LATEST ADDITIONS

Unless you're looking at a powered speaker (with built-in amplification), the power-handling rating (which is often incorrectly referred to as the number of watts a speaker has) will tell you little about how the speaker integrates into your system, let alone how it sounds. This isn't to say that the spec is useless. After all, some people like to play music really loud—I'm talking head-near-the-speaker-stack-at-a-rock-concert loud. In those rare cases, this specification may be useful. However, for the rest of us, this is probably the least necessary information, even though it's usually the most common question we get about speakers.

One of the major obstacles to wider acceptance of high-definition television is the lack of affordable HD receivers. Almost all HD-compatible equipment in consumers' homes is priced above $5000.

A<I>nthology of prize-winning animation shorts made in the USSR between 1962 and 1968. Includes: </I>The Story of One Crime<I>, </I>The Man in the Frame<I>, </I>My Green Crocodile<I>, others. Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 (full-screen). Dolby Digital 2.0 (mono). 133 minutes. 2000. Image Entertainment ID5525FJDVD. NR. $24.99.</I>

Moving the consumer-electronics world a little closer to a universal high-end DVD player, <A HREF="http://www.national.com">National Semiconductor</A> announced last week the second generation of its DVD-on-a-chip product family, the Mediamatics NDV8501. National reports that this is the first chip on the market with progressive-scan video support and DVD-Audio capability in one package.