The newest home-theater-in-a-box kits fill an audio gap you probably didn’t even know existed. DTS ES and Dolby Digital EX formats add a sixth channel (rear center) to traditional five-speaker surround sound, letting you hear conversations and explosions directly behind you. And while many current DVDs don’t take advantage of this boost, it’s the future of cinema, both at home and at the multiplex. When choosing your rig, remember it must handle video smoothly while emphasizing what you want most in audio: theater-style impact, high-quality music, or something in between. - Michael Gowan
Real Vs. Fake Surround sound
• Dolby Digital: Each speaker channel is individually encoded for true 5.1 surround sound.
• Dolby Digital EX: True 6.1 or 7.1 surround.
• Dolby Pro Logic II: Each channel is processed from a stereo signal to simulate 5.1 surround.
• Dolby Pro Logic IIx: Simulated 6.1 or 7.1 surround.
• DTS: A rival to Dolby Digital - true 5.1 surround.
• DTS ES: True 6.1 surround
How We Tested
We assessed systems with movies and songs:
• Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace: The pod race: Pods zoom around the track.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: The defeat of Sauron: A battle-strewn opening with a haunting voice-over.
• Mozart, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G Major KV 216: 1. Allegro: Clear strings with a wide range of tonality.
• Wynton Marsalis, "Soon All Will Know": Popping trumpet and deep bass.
• The Flaming Lips, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1": Rock in Dolby Digital.
Denon DHT-485DV
Denon’s system comes close to achieving affordable perfection. The DVD player produced exceptionally crisp images, finding details lost by other players. Movies sounded great, too: The subwoofer thumped with bass that never got muddy. Cate Blanchett’s voice-over at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring resonated with warmth and depth. The 485DV’s small front speakers were a little wimpy for playing CDs, but the delivery improved when we engaged the subwoofer and surround speakers via the Pro Logic IIx Music setting. The large (17.1 x 5.8 x 16.4-inch) receiver accommodates plenty of analog inputs, including the six-channel direct plugs you’ll need if you want to add DVD-Audio. But the system is a bit stingy with its digital inputs - it offers only two.
Wired: Lush video and excellent spacial effects made for a thrilling movie experience.
Tired: Small satellite front speakers didn’t muster full-range acoustics on their own.
$699, www.usa.denon.com
Onkyo HT-S777C
Wired: The best for music, thanks to full-spectrum output (from highs to lows). Six-disc DVD player produced crisp video. Abundant inputs.
Tired: Boxy speakers and components won’t win any beauty pageants. Tightly packed speaker jacks were hard to access.
$700, www.onkyo.com
Kenwood HTB-S715DV
Wired: Channel separation as good as Denon’s. Easy to connect a game console through ports on the front panel of the receiver.
Tired: Dialog in movie soundtracks lacked depth. Limited amount of inputs. Tinny stereo music. Expensive for what it offers.
$1,000, www.kenwoodusa.com
Yamaha YHT-F1500
Wired: Well-distributed sound (though not as good as that from the Denon or Kenwood systems). Attractive onscreen display made setup easy.
Tired: Muddy bass and bright treble. Lacks extras like a disc changer and DVD-Audio player that would justify the high price.
$1,000, www.yamaha.com
DVD burners and digital video-editing software have turned the home PC into an instant editing suite. Add an ultraportable miniDV cam and you’re ready to transform those family films into full-blown holiday classics. - Mathew Honan
Canon Optura 500
Canon crams Texas-sized features into a Rhode Island-sized package. Among them are a huge CCD that produces excellent video and a truckload of external controls for changing settings on the fly. But be warned: If portability is paramount, this 2.1 x 4.2 x 4-inch camcorder, though small, will bulge in your pocket.
Wired: Sharp picture with vivid color. Decibel meter and audio controls enabled great sound without an external mike.
Tired: Performed poorly in low light. Expensive.
$1,200, www.cusa.canon.com
Sony DCR-PC109
Wired: The smallest cam we tested at 2 x 3.9 x 3.9 inches. Great image quality with superior color. Convenient recharging dock houses video outputs.
Tired: Touchscreen menus and manual focus difficult to adjust midshot. Grainy in low light.
$900, www.sonystyle.com
JVC GR-DX307U
Wired: Form factor, button placement, and auto modes made basic shooting easy. Huge 3-inch LCD. Bright three-bulb LED. Small at 3.7 x 3.8 x 2 inches.
Tired: Dull reds. Menus more confusing than a David Lynch film.
