Elf-help for home theater. (Sight And Sound).(Buyers Guide)

Dear Santa,

The last time I wrote, I asked you for a home theater, and you brought me one with a fine cardboard stage and curtains, and puppets of the Three Little Pigs and the Wolf.

But that was a long time ago. Nowadays there's a different kind of home theater--the kind that makes video movies seem like real movies and can bring the opera right into your living room, with all the staging and the action. This year, I want one of those.

I'd like one of those new flat screens. They're the last word in hi-tech chic. The TV hangs on the wall like a picture and makes those bulky tube sets seem strictly yesterday. Of course, flat screens have been around ever since the first laptop flipped its lid. But only recently have they made their debut in video.

A fine choice of such flat-screen models, ranging in size from a desk-size 10inch model to a panoramic 60-inch wall-covering, is offered by Zenith, a long-established American company now making a spectacular comeback with designs that challenge all competition. For my room, their Model P42W22B 42-inch plasma wide-screen display monitor would do just fine. It's a mere three inches thick, and the only hefty thing about this slim rig is the price tag: $4,999.99

Everyone these days is jumping on the flat-screen bandwagon, and the usual stalwarts, such as Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic and Marantz, are trotting out a veritable parade of slim flat-screen models. Prices rise sharply with increasing screen size. For instance, Samsung offers 15-, 17- and 24-inch models priced respectively at $1,500, $2,100, and $7,000. The larger screens (upward of 30 inches) usually work on the plasma principle (using phosphor-coated screens with a life expectancy of about 20,000 hours), while the smaller ones have liquid-crystal (LCD) displays, which are good for six hours of television daily for twenty-seven years.

Most of the smaller models have built-in TV tuners to catch signals from the air, from cable or via satellite, and to channel signals from VCRs and DVD-players, while the larger wall screens usually require a separate tuner. All these screens can display high-definition images from DVDs and from HDTV broadcast, satellite and cable programs, where and when these are available. Consequently, they won't be obsolete in 2006, when our present, antiquated television system will be phased out by government decree, to be replaced by high-definition broadcasts. Meanwhile, these screens do wonders for DVDs, which deliver a far better signal than videotape.