Judging from the responses to our Vote! question from several months ago, a significant number of home-theater fans are not happy with DVD region codes. The film studios are attempting to control their staggered rollouts of movies for the consumer markets around the planet with the codes, which prevent a DVD made in one region of the world from playing on a DVD player from another region.

One limitation often preventing home theater enthusiasts from installing a front projection video system is the need to place the projector in a particular place in the room to get a proper image on screen. A semiconductor company exhibiting at the National Association of Broadcasters 2002 convention this week in Las Vegas says they can change all that.

In poll after poll, Guide to Home Theater readers suggest that some form of high definition DVD will be one of the key developments needed to give HDTV a real kick in the pants. It may be a while before the copyright issues are resolved sufficiently to make it happen, but the technology appears to be on its way.

Last week, Thomson Multimedia announced what the company terms "an aggressive new effort" designed to bring HDTV within reach of more American consumers. Thomson, which manufactures and markets the RCA brand of television and video products, says it will be trimming suggested retail prices of RCA HDTV sets by 20%, effective in April.