Rob Medich

Really, there should be a law. Oh, sure, the F.C.C. has a regulation that TV commercials can't be louder than the programming surrounding them, but the advertisers skirt around that with some kind of compression trick. So ultimately, the commercials still sound . . . loud. And as for why so many TV stations come in at different sound levels . . . anyone?

It was an epic effort requiring superhuman vision and hearing and, above all, heroic resolve. For in order to download the high-definition version of Superman Returns onto Microsoft's Xbox 360 at the Sound & Vision video lab, I, too, would have to return - and return, and return ...

True, it's not as cool a user experience as moving holographic frames in midair, like Tom Cruise did in Minority Report. But admit it: You get the slightest thrill when you work a touchscreen. And if that screen just happens to be built into a remote control, well, you feel as finger-empowered as E.T.