$800, www.jvc.com
Panasonic PV-GS15
Wired: Remarkable 24X optical zoom (the others stop at 10X). Four LED bulbs for lighting. Quiet. Well-integrated manual audio and video functions.
Tired: Colors not as vibrant as the other cams. Portly for a compact - 3.4 x 2.8 x 4.4 inches.
$500, www.panasonic.com
OQO has thrown down the tiniest gauntlet with a Windows XP computer you can hold in your sweaty palm. Encased in mouse-gray magnesium alloy, the OQO model 01 has a 1-GHz Transmeta processor, 256 Mbytes of RAM, an 800 x 480 color display, a 20-Gbyte hard drive, and built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 1.1, and FireWire. So it ran real software - MS Office, Photoshop, and broadband apps - without compromise. It’s a bit expensive, doesn’t possess as much power as a full laptop, and the keyboard is limiting, but it’s no wimpy PDA. - Neil McManus
Screen: The transflective color LCD looks crisp even in bright sun. At 5 inches diagonal, it’s almost as large as the machine itself. And it accepts digital-pen input.
Keys: You won’t speed-type on this QWERTY keyboard, but it comes smartly equipped with a navigational nubbin (trackpoint), mouse buttons, and a thumbwheel.
Dock: Tinkertoy-style docking cable turns this little guy into a capable desktop PC, giving it Ethernet and 3-D accelerated 1,280 x 1,024 video output.
Wired: It’s a broadband-capable PC about the size of a Game Boy.
Tired: Slow processor, bare-minimum RAM, and yesterday’s USB. Lithium polymer battery ran hot and needed recharging every three hours.
$1,999, www.oqo.com
The iPod is great, but do you really want to suit up with a hard drive for your workout? Flash-based MP3 players are smaller, cheaper, and have no moving parts to break. - Brendan I. Koerner
Rio Forge
Wired: 256-Mbyte memory is upgradable through SD or MMC cards. Battery lasted 18 hours. Easy-to-navigate menus. FM tuner and FM recording. Stopwatch.
Tired: Kinda heavy at 2.6 ounces. Rio Music Manager app was a pain.
$169, www.digitalnetworksna.com
iRiver iFP-890
Wired: Lightweight at 1.4 ounces. Easy-to-hold shape. Line-in and FM recording. 256 megs of storage.
Tired: Music management software was clunky. Bundled headphones constantly slipped out of our ears.
$150, www.iriveramerica.com
Joybee 102R
Wired: Smallest player tested - about the size of a silver dollar and only 0.5 ounces. Surprisingly good sound for such a compact device.
Tired: No screen or FM tuner. Headphones were awkward to wear. 128-Mbyte memory isn’t expandable.
$99, benq.com
Samsung YP-T5H
Wired: Light at 0.85 ounce, though not in the Joybee’s league. FM tuner and built-in mike. Battery lasted more than 11 hours.
Tired: Only 128 megs of memory. Lame file-transfer app. Lackluster sound; its WOW mode didn’t wow us.
$130, samsungusa.com
Load a reservoir of beans into these programmable European coffee systems and they’ll grind, tamp, and brew a perfect shot of espresso or cup of joe in the time it takes you to pull some milk out of the fridge. - Lucas Graves
Jura Capresso Impressa E8
Wired: Like the rest, made great coffee; unlike the rest, was a cinch to operate and maintain. Special bypass doser port lets you skip the stored beans and make a single cup of a different grind.
Tired: Water temp can’t be adjusted.
$999, www.capresso.com
Spidem Trevi Digital Plus
Wired: Brews fine coffee for hundreds of dollars less than the competition. Smart side panel for dumping grounds. Temperature control. Has the same innards as more expensive Saeco model.
Tired: No bypass doser. Confusing manual.
$679, www.spidem.it/eng
Saeco V’spresso
Wired: Offers a bypass doser, adjustable temp, and a heated cup tray, giving it the broadest feature set of any machine tested.
Tired: The highest price tag of any machine we tested.
$1,300, www.saeco.com
credit Craig Maxwell
Denon DHT-485DV
Onkyo HT-S777C
Kenwood HTB-S715DV
Yamaha YHT-F1500
credit Craig Maxwell
Canon Optura 500
Sony DCR-PC109
JVC GR-DX307U
credit Craig Maxwell
Panasonic PV-GS15
Oqo Windows XP computer
credit Craig Maxwell
Rio Forge
iRiver iFP-890
Joybee 102R
credit Craig Maxwell
Samsung YP-T5H
credit Craig Maxwell
Jura Capresso Impressa E8
credit Craig Maxwell
Spidem Trevi Digital Plus
Saeco V’spresso
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