If You Can’t Wait for TV to Evolve . . . : ‘High-definition’ is still in the future but you can have high quality now

Even casual observers are abuzz over high-definition TV--the sexy, blue-sky technology that promises wide-screen TV images as pristine as 35mm prints, along with digital sound, sometime in the mid-1990s.

But what are consumers to do in the meantime if they’re intent on getting the best picture possible with the technology available today?

There are audio/video systems on the market now that merge high-fidelity sight and sound into a true home theater experience, from new Improved-Definition TV sets to state-of-the-art digital sound processors that reproduce the acoustic environments of movie theaters and famous concert halls. Enhanced VCR features and the connoisseur laser-disc format offer further unprecedented home entertainment options. All of this, of course, doesn’t come cheaply.

Will today’s cutting-edge technology become obsolete when HDTV hits? One thing we know for sure about HDTV: the Federal Communications Commission ruled last September that future HDTV transmissions must be compatible with current equipment (the pictures will look great, but not high-definition--you’ll need a HDTV set for that).

“By all estimates, today’s gear will thrive side-by-side with HDTV well into the next century,” said Tom Lauterback, a vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based Electronic Industries Assn.

“We project that HDTV broadcasts will probably begin sometime around 1994 or ‘95,” Lauterback says. “And our studies show that HDTV sets will probably comprise only about 33% of all color TVs sold in the year 2003.”

If you’re interested in building the state-of-the-art home theater system, the place to start is with a good TV--or rather monitor/receiver, as they’re called these days. On the cutting edge we find Improved-Definition TV, the precursor to HDTV.

“With IDTV, the picture is much smoother and more film-like than regular TV,” says Paul Fredrickson, director of marketing for Philips, a company involved in developing HDTV and IDTV. “It looks much more solid, without the characteristic choppiness, shimmering and visible scan-lines we’e grown accustomed to.” The Vast Wasteland never looked so good.

What’s the secret? Simply, IDTVs display twice the number of video scan-lines (the horizontal light-beams that make up the picture) as regular TVs. Regular TV pictures consist of 525 scan-lines, but only half of them, every other line, flash on the screen at any given time. With IDTV, both “fields” of 262.5 lines--which normally alternate every 1/60th of a second--are kept on the screen at all times.

IDTVs--including 27- and 31-inch-screen stereo models from Philips ($1,800 to $2,900)--sport flashy features like digital picture-in-picture (PIP), which lets you watch two channels, or video sources, at once. Hit the PIP button and you can watch the Dodgers in the upper left-hand corner while a videocassette, or maybe the evening news fills the rest of the screen. If you can’t decide what to watch, the Philips sets will display freeze-frames of eight channels, and full-motion video from a ninth.

Maybe the best monitor/receiver on the market today, Sony’s new 27-inch IDTV ($4,000) offers a gaggle of high-tech goodies, including PIP, powerful stereo and Dolby Surround Sound.

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Which brings us to the subject of sound.

Dolby Surround Sound simply takes stereo a few steps further; instead of two channels of sound, SS offers four to six, from all directions. It’s the same technology that makes footsteps sound like they’re coming up behind you, or airplanes sound like they’re passing overhead in top-line movie theaters. To bring it home, just hook up a couple rear speakers, an extra front speaker for dialogue and maybe a sub-woofer for heavy bass. The TV’s stereo speakers take care of the rest.

“Surround is going to be the next big thing in video sound,” says Ron Estes, audio engineer for the “The Tonight Show” and one of the pioneers of TV-stereo sound. “Just about every movie on NBC, and most recent videocassette and laser-disc titles, are in Dolby Surround now.”

“The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With David Letterman” recently began broadcasting in SS; “Saturday Night Live” will soon follow suit, says Estes.

A handful of fine non-IDTV sets offer Surround Sound, including Pioneer’s SD-P502 ($4,200), a 50-inch rear-projection unit, and Panasonic’s 31-inch CTK-3190S ($2,500).

