio: 2.35:1. Dolby Digital 5.1. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment 2005772. PG-13. $34.95. <BR> Picture *** (3) <BR> Sound **** (4) <BR> Film **
Photos by Tony Cordoza Cutting-edge tech your thing? Flat-panel plasma TVs are where the action is! Over the past few years, the image quality of these space-saving sets has improved tremendously, and prices have moved steadily downward.
Illustration by Turnstyle Imaging There was a time during television's black-and-white era when Andy Griffith's wholesome face dominated the airwaves, entire families dined in front of the tube with TV dinners balanced on their laps, and commercials hawked tasty, refreshing cigarettes. Hooking up your TV back then was easy.
This past fall, astute subscribers to the Time Warner digital cable service in New York City began to notice something unusual-and no, it wasn't that their bills were going down. It was the appearance of Channel 1000 on the onscreen program guide, accompanied by the letters MOD. Was this a new retro fashion channel? Actually, the truth is more interesting.
From the February issue, Steven Stone installs the $3300 <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?96">Plus Piano Avanti HE-3200 DLP projector</A> into his HT system, prompting him to comment that "for such a tiny projector, the new HE-3200 has an absurdly long name . . . and maybe even a better picture than the HE-3100."
No one who's ventured into a computer store recently could have failed to note the amount of space devoted to video capture and editing technology. Most of it is being marketed to amateur videomakers and would-be cinematographers, but there's an obvious implication that the next step is bit-for-bit copying of commercial DVDs.
DVD: City by the Sea—Warner Brothers Audio: 3 Video: 3 Extras: 2 Uniformly strong performances by the leads, notably Robert De Niro and James Franco, highlight and give added cache to a gritty drama that often looks and feels like an independent production. De Niro is a veteran New York detective who learns that his estranged, drug-addicted son is a murder suspect. Himself the son of a man who was executed for a botched kidnapping decades before, De Niro's Vincent La Marca is determined to save his child from prison and, later, "suicide by cop." But he must first reconstitute his relationship with the teenager in order to help him.
OmniMount You can't get much more elegant than the clean combination of aluminum and glass, both of which OmniMount has incorporated into their Cosmic Series of A/V racks and TV stands. The Cosmic AT-5 tower shown here features five polished-glass shelves, each of which supports up to 50 pounds. The 63-inch-tall rack can house components up to 19.5 inches wide and 20.75 deep. The AT-5 comes with a cable-management system, as well as adjustable aluminum feet, a feature that anyone with uneven floors is sure to appreciate. The Cosmic Series also includes the VT-3 and VT-2 TV stands, which retail for $400 and $450, respectively. The AT-5 tower sells for $500. OmniMount (800) 668-6848 www.omnimount.com
<I>Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson, James Tolkan. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Aspect ratio: 1.85:1. Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, French). Three discs. Universal 22121. PG. $56.98.</I>