The Electronic Frontier

With the state of the art in home-entertainment electronics shifting almost daily, is it really possible to buy something that won't become an antique before you get it home? Absolutely. You may never head off obsolescence permanently, but at least you can delay it if you're up on what's hot and what's not in product trends. So with all those new formats in audio and video clamoring for our attention, it's time to separate the best from the b.s. (continued on page 140)

In the audio realm, compact discs have certainly become stable fixtures. This year's middle- and high-priced models employ third-generation filtering techniques, which have substantially refined the sound coming from the silvery discs. A CD player from just about any manufacturer is a safe addition to your stereo system.

Ever since the beginning of the CD world, its makers have been promising text or still-frame video information packaged alongside the audio on the discs. Still frames might show backstage shots of a live-concert disc or mood pictures timed to the music. To see the pictures, you'll need a generation of CD player that doesn't yet exist. Some of today's players, though, will be adaptable with the aid of a decoder box that draws digital video pictures from a conventional player. A number of highend players already have these digital subcode outputs on their rear panels. But with no CD presser even talking about video yet, don't hold your breath for it.

Some of the biggest excitement in CDs comes from the way discs are stored. As if a 72-minute uninterrupted music source weren't enough, we're starting to see the first of multiple-disc changers. Pioneer's $499.95 PD-M6 unit is no bigger than most component-style CD players, yet it holds a slim cartridge of six discs. You can program any sequence of tracks on any disc to make up your night's listening program. If six discs aren't quite enough, try the 60-disc Nikko NCD-600 player. Intended for broadcast stations, the Nikko high-tech jukebox can be linked with up to three others of its kind and programmed via personal computer for a 240-disc library for the CD fanatic who has everything, including $3200.

CD-player programming is also about to get a novel boost from Magnavox, whose $410 CDB650 player incorporates favorite track selection. The player reads a record-number code that is already pressed into every disc. If you don't like a particular track or prefer your disc program in a different order from the one pressed into it, then program the selections into the player's memory. The next time you insert the disc, the player will read the disc's code number and retrieve the selection you programmed for it earlier. Built-in memory accommodates programming for as many as 785 tracks from any number of discs.

By the way, if you're feeling flush and looking for speakers to handle your CD sound, take a look at the $3995-a-pair John Bowers Active I Limiteds by B&W. Two years in the making, the Active Is are perfectly matched to their built-in 300-watt amplifiers and crossover networks, which also lessen the chore of matching amps and speakers when you're shopping for a system.

Sony started the ball rolling in portable CD players when it beat everyone to the punch with its popular D-5 model ($299.95). The second generation of portables is upon us, offering improved laser technologies, longer playing time on batteries and multiple-track programmability. Toshiba's XR-P9 (about $300) goes a step further by allowing you to slip the portable unit into an attractive angled power supply for use with your home amplifier or receiver. Add the wireless remote-control unit and you have a great audio component.

CD players are starting to gain a toe hold in dashboards. But if the idea of an exposed, expensive CD-player unit in your car gives you second thoughts, Sony has gotten around this with its $999.95 Disc-Jockey. Housed in a well-insulated, trunk-mounted box is a ten-disc CD changer with room for an optional AM/FM stereo tuner. You control the unit through a wired remote control that, not coincidentally, is the length and width of a car radio but less than an inch thick. Mount the control on the dash or stash it under the seat. Besides full control over programming discs and radio stations, you also have the ability to compress the CD sound.

A trunk-mounted cassette changer is an equally appealing idea if you're not quite ready for mobile CD. The Alpine Model 7375 car-stereo deck ($1400), for example, is a trunk-housed changer that holds six cassettes. Up in the passenger compartment, a standard radio-sized control head gives you power over your musical selections. The unit also includes an AM/FM stereo tuner with the unique feature of letting you listen to the radio while rewinding or fast-forwarding a tape.

Amid the glitz of high-tech audio components, it's refreshing to see a classic idea tastefully updated. KLH, which built a reputation on its earlier generation of high-fidelity, understated table radios, has done it again with its $260 Model 200 AM/FM stereo table radio. Packaged in a walnut-veneer cabinet with black front panels, the radio (and its separate second speaker) oozes class and includes five AM and five FM preset stations, built-in clock timer and digital display. On the rear panel are connectors for an external tape deck or CD player.

High-quality sound is no longer limited to audio gear, as evidenced by the proliferation of Beta and VHS video-recording gear capable of very high-fidelity audio. The problem facing shoppers, however, is that high-fidelity VCRs present a confusing array of incompatible features. In the VHS format alone, you can encounter VCRs rated as hi-fi, stereo and multichannel television sound (MTS), or any combination of all three. Unless you know what each type of audio does, you may end up with a VCR that doesn't mesh with the kinds of tapes you like to make and play.

