A home theater is nothing without a first-rate surround setup, and a 7.1-channel system can give you the most compelling sound experience that today's technology can offer. But having the right receiver and the right number of speakers doesn't mean you'll magically get the most out of your system.
Entertainment in the car has come a long way since the first "fitted" AM radios of 1930. And even back then, a few killjoys wanted to ban in-dash radios for fear of distracting the driver. Thankfully, logic and the love of music prevailed - and with each evolution in mobile entertainment over the past 50 years, drivers and passengers have benefited.
I consider myself very fortunate to have a wife who indulges my obsessions. There's the time last summer when she sat in a rental car on a sweltering beach in Baja while I surfed for more than an hour.
Four of Hollywood's home-video heavies - DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, Artisan Entertainment, and Universal Studios - have thrown their weight behind a format for distributing films in high-definition, the JVC-developed D-Theater variant of D-VHS.
BLUE WONDER You couldn't swing a cellphone at CES in January without hitting a car stereo with Bluetooth capability. Being able to connect a mobile phone to a head unit wirelessly isn't just a convenience that commuters crave; in many states, hands-free phone operation behind the wheel is the law, not a choice.
MEDIA À LA MOD Out of the thousands of products, hundreds of pimped-out vehicles, and dozens of partially clad... um, booth models at the annual SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas in November, VizuaLogic's VMOD stood out from all the hubbub.
