In 1936, the BBC introduced its viewers to high-definition TV. (Well, that's what they called it, anyway.) The Beeb's new broadcast system produced a blurry, black-and-white 405-line image. Still, it was a lot better than the 30-line standard it replaced. Seventy years later, the name's the same; only the specs are different.
The screen at your local movie theater is obviously a lot larger than the specialty screens used in home theaters, but they actually have a lot in common. The main difference is perforation. The screens in almost every movie theater have the front left, center, and right speakers behind them, along with a few subwoofers.
Finally! The studios have wised up and realized that if they don't offer movies as electronic bits you can legally download and watch whenever you like, savvy computer users will get them anyway.
It really is a pit stop when you park your 'Pod in Corgi's Nissan Silvia iCar ($35). Yes, we're talkin' that Corgi, the British maker of die-cast scale-model cars, celebrating its 50th anniversary. Here, you get a 1:24-scale Silvia atop stereo speakers.
After it was introduced in the middle of the last century, the TV set remained basically unchanged for decades.
While there were minor design variations along the way, it wasn't until flat-panel plasma and LCD sets arrived that manufacturers finally gave us a new take on the tired old tube.
