LATEST ADDITIONS

T<I>he Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr. Directed by Richard Lester (</I>A Hard Day's Night<I>, </I>Help!<I>), The Beatles (</I>Magical Mystery Tour<I>). Aspect ratios: 4:3 pan&scan (</I>A Hard Day's Night<I>, </I>Help!<i>); 4:3 (</I>Magical Mystery Tour<I>). Dolby Digital Stereo. 90 minutes, 90 minutes, 50 minutes. 1964, 1965, 1967. MPI DVD 7082, 7081, 1538. Not rated. $24.95 each.</I>

Every few days, the convergence envelope gets pushed a little further. Last week, on July 15, <A HREF="http://www.bostonacoustics.com/">Boston Acoustics</A> announced its new DigitalTheater 6000 loudspeaker system, which the company describes as "a complete Dolby Digital 5.1 surround-sound system created specifically for use with computing and home theater systems." The five-satellites-plus-subwoofer system is being packaged by <A HREF="http://www.gateway.com/">Gateway</A> with its Destination computer systems.

You're finally on that plane to Tahiti, and you decide to check what's on for the in-flight movie. Oh-oh, they're running <I>Porky's: Part 12</I>, and you can barely even see the screen 23 rows ahead of you. Then you find the headphones---the type with two plastic tubes coming out of the armrest. Time to whip out some of your own DVDs, sit back with some high-quality headphones, and watch a couple of film versions of <I>Mutiny On The Bounty</I>---the Brando <I>and</I> Gibson varieties.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.nimbuscd.com">Nimbus CD International, Inc.</A> announced that it has produced a combined total of more than 3.5 million commercial DVD-Video and DVD-ROM discs since the launch of the format one year ago.