Years ago, Brian Eno pushed the artistic envelope with "sonic wallpaper," or background music as art. Artists working in film and video have exploited the concept too, using their cameras to record campfires, roaring surf, sleeping people and animals, stationary buildings, and other excruciatingly boring subjects. In playback, such fare tests viewers' patience and challenges their assumptions about art.

Because they missed their opportunity to distribute the original film the first time around, <A HREF="http://www.cinemanow.com/">CinemaNow</A> and <A HREF="http://www.trimarkpictures.com/">Trimark Pictures</A> announced last week that they have acquired all rights to several spoofs of <I><A HREF="http://www.blairwitch.com/">The Blair Witch Project</A></I>, with negotiations already underway to acquire several more. The original <I>Blair Witch</I> film has been put on a fast-track schedule for release on DVD in time for Halloween, including the requisite "Newly Discovered" footage, Internet links, and other special features.

Hayward, California-based <A HREF="http://www.runco.com/">Runco</A>, one of the premier manufacturers of video projectors, has announced the VX1, a high-brightness, high-resolution projector that the company claims is about the same size and weight as much-lower-resolution LCD projectors. The VX1 is based on <A HREF="http://www.ti.com/">Texas Instruments</A>' one-chip Digital Light Processor (DLP) technology.

When we reviewed Pioneer's flagship Elite DV-09 DVD player in our September 1998 issue, it blew us away so much that it garnered an Editors' Choice award (see the February 1999 issue) as the best DVD player we had reviewed up to that time. This opinion has not changed in the intervening months, but at $2000, the DV-09 is more than many home-theater fans can afford (or justify) for a DVD player. The Elite DV-05, introduced earlier this year, provides many of the features and most of performance capabilities of the DV-09 at a more affordable price.