Upgrade Your Home Entertainment

TV aficionados have a number of things to look forward to this year, as vendors are poised to upgrade everything from HDTVs to set-top boxes to recorders for both the living room and the PC. That means bigger screens, better color quality, and more choices in recording and viewing your favorite shows.

TVs are getting some of the more significant upgrades. To start with, Sharp's splashy demonstration of a whopping 108-inch prototype LCD set further cements the notion that LCD can compete with plasma at the largest screen sizes, says Eric Haruki, IDC research director for digital TVs.

Sharp's new plant, which produced the megaunit, can also make cheaper 46-inch and 52-inch LCDs. The upgraded capacity drives down prices at those sizes, Haruki adds. When Sony and Samsung open their own next-generation LCD plants later this year, that downward price trend will continue.

Also look for HDTVs with 120-Hz refresh rates (60 Hz and 75 Hz are standard currently) and HDMI 1.3 connections. The higher refresh rate will offer better clarity; Philips, Samsung, and Sharp are readying such sets. HDMI 1.3 provides more throughput, which enables improved color fidelity (Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and other vendors have these new HDTV sets).

This spring and summer, you'll also start to see TVs and set-top boxes with CableCard slots. The Federal Communications Commission mandated that set-top boxes shipping after July 2007 come with the cards. The technology will let you choose a set-top box you like--with the storage and processing power you prefer--so that you aren't bound to the device that your cable or satellite Service provider gives you.