Samsung's HL-S5679W HDTV ($4,199), coming in August, is the first rear-projection set to use LED (light-emitting diode) light sources instead of a conventional lamp. Among the reasons you should care: a 20,000-hour lamp life (more than double typical lamps), a shorter turn-on time (7 seconds), and being able to rattle off one more abbreviation when blabbing about your rig.
To borrow a line from your days on Saturday Night Live, how much ya bench, buddy? [exhales] Not much these days. Not my weight, that's for sure. My arms are too long; I've convinced myself that's why. If I was some short guy with sharp, muscle-y arms, I could just toss around 225.
When we think of a power amp today, we think of that large, heavy, hot-running, often ugly block of metal we hide away so we don't have to look at it. Or, if it's impressively large or expensive we proudly display it on the floor—an amp that's large, impressive, and expensive enough to show off is too heavy to put anywhere else! There, we willingly subject our ankles and shins to its sharp heat sinks on the sacrificial altar of great sound.
1. I'm happy with DVD. Why should I care about high-definition discs?
While both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc offer a number of improvements over DVD, the most obvious one is picture quality. DVD was a huge leap in both convenience and performance over VHS, but its 480i resolution is well below the 720p, 1080i, and 1080p images both high-def disc formats can produce.
How's this for a mashup: Former Utopians Todd Rundgren (second from right in photo) and Kasim Sulton (right), together with ex-Tubes drummer Prairie Prince (left), join guitarist Elliot Easton (second from left) and keyboardist Greg Hawkes to form the New Cars.
No matter who ends up "winning," the Blu-Ray and HD DVD format war has probably entered its most dangerous period. For right when new formats are launched, you'll find advocates of one system or another putting forth unsubstantiated claims and various forms of quasi- and pseudo-science to back their side.
