Geoffrey Morrison

Two that do one; one that does two.

LG shocked the consumer electronics world at CES when they announced that, not only were they coming out with a player that would play Blu-ray and HD DVD, but it would be shipping in less than a month. True to their word, it did, and I got one in to try out. Around the same time, Toshiba released a pair of second-generation HD DVD players. The model I look at here, the HD-XA2, is notable as it is the first HD DVD player to output 1080p. The Blu-ray camp (seeing as they had just released most of their players) had no such exciting newness beyond what you read about in our April issue. So, we got in the Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blu-ray player, which is unique in that it doesn't seem to be a clone of any other players (which you can't say for many of the BD players out there). Where should your money go (if at all)? Just keep reading.

It seems like nearly every high-end audio company is trying to get out of the house and into the car these days. While at first this appears strange, it makes a lot of sense. The home audio market has been stagnant for years, and every bit of exposure can only help. The car also has several aspects that make it somewhat easier to design for than the home. For one, you know where your listeners are going to be, and you know with a lot of certainty what and where the reflective and absorptive surfaces are. The downsides, of course, are road noise, and less than perfect speaker placement. There are many ways a company can approach these problems, and done well, they can sound vastly better than the stock system, and often better than any aftermarket system as well.

JVC, Mitsubishi, and Sony square off.

I admit it; I am an unreserved fan of projectors. I've had one as my sole display since my 38-inch RCA CRT blew up four years ago. There is nothing like watching life-size (or larger than life-size) characters on a 110-inch screen. Now, that is engaging. I don't understand why everyone doesn't have a projector. Guests to my gloomy, cavelike abode could probably offer logical rationales. But come on: Look at the size of Adama's head!

Sony unveiled a slew of new TVs at their recent TV unveiling in NYC.