OTHER TECH

When I got satellite TV installed at my house a few years ago, I had a regular VHF/UHF antenna put in at the same time so that I could receive high-definition TV broadcasts. Over-the-air was the only game in town for HD back then. Now, with the major cable companies embracing high-def, and with satellite-TV services offering more and more high-def channels, HDTV is easier to come by.

Surfing the Web on a TV has never had much appeal for anyone who's comfortable with a computer. Even mighty Microsoft did little to increase the set-top browser market after it purchased WebTV and renamed it MSN TV. Now the company, through hardware partner RCA (Thomson), is trying again with the introduction of the MSN TV 2 Internet and Media Player.

Way up on the list of reader questions we field on a regular basis is, "Which is better, plasma or LCD?" Compared with more affordable tube-type TVs, both technologies are relatively new. But their flat form factor, combined with an ultra-bright picture that looks good from any position on your couch, gives many folks a spasm of techno-lust.

You might think your TV is the most important part of your home theater system. But the real heart of any home-entertainment setup is the A/V or digital surround receiver - the one element that ties all the others together and lets you select and adjust what you watch or listen to.

Digitizing music changed all the rules - even though we took almost two decades, from the introduction of the CD to the rise of MP3, to explore its full potential. Freed from the limitations of hard-wired analog circuits, new software-driven digital music systems can be amazingly powerful and flexible, especially when combined with networked computers.

When's the last time you got really excited about listening to the radio? For me it was when I discovered an alternative station called 99X in Atlanta . Now I actually look forward to visiting so I can tune in. During my formative listening years near San Francisco , I enjoyed an abundance of great music on FM.