HT Staff

Many home theater experts contend that the proper place for a center channel speaker is directly behind the screen, as in a commercial theater. Such arrangements require perforated screens that are acoustically transparent but visually reflective, an arrangement that can wreak havoc with some fixed-pixel projectors. Annoying moire patterns can result from the relationship between a projector's image elements and the holes in a perforated screen.

DVD: The Great Gatsby—Paramount
Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 1
A great book does not necessarily make a great movie, as anyone who ever seen Demi Moore's version of The Scarlet Letter will certainly attest to. There have been three big-screen adaptations of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby since 1926; if any of them had the most potential, it was the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. The script was written by Francis Ford Coppola (fresh off The Godfather), and the studio spared no expense on the budget required to reproduce the lavish Roaring 20s Long Island lifestyle. Unfortunately, this version of The Great Gatsby is pretentious, boring, and utterly lifeless—in other words, it's a lot like the elite socialites who make up most of the cast of characters.

KEF
What if you could get the same digital surround sound from a speaker system without running all of those wires across the floor of your home theater? If that's your wish, then KEF's new Instant Theatre, or KIT100, is right up your alley. The system—which features two compact front speakers, a hideaway subwoofer, and a DVD/receiver unit with an AM/FM tuner—utilizes NXT's flat-panel technology to produce surround sound from just two speakers. Each die-cast aluminum speaker is designed to minimize cabinet vibrations and features a 4-inch Uni-Q driver array with a 0.6-inch tweeter. It's nearly impossible to mess up the setup process, as the four supplied cables are shaped for their respective fittings. The progressive-scan DVD player is compatible with CD-Rs/-RWs and MP3-encoded CDs, and the unit includes Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS decoding. The Instant Theatre is all yours for $1,500.
KEF
(732) 683-2356
www.kef.com

The remote control is one of the great inventions of the 20th century but one in severe need of refinement. Many consumer polls have demonstrated that remotes remain among the most confusing and frustrating devices in common use.