Last week, <A HREF="http://www.technicolor.com/">Technicolor</A> announced that it has acquired a significant interest in Real Image Digital, a developer of digital-cinema technology. As part of the transaction, Technicolor is acquiring 49% of Real Image, with the option of picking up another 11.5% in the future on pre-negotiated terms. Real Image is partnered with the Sarnoff Corporation, which is currently developing technology to compress and encrypt film-quality images for theaters&mdash;a process that Sarnoff claims is many times more complex than video compression for the home-entertainment market.

The new DV-09 is Pioneer's first DVD player in its Elite line. More than simply an upscale version of a standard Pioneer DVD player, the DV-09 was built from the ground up to be a flagship product. It's also the first DVD player I've seen to have been certified under THX's DVD-player certification program (see sidebar, "THX DVD Players").

Astute observers have long predicted that the computer industry would beat consumer-electronics manufacturers to the finish line in the race for affordable high-definition television. That prediction could prove correct, if a recent press release from Austin,Texas- based <A HREF="http://www.hdtv.net/">TeVCA Technologies</A> is to be trusted.

Last week, the <A HREF="http://www.homepna.org">Home Phoneline Networking Alliance</A> (HomePNA) announced that new technology proposed earlier in March by <A HREF="http://www.lucent.com">Lucent</A> and Epigram (now a subsidiary of <A HREF="http://www.broadcom.com">Broadcom</A>) is now the basis for the 2.0 standard for 10 Megabit/second home networking technology.