LATEST ADDITIONS

The wearisome chicken-or-egg debate over the rollout of digital television went another round last week, as television manufacturers appealed to the <A HREF="http://www.fcc.gov/">Federal Communications Commission</A> to require more digital programming from broadcasters.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.yamaha.com/yec/index1.htm">Yamaha</A>, traditionally known to American consumers as a specialist in audio equipment, announced that it will enter the home entertainment projector market. The first offering in Yamaha's new product line is a high-resolution projector, based on <A HREF="http://www.dlp.com">Digital Light Processing</A> (DLP) technology and intended for home theater use. Yamaha says that the projector is due to be released next spring.

While computer makers are still struggling to find consensus for the recordable DVD format, with the front-running rivals DVD-RW and DVD-RAM duking it out, a few consumer electronics products incorporating DVD-R are beginning to appear. Last week, <A HREF="http://www.toshiba.com/">Toshiba</A> announced its introduction of the RD-2000, which it describes as "the world's first combination of hard disk drive and DVD-RAM video recorder" for recording TV programs. The new recorder is planned for sale in the Japanese market only, starting December 22.