LATEST ADDITIONS

The world of digital television is roiling with copyright paranoia. It seems that Hollywood barely wants you to watch their material in high-definition, much less record it. Nonetheless, two new VCRs capable of recording HDTV are on the market, courtesy of Mitsubishi and Panasonic.

The burgeoning market for digital television is being hindered by an increasing number of reports of radio-frequency interference from DTV transmitters. Although DTV is a "technology that is finally beginning to boom," according to a July 16 report from Reed Business Information, some broadcasters, in particular Paxson Communications, have complained about interference problems. Consumers who buy digital televisions are still disappointed by the skimpy high-definition programming offered by their local broadcasters. DTV's picture for the near future therefore remains unclear.

When Tom Norton reviewed the <A HREF="http://www.guidetohometheater.com/showarchives.cgi?19">Toshiba 50H81 HD-ready 16:9 rear-projection television</A>'s 40-inch baby brother, he raved about the picture quality. In the May 2002 issue, Norton sets out to see if the 50-inch upgrade continues the Toshiba tradition.

<A HREF="www.thomson-multimedia.com">Thomson Multimedia</A> announced July 12 that it has joined the Motion Picture Engineering Group Licensing Authority's (MPEG LA) LLC MPEG-2 patent pool as of July 1. The MPEG LA LLC licensing program was launched in 1997 to assure the growth and interoperability of digital video by "providing fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory access to worldwide patent rights that are essential for the MPEG-2 Video and System standards," the announcement stated.