LATEST ADDITIONS

Heard and not seen.

I've just ignored Morel's Nova system for more than a month. Occasionally a man of letters gets busy. An editor called: Have you got time for another assignment? Sure. A few more called: Can you get this, this, and this done in two weeks? Take the money and run, I always say. My column was due. My other column was due. I was putting the finishing touches on two books at the same time—please buy them both, they're very good—attacking printouts with a red pen to get myself away from the computer.

DVD: Tanner '88—Criterion and Tanner on Tanner—Sundance Channel Home Entertainment
Audio: 3
Video: 2
Extras: 4
If last year's contentious presidential race wasn't enough to demonstrate how ridiculous politics can be, Tanner 88 and Tanner on Tanner should drive the point home.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organization that runs the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 140,000 people attended this year’s annual confab in Las Vegas, NV. In past years, attendance has typically hovered around 100,000. But with the shrinkage of the normally even larger computer show, COMDEX, in 2003, followed by its cancellation this past November, the Intels, IBMs, Apples, Hewlett Packards, and other assorted bits-and-bytes vendors, and their customers, descended on CES with a vengeance.

For me (and, I'm sure, for many others), CES 2005 marked the year that 1080p took off. I'm not talking about 1080p broadcasts or pre-recorded content; it will be a few more years before we see that, and even when we do, it will likely be 1080p/24, not 1080p/60. But 1920x1080 fixed-pixel displays&mdash;plasma, LCD (panels and projectors), DLP, and LCoS&mdash;were suddenly <I>everywhere</I>, unlike last year, when they were as rare as than hens' teeth.