Sears and CBS Television announced an agreement last week under which Sears will sponsor high definition television coverage of the 2002 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. This marks the third consecutive year that CBS has broadcast the Final Four in HDTV.

Digital Light Projectors (DLPs) are clearly coming into their own this year, based on what we saw at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. Joining Sharp and its groundbreaking XV-Z9000 ($10,000)—and also based on Texas Instrument's 1280 x 720 DLP chip—are the new Sim2 HT300 ($14,995), the DWIN TransVision 2 ($12,999), and the Marantz VP12S1 ($12,499).

We know that DVD is hot, but few could have predicted that the video format would become the fastest growing in the history of consumer electronics. The latest statistics reveal that, in 2001, consumer spending on DVD purchases and rental combined were $6 billion, 2.4 times more than the previous year. This represents an increase that put DVD purchases ahead of VHS purchases for the first time, despite an installed player base of 25 million DVD households versus a VCR installed player base of 96 million households.

We continue to roam the Alexis Park complex, our antennae tuned for innovative home theater products. Among the most interesting: Legacy Audio's "Harmony" loudspeaker, perhaps the first truly high-performance in-wall we've ever heard. This unique design features a rigid back plate that's screwed into place in a sheetrock cutout between two studs on standard 16" centers. The fully assembled front baffle then slides into place and is secured by two screws. Unlike other in-wall designs that attempt to disappear, the Harmony actually protrudes about two inches from the surface of the wall. Its craftsmanship matched its sonic appeal—it was surprisingly deep and dynamic, but very natural sounding through the midrange and highs.