Thomas J. Norton hopes you don't peek at the product's price before reading his reveiw of the expensive <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?139">Mark Levinson No. 40 preamplifier-processor</A>. But even if you do, TJN notes "there's real value in knowing what's possible at the very tip of the home theater pyramid."

Plasma screens have not taken over the market yet, as Michael Fremer notes in his review of the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?135">Hitachi Ultravision 65XWX20B rear-projection CRT HDTV</A>. "If space is a constraint," says MF, "be prepared to spend at least twice as much for a smaller screen" with plasma. If you've got the room, then according to MF, the Hitachi may be the way to go.

Canon, Sharp, Sony and JVC have teamed up on proposed specifications for high definition digital videocassette tape.

<A HREF="http://www.runco.com">Runco International</A> has begun shipping two new widescreen plasma display panels (PDPs) incorporating the company&rsquo;s "Vivix" video-scaling technology. The 43"-diagonal CW-43MC and the 50" CW-50MC feature inboard processing cards with Runco's highly regarded scaling and image processing capabilities. The CW-43MC sells for $9995 and the CW-50MC for $13,995.