Rated to deliver 110 watts of power to each of six channels, Sony's STR-DA5ES digital surround receiver is ready for 6.1-channel DVD soundtracks. If you're torn between DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD, the receiver's two sets of multichannel analog audio inputs let you hook up both at once, and one set can even handle 6.1-channel sources.
Just add speakers and a DVD player for 6.1-channel surround sound: Marantz's SR7200 receiver can decode Dolby Digital Surround EX and DTS-ES (both Matrix and Discrete) soundtracks, as well as 5.1-channel Dolby Digital and DTS, and deliver a rated 105 watts (into 8 ohms) to six speakers.
Pushing the upper size limits of a cathode-ray tube (CRT), Sony's 40-inch KV-40XBR700 Wega is the largest direct-view CRT set on the market. It's also an HDTV monitor and has two wideband component-video inputs, 2:3 (also called 3:2) pulldown capability to improve the look of film-based material, and aspect ratio control.
FHP, a joint venture of Fujitsu and Hitachi, has donated some plasma to Hitachi's UltraVision TV line. Inconveniently designated the CMP4120HDUS, the 42-inch, 3 1/2-inch-deep widescreen HDTV can accept 1080i, 720p, 480p, and 480i signals through its high-definition inputs, which include RGB+H/V, wideband component video, and VGA.
Do I get letters? You bet I do! Everyone has a question for the Gear Guy. I get letters from people who want to buy high-definition TVs, minisystems, exotic speakers - you name it. I also get lots of eviction notices, subpoenas, and an occasional letter bomb. But that's another story.
Prep for the future with JVC's RX-9010VBK digital surround receiver. Rated to deliver 120 watts to each of five channels, it has such forward-looking features as a front-panel USB port and an extended frequency response, rated from 7 Hz to 50 kHz ±3 dB, to handle the wider bandwidth of DVD-Audio.
"Point and click" may be the World Wide Web's catch phrase, but it could just as well apply to Canon's ES8200V Hi8 camcorder. Thanks to its six programmed auto-exposure modes, capturing the action isn't much harder than aiming and pushing a button.