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Like panthers or hamsters or bats, video projectors do the bulk of their business in the dark. But darkness makes most humans uncomfortable, which may be why front projection has never made it into the mainstream — in order to get a good picture, you have to turn most, and preferably all, of the lights off.

<IMG SRC="/images/archivesart/natural.jpg" WIDTH=200 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) is a country hick who has one dream in life; to play professional baseball. But that's not enough, when he walks down the street he wants people to say, "There goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in the game." At 19, his boyhood dream catches a glimpse of reality when he's summoned to Chicago for a tryout with the Cubs. On the journey he meets Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey), who turns out to be a psychotic killer who shoots a silver bullet into Hobbs' abdomen. Left for dead in a Chicago hotel room, Hobbs miraculously survives and disappears for 16 years until he finally realizes his dream of playing baseball by signing a contract with the hapless New York Knights.

Connecting and configuring a home theater rig can be pretty daunting. Just one quick glance at those long rows of connectors covering the back panel on most A/V receivers is enough to scare away many potential buyers.