LATEST ADDITIONS

According to a new report from market research company <A HREF="http://www.instat.com">Cahners In-Stat Group</A>, DVD sales will reach new heights over the next several years. Cahners points out that the DVD market has grown from nothing in 1996 to more than 28 million units expected to ship worldwide in 2001, and it estimates that sales will exceed 60 million units in 2004.

Three decades ago, Alvin Toffler coined the term future shock to describe the malaise caused by the increased pace of new technology and information. Consumers of home-entertainment electronics experience some degree of <I>future shock</I> with every new technology: high-definition television, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, and all these new surround-sound formats.

Launching the space shuttle requires the actions of thousands of control systems and hundreds of people all directed by, ultimately, one person. Technicians sit in front of dozens of monitors, checking systems, subsystems, weather patterns, and so on—all to make sure that, when the chief gives the order, the big hunk of steel sitting on the launch pad is able to take off without a glitch. You may not be igniting hundreds of thousands of pounds of rocket fuel when you press play on your DVD-player remote, but you are trying to launch your home theater system, and you usually want it to happen without too many hang-ups. The main component that controls this process is the pre/pro, or preamp/ processor. This is the subject of our latest Boot Camp in the series explaining the technical measurements that accompany our product reviews.

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