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While the in the end, Samsung's first foray into the Blu-ray world wasn't the major culprit in said format's poor picture quality (turns out most of the early discs just didn't look very good), it was still rather lackluster. It didn't upconvert DVDs very well, it didn't offer a 1080p/24 output, and it didn't decode any of the new audio formats. With its second-generation offering, Samsung has fixed most of these shortcomings. Most.

At some point in the evolution of home theater, someone noticed that the phrase includes the word home. At that point, weird and wonderful things began to happen. Speakers morphed into smaller, more rounded, and occasionally more imaginative shapes. The surround receivers that fed them maintained their black-box identities but moved discreetly into closets. Back panels began to sprout extra jacks, the better to interact with touchscreen interfaces, second zones, and other niceties that have become staples of the connected home.

I don't know the degree to which interactivity will drive next-gen HD sales, but HD DVD is leading in this category, big-time. Already ahead with picture-in-picture driven features such as Warner's In Movie Experience and Universal's U-Control, Toshiba's latest firmware updates for all its players, including the first-gen players, have enabled web-based interactivity for broadband users that is now available on a few titles, with more to follow.

Bandai's <I>Freedom Vol. 1</I> offers up to cast/crew info by hitting the A button, storyboards using the B button, and up to seven bookmarks using the C button (all of which is explained by a handy tutorial readily accessible in the main menu). The storyboard feature here is awesome. I've got to admit that I'm not an anime guy, so this material didn't grab me as much as it might some of you. But, think of looking at storyboards and art in band with the movie with something like <I>Lord of the Rings</I>, or even Martin Scorsese's crude storyboards for <I>Taxi Driver</I> (oh wait, that's a Sony movie). Still, you get my drift.