VHS hi-fi, for example, is a special audio format that records audio from an external source, such as an FM tuner, with remarkable stereo sound. Many prerecorded cassettes are now encoded in VHS hi-fi for dynamite sound when viewed on a TV monitor and played through a stereo system. Tapes released for VHS hi-fi are fully compatible with plain VCRs but with just the monophonic sound.

VCRs that have only Dolby stereo won't decode VHS hi-fi audio on prerecorded tapes, but you will be able to record the sound tracks from FM-simulcast transmissions in stereo, along with the video from the TV channel. In this setup, you connect the audio outputs of your FM tuner to the audio inputs of the stereo VCR. Sansui's S-XV1000 audio/video receiver ($599) contains superior signal-routing capabilities for this purpose.

True MTS stereo VCRs are usually marked somewhere on the front panel as being MTS-equipped (and SAP, for separate audio program). This means that the VCR has a TV tuner capable of decoding stereo broadcasts from TV channels, such as much of the networks' prime-time programing and numerous PBS concert broadcasts. If you're hooked into a cable-TV system, however, check with your cable company to find out if it is sending the MTS signal over the cable---fewer than half the companies are as yet equipped for this. If your VCR can't get the MTS signal, you may still want to invest in an MTS VCR for when the cable company emerges from the Dark Ages.

Your safest bet in a VHS-format VCR is a model that is packed with both VHS hi-fi and MTS. Just about every brand--- Panasonic, RCA, Quasar and others---has at least one model so equipped.

If the audio portion of the VCR gambit isn't confusing enough, a new set of letters, HQ (high quality), signals the beginning of a new age in video quality. Developed by JVC in Japan, HQ gives a noticeable boost to the clarity and sharpness of a recorded video image. Yet if you make a recording in HQ, the tape will still be playable on a friend's conventional VHS player. JVC was the first to bring HQ to the U.S., with its $899 Model HR-D566U, which includes VHS hi-fi and MTS stereo sound built in for one supersophisticated machine. Other brands will be following later this year, again at the high end. Look for the HQ someplace on the machine's front panel when shopping.

Portable video recording is becoming more convenient with the advent of the one-piece camera-recorder. Sharp's autofocus My Movie camcorder, for example, lets you make standard VHS tapes and review them in the field through an electronic view finder, so you're sure you got the shot you wanted. At home, just pop the tape into the VCR for everyone to see. My Movie (Model VC-ClOUA) lists for about $1900, but you should find it in some stores for much less. Another camcorder, General Electric's VHS Movie ($1400), is one of the lightest models on the market (5.6 pounds without the battery). It features a full two-hour-and-40-minute recording capability and has a Newvicon pickup tube.

Also check out the latest contender in the VCR-format battle, 8mm video. It gets its name from both the measured width of the tape in the audio-cassette-sized housing and the fact that it is likely to replace the 8mm home-movie cameras of yore. For now, 8mm video should appeal to anyone making home videos, because the cameras and recorders are usually packed together in an amazingly small one-piece camcorder. The tiny tapes can record up to two hours of video, and the picture quality is as good as that of a standard VHS or Beta portable unit. Better still, you can then edit the tapes onto standard tapes in either format, so your home deck doesn't automatically become obsolete.

Sony's well-publicized 8mm Handycam ($1800) is about the size of a paperback edition of War and Peace. The most intriguing component from its vast accessory array is the Marine Pack, a $600 housing that lets you take 8mm video tapes of underwater life as deep as 165 feet below the surface. When you get back on board, slip the cassette out of the Handycam and into an 8mm playback unit for an instant look at your piscatorial footage.

Sony is doing even more with 8mm video, such as building a compact 8mm recorder/player into the console of its $2200 KV-25VXR 25-inch color television. You can use the tape machine to time-shift off-the-air programs, just as with any VCR. This configuration and stand-alone tabletop 8mm models from Pioneer ($1450) and Kodak ($1000) reveal home video's direction by the end of the Eighties. The VHS format should remain strong for many more years, particularly due to the deep penetration in American households and the ready availability of prerecorded video tapes for sale and rent.

VCRs will also begin employing digital techniques, which already appear on a few television sets. In digital video, picture information is converted into signals similar to those flowing through a computer. Eventually, we'll have digital sets that store pictures in computerlike memory for freeze frames, enhance or adjust the color tints at our whim and display multiple pictures on one screen. In fact, Toshiba's M-6900 digital VCR stores frames for stills and slow motion on chips, eliminating the jiggle or noise lines you usually get from such VCR effects. It will go onto the market for less than $1000.

