Onkyo If you want to hear the back surround channel in 6.1-channel movie soundtracks, but don't want to shell out a lot of coin, Onkyo's TX-SR502 receiver will get the job done for a song.
RCA Still playing your CDs and your DVDs on two separate machines? The RCA DRC510N changer is here to simplify things for a price that's a no-brainer. Shuffling between five discs, the changer can play CDs loaded with MP3, Windows Media Audio (WMA), or mp3PRO files as well as all recordable DVD formats except DVD-RAM.
While there's certainly no shortage of people clamoring for dedicated home theaters they can fine-tune for optimum performance, there's also a growing number interested in creating flexible entertainment systems that can deliver sound, video, and even Internet-based content throughout the house.
SamsungHere we go folks - both your video playback and recording needs are handled by Samsung's DVD-VR300 combo DVD/VHS recorder. Each side can record from an external source or from a disc or tape loaded in the other side (though neither will let you dub copy-protected movies).
BenQ Think of it as a portable CD player with benefits: BenQ's Joybee610 will not only play your tunes on the go (including MP3s on CD), but it also plays DVDs and can read CD-ROMs with JPEGs. For anything visual, however, you'll need to hook up the Joybee to an external monitor through its composite-, component-, or S-video output.
Toshiba When it comes to recording TV shows, Toshiba's RD-XS32 gives you plenty of options: you can store them on the 80-gigabyte (GB) hard disk for a short stay, give them a permanent home on a write-once DVD-R, or burn them onto an erasable DVD-RW or DVD-RAM disc.
Is convergence dead? Not the concept - the term. With the Consumer Electronics Show awash in TVs, components, and speakers full of computer technology, maybe it's time to just dump "convergence" and embrace ever-shrinking, ever-more-powerful chip sets as our home-entertainment destiny.