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Fred Manteghian does some heavy lifting to install the 120-pound <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?64">Ayre V-6 multichannel power amplifier</A> in his home theater system. But the sound is what counts, and FM reports that the V-6 is a breath of fresh Ayre.

Soon, <A HREF="http://www.dolby.com">Dolby</A> won't be the only option for surround-sound processing in digital television broadcasting. <A HREF="http://www.dtsonline.com">Digital Theater Systems</A> (DTS) will also have a place in the format, thanks to a recent agreement with the <A HREF="http://www.dvb.org">Digital Video Broadcasting project</A>. The DVB is a technical consortium of more than 300 companies, established to create common international specifications for the transition from analog to digital broadcasting.

<I>Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving. Directed by Peter Jackson. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital EX, Stereo Surround Sound (English). Two discs. 178 minutes. 2001. New Line Home Entertainment N5542. PG-13. $29.95.</I>

For better or worse, electronic display technology is going flat. Slowly but surely, as Asian manufacturers jettison older high-volume, low-profit picture- and projection-tube assembly lines, the venerable cathode-ray tube is being supplanted by such exotic items as Digital Light Processing (DLP), and liquid-crystal display (LCD) and plasma display panels (PDPs).