You don't have to buy a new TV set to get in on the digital act, however. Instead, you can add digital picture-within-a-picture capabilities to an existing TV with the MultiVision 3.1 digital tuner. This $399 remote-controlled device acts as two TV tuners for your set. When the 20th beer commercial comes on during the ball game, you can demote that channel to a small window in one corner of the screen while watching another.

While digital TV techniques will be built into higher-priced large-screen televisions, there's plenty of action in flatpanel television sets. After decades of promises, solid-state liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel TVs are coming of age. So far, the screens have been on the small side---less than three inches diagonally---and picture quality has been improving steadily. About the best black-and-white picture today can be found on Citizen's two pocket televisions, the 06TA (TV only) and 08TA (TV-and-FM-stereo-radio combo), which are reasonably priced ($100 and $159.95) for the first-rate technology inside their panels. And a breath-taking crisp-color LCD picture can be found on Panasonic's $299 Pocket Watch.

In the picture-tube department, Proton's new 27-inch television ($1400) sports the latest flat, square tube design, backed by impressive electronics for crystal-clear video and MTS stereo audio. There's even a connector for a red-green-blue (RGB) color input from an IBM Personal Computer. On the smaller side, Sharp's $400 three-and-a-half-inch mini color TVs have'a next-century pedestal design that looks great on an executive desk. In the midsize, there is RCA, with its first 20-inch square-cornered monitor/receiver incorporating stereo. In addition to built-in stereo, the receiver has SAP, 94-cable-channel tuning, autoprogramming and a ten-jack audio/video input panel for easy hookups. The price: $599.

As you can tell from the increasingly common blending of hi-fi sound and quality video, the distinctions between audio and video entertainment are blurring. In fact, while your audio and video gear used to be in separate rooms, today they are more often sharing a cabinet in a consolidated home-entertainment center. And, naturally, you want to control every element of your system by lifting no more than a finger or two. Fisher's Video Tech Mark 30 system comes with a hand-held remote control populated with an impressive array of buttons. It's like having long distance access to audio and video sources, channels and frequencies, fast forward and slow motion, and more programmability than you can imagine. The supersystem features a 40-inch rear-projection, TV, VHS hi-fi, MTS and HQ video cassette recorder, AM/FM stereo tuner, 20-band graphic equalizer, third-generation CD player and 150-watt stereo amp, all in one attractive cabinet. Controls on the remote are logically organized and clearly marked, so you won't need a copilot to fly this $6000 baby.

Tying together pieces of a full audio/video system consisting of speakers and listening areas in different rooms has been a costly proposition. And if the system consists of unmatched components, then remote-controlling the system from your easy chair without a handful of controllers has been essentially out of the question. That is, until intelligent, low-cost remote-control systems such as the Revox infrared (IR) transceiver system came along. By setting up tiny IR transceivers in each speaker-equipped room, you can control an FM tuner's channel, a CD player's track, a cassette deck's pause, the amp's volume and your preamp's source from a hand-held controller. The signals from the remote controls for the VCR and satellite receivers can be transmitted through the transceiver system. Wiring between rooms is as simple as stringing three-wire cable. The cost of the remote used for the music system is $125; transceivers are $95 each.

No gaze into the electronics crystal ball would be complete without a personal computer forecast. A glance at recent history reveals how volatile the industry is and how easily a computer can become an orphan in search of nonexistent software and repair facilities. Of the brands out there today, you can count on only a few to have the resources to sustain sufficient support for their machines. IBM, of course, will continue to be the volume leader in business micros. A few IBM PC---compatible makers, particularly the well entrenched Compaq computer, should also hang in there nicely. Apple's Macintosh enjoys a large-enough installed base and unique graphics features that will keep it in a smaller but consistent limelight in the foreseeable future. And with seven out of ten computing school kids working on an Apple II, it's not likely that this venerable machine will disappear for many years.

One way to avoid the obsolescence factor in a computer is to buy a dedicated machine that does one job you need and does it well, so you don't have to worry about new software or add-on products in the future. One such product, the $800 Magnavox Videowriter, is a compact, self-contained word-processing work station whose only cable is a power cord. As you type your text on the keyboard, the words appear on the built-in amber-colored display. You can then edit on the screen and print on plain paper and envelopes with the built-in printer capable of near--letter quality. As many as 70 pages of text can be stored on each three-and-a-half-inch diskette, and the built-in word-processing program features as 50,000-word electronic spelling checker.

So don't let advancing technology scare you away. When you get your latest electronic goody home, envelop yourself in its fine audio, video or computer abilities. Then remember that if you had waited for tomorrow's state of the art, you wouldn't have the pleasure you're enjoying today.