LATEST ADDITIONS

A<I>rnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Robin Toney, Rod Steiger. Directed by Peter Hyams. Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (anamorphic). Dolby Digital 5.1. 123 minutes. 1999. Universal Collectors Edition 20721. R. $26.98.</I>

Here it is. The moment you've been waiting for. Recordable DVD! That's right. That last remaining excuse for you not to buy a DVD player has finally been expunged, at least to some extent. While they made announcements at last January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, manufacturers are just now following through on their release plans for recordable DVD players. As usual, the excuse was copyright issues, that never-ending thorn in home theater's side. Panasonic finally sent us a sample of the DMR-E10 DVD-RAM player, which should be available for the holiday season and, if nothing else, is just one of the coolest products to come along since DVD first came out.

The march of technology has always been a double-edged sword. On one edge, progress brings new and, on most occasions, better products that give us a higher-quality viewing and listening experience with more options, increased ease of use, etc. On the other edge, new technology has a way of making its predecessors (that we often paid a lot of money for) old-fashioned at best—and, at worst, obsolete. Technology manufacturers do seem to be getting more empathetic about this. Computers are considerably more upgradeable than they were a few short years ago. Even in the consumer electronics world, we're seeing more and more attention being paid to futureproofing the current crop of upgradeable preamplifier/processors and televisions—two product groups that are probably the most susceptible to change these days. As tough as deciding what to buy in any technology-based market is determining when is the best time to buy it.

In an effort to simplify the mess that the 500-channel TV universe has become, <A HREF="%20http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic</A> announced last week the shipment of its new DirecTV-enabled HDTV receiver to retailers. In addition to receiving and decoding both DirectTV and DirecTV HD satellite transmissions, the TU-HDS20 is a DTV-ready multiple-format tuner capable of receiving all 18 ATSC digital television broadcast formats as well as current analog (NTSC) signals.