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<B>Thomas J. Norton</B>

On Sunday, February 6, 2005, the 39th annual pigskin pig-out known as the Super Bowl is scheduled to kick off, with the Philadelphia Eagles against the New England Patriots in Jacksonville, FL. The game has become one of the biggest reasons that people buy an HDTV (and one of the biggest selling points for retailers), and those who have taken the plunge will not be disappointed&mdash;as long as they can receive the HD signal. This year, the Super Bowl will be broadcast in 720p on the Fox network via terrestrial and cable channels. DirecTV will also carry the high-def signal, but only in markets where the Fox HD station is owned and operated by Fox (for example, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, but not San Francisco or Miami).

Once upon a time, it was widely accepted that LCD projectors had two major weaknesses. First, in commonly available consumer models, the pixel structure could result in the infamous "screen door effect." That is, because the wiring driving each pixel had to be routed between the pixels, the pixel spacing, or pitch, was wide enough to make the pixel grid visible at close viewing distances.

The venerable CRT - a fixture of TV since its first days - is now being edged out by brighter, lighter, thinner technologies like plasma and LCD panels. There are also front- and rear-projection TVs with light engines that magnify images from LCD and DLP microdisplays.