LATEST ADDITIONS

I've been experiencing an unusual run of good films on standard definition DVD lately, though most are not of any special demonstration quality, nothing gets blowed-up real good in most of them, few were big hits, and several are set in the past. But I'm a sucker for almost any historical film or TV miniseries (HBO's two part <I>Elizabeth I</I> resides on the HD PVR in my cable box even now waiting for me to find the 4 hours I need to invest in watching it!)

A bored, rich widow, Laura Henderson (Judi Dench) buys a failed London theater on the eve of World War II. But she soon discovers she has no idea what to do with it. After she hires an experienced producer (Bob Hoskins) the theater is briefly successful running music hall reviews. But soon reality sets in and the competition drives them into the red.

A new prerecorded video format is big news. It doesn’t come along every day. It’s been nine years since DVD was release, and it was 19 before that since LaserDisc. Enter HD DVD. Its higher transfer rate (35.5 mbps versus broadcast’s 19.4 mbps maximum) and advanced codecs (VC-1 and H.264) create a potential for audio and video quality to far exceeds broadcast HD, as well as containing a host of new features and capabilities. The first two models are the HD-A1 ($499) and HD-XA1 ($799). Both have the same performance; the step-up HD-XA model adds a better enclosure, a motorized door, RS-232, and a backlit remote.

<B>Price</B>: $22,434 as configured in SCB's reference system.