OTHER TECH

I live in Illinois near a town called Flatville. The buzz at this year's Consumer Electronics Show might lead you to believe that it's the capital of the universe. On Press Day, January 5, the day prior to the official opening of CES, every major manufacturer introduced myriad models of new flat-panel displays, which in the not-too-distant past were called TVs.

With a digital video recorder, you're master of the HDTV universe today, but brought to your knees tomorrow when your DVR fills up and automatically deletes the penultimate episode of Dancing with the Stars before you've witnessed the duel play-out.

Prices for TV sets - especially flat-panel models - can be volatile, which makes it hard to be precise about what you can expect for a given amount of money. Moreover, the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) for a particular set, which is what the Buyer's Guide lists, will usually be higher than the best you can find if you shop carefully.

The days of going to an electronics store, choosing from a lineup of components, and carrying your selection out to the trunk of your car might be fading fast. We now want our entertainment with us all the time, wherever we go, but few of us have the time to wade through the overwhelming proliferation of gear being created to address that desire.

HD Movies Free on Cable "Free" and "cable" don't usually go together. Yet about 80% of Comcast households are being offered a sprinkling of high-def video-on-demand movies free each month. April titles will include Cliffhanger, Desperado, and The Fifth Element.

We went to four programmers from XM and four from Sirius and asked them the same question: With listeners able to choose between things like CD megachangers, digital music servers, DVD music videos, and traditional radio, what does satellite radio have to offer?