It's no secret that the original DVD release of <I>Titanic</I>&mdash;about a zillion years ago in DVD time&mdash;was a technical dud. Oh, it looked okay, and the excitement of actually being able to put it on your very own shelf to watch whenever you wanted kept the disappointment to a low simmer. But it was released during the period when studios were just beginning to adopt the anamorphic or "enhanced for widescreen" format. Unfortunately, <I>Titanic</I> was not a beneficiary of that superior technology. As ordinary letterbox transfers go, it was among the better ones. But it wasn't what it should have been.

With its fold-down front panel and uninspiring plastic case, the Sanyo PLV-Z3 suggests nothing so much as a large (okay, very large) clock radio. In a world where, not so very long ago, video projectors were expected to require three or four strong longshoremen to deliver and set up, the newest digital designs still generate a sense of wonder. Even now, audiophiles continue to equate size and mass with quality, and "longer, lower, wider" are still the watchwords with car enthusiasts (though it's no longer politically correct to actually say so in polite company).

Spring is traditionally the season when major consumer electronics manufacturers hold their annual line shows, showing new products that will be introduced during the year. With a late winter snowstorm raging in the northeast, Sony held their 2005 get-together in warm, sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 8.