After half a decade of struggling to attract eyeballs, high-definition TV (HDTV) has turned the corner at last. A lot of people have moved beyond wondering if they should spring for an HDTV to asking themselves, "Which one should I buy?" If you've been pondering the same question, it's time to get a grip on the different types of big-screen HDTVs.
New technologies for time-shifting TV have been multiplying in recent years, making the VCR seem as old-fashioned as the Victrola. Most people know about TiVo and ReplayTV - hard-disk video recorders that seek out and store programs based on your viewing habits. But now there's also PC software like Snapstream's BeyondTV 3 that lets you capture shows on your computer hard drive.
They say that "reality TV" programs where people marry someone they just met or jockey for advantage in competitions by playing naked have injected new life into television. But for me, it's high-definition TV that has made tube-watching fun again.
Organizing a CD or DVD collection used to mean alphabetizing a huge pile of discs and painstakingly filing them away on shelves. But a new breed of component called a media server - a cross between a traditional A/V component and a full-featured PC - gives you easy, expanded access to your collection by letting you store it as digital data on a hard-disk drive.
There are two ways to go about setting up a home theater. The first option is to rope off a room in your house, seal the windows, and then make any and all necessary modifications to turn it into a dedicated movie palace. The second, more common option is to take a space your family actually lives, works, and plays in and adapt it so that it can easily go from sitting to screening room.
Plasma TVs are hardly new, but for me it didn't register that the technology had "arrived" until I starting seeing ads for them on TV. Yes, thanks to companies like Pioneer, when you sit down to channel-surf there's a chance you'll see new flat-panel sets that make your current model seem old, fat, and downright sad in comparison.
It wasn't long ago that you'd hear old-school audiophiles at CES bemoaning the disappearance of tubes - the vacuum tubes in audio gear, that is. But the latest technology to beat a quick retreat from the mega-electronics show is the picture tube, or CRT, used in traditional TVs.
Will your next TV be wire-free? To judge from the sets on display at this year's CES, models that wirelessly pull in programs using the Wi-Fi standard are the next hot thing in TV tech. Most of the Wi-Fi-enabled sets here, including models from Sony, Sharp, and Philips, are LCD TVs in the 12- to 23-inch size range.
