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Put away that charcoal. Here's a different kind of grille for your patio.

My, how times have changed. Back when vinyl records were king and a 25-inch-diagonal TV screen was considered big, here's how you had a good time in the backyard: a keg of beer, burgers on a charcoal grill, and your roommate's big, ugly speakers (carted out from the living room) blasting Rush (Geddy Lee, et al) until the conservative neighbors call the cops. A decade or so goes by, and the fun gets more sophisticated: a cooler of imported beer (maybe a margarita machine), steaks on a gas grill, and a big, ugly boombox belting out Rush (Limbaugh) until the liberal neighbors call the cops. Today, it's likely to be takeout from a local BBQ joint, a mini-fridge full of hard lemonade, and steam from the hot tub mingling with big-band music from outdoor speakers hidden somewhere in the (twice-monthly manicured) foliage.

Sony is taking "home theater in a box" to the next level. Upscale all-in-one home theater systems may be the next big trend; with a few notable exceptions, the electronics industry follows Sony's lead.

According to figures recently compiled by the <A HREF="http://www.dvdinformation.com">DVD Entertainment Group</A>, DVD hardware and software sales continued on a strong upward curve in the first six months of 2001. In the first half of the year, the DEG reports, more than 5 million DVD players were shipped to retailers (not all have sold through to consumers), bringing the total units shipped since the format's launch to 20.4 million. Just over 3 million players had been shipped by the same time last year.

The digital TV rollout may have more problems than were previously anticipated. A study released July 25 by <A HREF="http://www.trivenidigital.com">Triveni Digital</A> indicates that a majority of the nation's digital broadcasts have transport stream errors that can cause reception problems ranging from "tuner lock-up" to audio sync errors. In addition, a July 26 report in the <I>Los Angeles Times</I> says that new content protection schemes could be incompatible with early generation high-definition TVs.