As usual, there's no shortage of cool HDTVs to check out here at CES. But a few new developments have caught my attention - all of them good, and all worth considering as you make plans to invest in a new high-def set.
When people think about flat, big-screen TVs, they usually think plasma rather than LCD. There's good reason for that - plasma sets were large and widescreen from the get-go, while LCD technology spent most of the past half-decade driving desktop computer monitors. But that situation is changing.
Badly dubbed dialogue and exaggerated acting make martial-arts movies unintentionally funny (to Westerners, at least). But in Kung Fu Hustle (Sony; Movie ••••, Picture/Sound ••••½, Extras •••• ), director Stephen Chow sets out to grab laughs by mining the genre's clichés.
When Sony debuted its $27,000 SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display) front projector a couple of years back, my first thought after drooling over its fine, filmlike picture was: They'll really have something if they can get this technology into a TV that sells for a few thousand dollars.
Audiophiles and musicians alike will recognize the name Tannoy from the pro-sound world - the company's speakers are used in recording studios around the globe. So I was surprised to see speakers from such a serious outfit show up in a funky, fun package like the Arena system. The Arena's podlike satellites owe a debt to 1970s sci-fi style: think rounded, organic, and amoeboid.
"Home theater in a box" - to me, that phrase conjures up cheap, all-in-one packages with a combo DVD player/receiver, tiny speakers, and an underpowered amp crammed into a "bass module." But it can also be stretched to mean a high-quality system whose components are designed to work together in a turn-key fashion, which saves you from racking your brains about which receiver goes best with what
Unlike oxygen, food, or water, surround sound isn't necessary for survival. But if you recently upgraded to a slim, big-screen HDTV, you're probably feeling a need to update the audio part of your system with something equally tasty. Home theater used to mean huge tower speakers or chunky satellites paired with subwoofers that took up as many cubic feet as an SUV's gas tank.
