Photos by Tony Cordoza With the popularity of flat-panel TVs exploding and companies straining to create speakers that will mate with the unobtrusive sets, it seems like the era of hulking home theater gear - towering speakers, massive subwoofers, video projectors hovering above your head like an F-15 - is over.
Plasma screens have not taken over the market yet, as Michael Fremer notes in his review of the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?135">Hitachi Ultravision 65XWX20B rear-projection CRT HDTV</A>. "If space is a constraint," says MF, "be prepared to spend at least twice as much for a smaller screen" with plasma. If you've got the room, then according to MF, the Hitachi may be the way to go.
<A HREF="http://www.dolby.com">Dolby Laboratories</A> is celebrating multiple Emmy Awards nominations for eight television programs that are produced in Dolby Digital 5.1.
DVD: Basic—Columbia TriStar Video: 4 Audio: 4 Extras: 3 John Travolta oozes duplicitous charisma, Connie Nielsen adds international gravitas, and Samuel L. Jackson shouts a lot in this confusing tale of a military exercise gone wrong, and its aftermath. Or was the entire fiasco was just an elaborate ruse? This labyrinthine-for-its-own-sake, utterly unsatisfying would-be thriller is too complicated to be entertaining and too much of a trifle for most audiences to care.
Apex If you have the living-room space for a monster of a display, check out Apex's GB65HD12W 65-inch rear-projection TV. In addition to its 65-inch-diagonal, 16:9-shaped screen, this display offers features galore. A 3-D Y/C comb filter, scan-velocity modulation, dual-tuner PIP, automatic digital convergence, and 3:2-pulldown correction are all on board. This flexible display has an adjustable native resolution of 480p, 720p, or 1080i. The GB65HD12W's connection suite includes component, S-video, composite, and DVI video inputs, analog stereo inputs, monitor outputs, and an RF antenna jack. You get a whole lotta TV for the not-so-steep price of $2,000. Apex (909) 930-1239 www.apexdigitalinc.com
Couch potatoes with an insatiable urge to record will love Panasonic's new DVD recorders. Announced July 14, the DMR-E100H and DMR-E200H both will feature 120GB and 160GB hard disk drives, respectively. With its 120GB hard disk drive the new DMR-E100H can record up to 160 hours of video in EP mode. The E-200H can record up to 212 hours of video on its 160GB hard drive. The recorders will also include slots for SD memory cards and PCMCIA slots for other types of memory. Both new machines will make their Japanese debut in August, with an autumn date set for the DMR-E100H's global debut.
Driven to Extremes Take a road-trip refresher course with The Educational Archives: Driver's Ed (Fantoma Films, $25). This retro-cool DVD unspools ten classroom film shorts - with titles like "Joy Ride," "Alco Beat," and "The Last Prom" - that alert teens to the dangers of delinquent driving.
Photos by Tony Cordoza As much as we'd all like to own a flagship model receiver, they aren't for everybody. Though well equipped and high powered, they tend to be massive and extremely expensive. If you set your sights just a little bit lower - especially when it comes to power - you can get an awful lot of receiver for substantially less money.