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Some background: The Pioneer Elite Kuro plasmas were widely regarded as among the best HDTVs ever made. They were a high-end, premium-priced product. But though they wowed critics, they didn't sell enough for the line to survive. Two years ago Pioneer exited the TV business, though it continues to use the Elite brand for its higher-end audio components. Earlier this year Pioneer licensed the Elite name to Sharp for use as a TV brand, a logical move given that Sharp is Pioneer's largest shareholder. And so the LCD phoenix rises from the plasma ashes.

In a sure sign that the low-cost DAC is finding its place as an object of mass consumer desire, NuForce has released a 24-karat gold plated version of their uDAC-2 converter-and-headphone-amp combo unit

We’re reasonably certain that most folks looking for a budget HDTV probably aren’t poring through the pages of enthusiast publications like Home Theater for advice. If they’re researching at all, they’re studying the easy-to-digest bubble ratings in Consumer Reports or Which Video, or Googling generic consumer-help Websites.

In the late 1990s, a product manager from Zenith brought me the company's first HDTV set for review. After an afternoon spent checking out the TV - an engineering marvel for its time - I told him how impressed I was with it. "Yeah, we'd sell a ton of them if it said 'Sony' on the front," he wisecracked.