LATEST ADDITIONS

Mitsubishi sells more high-definition televisions than anyone else, and with the WS-65909 Diamond Series rear-projector they've pulled out the stops. The WS-65909 has a 65-inch-diagonal, 16:9 screen and 7-inch CRTs. Its huge cabinet has a glossy burl wood finish of various shades of dark brown and black accents—this TV will dominate whatever room holds it. (The product is delivered in one piece, but can be separated into two pieces for delivery in the home.) It includes everything you might want, including an integrated DTV receiver, a digital cable receiver for unscrambled signals, and the company's NetCommand system for linking all your components so they can be controlled from the TV. In fact, in all my years of reviewing digital televisions, I've never encountered one with as many interesting and useful features.

Kenwood's entry in the category of top-shelf A/V receivers is the Sovereign VR-5900—a curvaceous, feature-packed powerhouse combining a user-friendly operating system, THX Ultra certification with all attendant processing facilities, Dolby Digital EX, matrixed and discrete DTS ES, HDCD decoding, and enough digital and analog inputs and outputs (including 2-zone operation) to satisfy almost any videophile's needs. It even includes a moving-magnet phono stage (but laserdisc aficionados will have to add an outboard RF demodulator).

<I>Robert Redford, Brad Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane, Larry Bryggman. Directed by Tony Scott. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, French), DTS 5.1. 127 minutes. 2001. Universal 21552. R. $26.98.</I>

Starting with the November issue, Home Theater Architect is going to change in big ways. This all started with letters from readers telling me they were sick of reading about Jack & Diane's $300k mega-theater.