According to a recent Reuters report, London-based Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) has announced a very original product: a plastic video display. In the report, the company said, "CDT and its Japanese partner, Seiko-Epson Corp., have unveiled the world's first plastic TV display and will set aggressive targets for commercializing the technology." According to CDT chief executive Danny Chapchal, "The announcement will demonstrate that our technology is very close to commercialization for computer and video display applications."

According to statistics released January 20 by the Arlington, Virginia-based <A HREF="http://www.cema.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> (CEMA), sales to dealers of projection televisions, TV/VCR combinations, VCRs, and camcorders each climbed in 1997 to record-setting levels. The new Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) players also showed well, selling nearly 350,000 units since the product's inception in April.

In a move intended to broaden its home theater product line, <A HREF="http://www.projectavision.com">Projectavision, Inc.</A> of New York announced January 21 that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of <A HREF="http://www.vidikron.com">Vidikron Industries, S.p.A.</A>, including its US subsidiary, Vidikron of America. Vidikron, a privately held company founded 18 years ago and headquartered in Milan, Italy, is a manufacturer and marketer of high-end projection systems for the home-theater consumer and commercial markets, and serves customers in over 30 countries worldwide.

Just in case you were planning to use your computer for watching and possibly copying DVD movies in the near future, Compaq Computer Corporation, Gateway 2000 Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corporation, Micron Electronics, Inc., and Packard Bell/NEC are now licensed to incorporate Macrovision's DVD analog copy-protection technology in their personal-computer products.