LATEST ADDITIONS

The annual CEDIA show is the scene for the launch of many new home theater products. On September 10, Hitachi announced a high-definition rear projection monitor, the 55DMX01W, which uses Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing (DLP)device as a light source. The 55"-diagonal high-definition set has a 16:9 screen and what Hitachi calls an "exclusive 10-element high contrast wide-angle lens system and high-resolution screen. Every component has been engineered to faithfully reproduce accurate images."

Home theater has been the best gift to audio manufacturers since Edison yelled into a horn. All of a sudden two-channel stereo systems are woefully old-fashioned. Speaker manufacturers especially have much to be thankful for - instead of two speakers per system, now they can sell at least six. What a deal!

A three-step guide to receiving HDTV signals.

You used to be able to buy a TV, plug it into an antenna or cable outlet, and start flipping channels. It was an amazingly simple system. Digital television and its high-resolution subsystem, high-definition television, aren't quite as plug-and-play . . . yet. Antennas only pick up high-def signals in some markets; cable usually doesn't pick them up at all. Satellite seems like a good bet, but it doesn't offer everything. Plus, certain DTV tuners don't work with certain displays. It's enough to drive any self-respecting videophile to drink (not that we'd fault you for that). But there is hope. The following three-step guide is intended to make setting up an HDTV system easier than following that other multistep program. First, figure out what sources are available to you, then find a tuner that works with those sources. Finally, buy a high-definition display that works with that tuner.

Pondering an age-old home theater question.

Simplicity, where have you gone? Let's be realistic for a moment: This little home theater hobby of ours, circa 2001, is usually confusing, occasionally mind-boggling, and flat-out intimidating to the uninitiated. Do we love it any less as a result? We certainly shouldn't. While we should always expect the equipment manufacturers and software providers to make things as simple as they can, the bottom line is that, in the A/V realm, confusion is often only a temporary state, brought about by increased opportunity, quality, and flexibility. These are confusing days because they are evolutionary (and occasionally revolutionary) ones. Granted, it may not be easy to get a grasp on several new soundtrack-processing formats, two entirely new audio formats, new video formats and technologies, and a radical overhaul of our television system—all at the same time. However, if you can't see some good in all of this (and if you don't find it all to be at least as exciting as it is perplexing), maybe you'd better find a new hobby.