But you don’t need built-in SS to make your living room sound like Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome theater. Add-on processors--including the well-reviewed Lexicon CP-1 ($1,200) and Yamaha’s versatile DSP-3000 ($1,899)--offer this wrap-around wrinkle and more.

The Yamaha DSP-3000 can digitally synthesize 30 pre-set acoustic environments, including movie theaters and some of the world’s most famous concert venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Roxy on Sunset Boulevard. You can even digitally design custom acoustics--raise the ceiling, broaden the stage, make the hall empty or full.

“You should have seen the heads turn when we put on the Manhattan Transfer’s ‘Vocalese’ laser disc, then switched on the jazz-hall effect,” Phil Grieves, a former Yamaha USA engineer, says about the first DSP demonstration a couple of years ago at a Consumer Electronics Show. “People were completely amazed at how the acoustic nature matched the environment they saw on the screen and not the cavernous hall they were in.”

Dolby Surround and myriad other features--synthetic stereo for mono programs, circuits that improve video clarity, FM-stereo tuners, multiple inputs and outputs and more--are built into many new audio/video receivers in varying degrees. The ultimate in integrated sight and sound, an audio/video receiver is the unifying brain of an entertainment system.

Of course, the number of features is commensurate with price. For example, Pioneer’s VSX-9300 ($935) and Kenwood’s KR-V127R ($699) are feature-laden, high-wattage receivers with SS and an array of synthetic ambiance settings. They let you dub one video source to another, add FM-stereo simulcasts to videos and more, via remote control.

Then there’s the Big Kahuna among video-sound systems, Shure’s HTS Theater Reference System, at $9,600. For an ultimate home-theater experience, hook it to Vidikron’s top-of-the-line projection TV with a 10-foot screen ($5,700).

Any state-of-the-art home theater system would have to include a laser-disc player. Along with unmatched video quality and durability, laser discs feature CD-quality sound.

“Now that everyone has one or two VCRs, and many new laser discs have CD-sound, real video enthusiasts are looking to discs for their high-fidelity and collectibility,” says Paul Fredrickson, marketing director for Philips, the company that developed the laser-disc format. “It’s growing fast, probably helped along by the boom in CDs. Compact discs have made the public more aware of quality.”

Some titles sport juicy extras for film buffs. We’re talking additional audio tracks with scene-by-scene commentary and extra video tracks--such as those on special editions of “Citizen Kane” and “2001: A Space Odyssey”--that show original screenplay pages, story boards and more.

Some discs include lost scenes; a special release of “The Wizard of Oz,” for example, includes an unused number called “The Jitterbug.”

Not incidentally, laser discs average about $35--less than most new videocassette releases (the special-edition discs are upwards of $100, however). Compact-Disc Video singles--five-inch gold discs that hold up to 20 minutes of music along with a video clip--sell for about $10.

What about the laser disc players? Some top-line units, such as Pioneer’s CLD-3030 and Philips’ CDV488 (both $1,300), handle all forms of laser-read discs: audio-only CDs, CD-Videos, eight-inch laser-discs and full-length, 12-inch laser discs.

For all their virtues, laser-disc players are still playback-only units. To record favorite movies or to time-shift “The Wonder Years,” you’ll still need a VCR.

If the old $199 deck doesn’t cut it anymore, there’s a new generation of enhanced formats and digital extras to choose from. Widely considered the finest consumer VCRs, Sony’s Extended-Definition Beta decks ($1,950 and $3,300) sport state-of-the-art videotape resolution, superior editing features for home videos and stereo that’s a hair shy of CD sound.

“This is a very special product for a very special customer,” says Shinichi Takagi, president of Sony’s Consumer Video Division. “We call that person the ‘pro-sumer.’ This is a person who demands excellence in consumer video.”

Nearly as impressive--and perhaps indistinguishable from ED-Beta to non-buffs--the Super-VHS format offers enhanced video resolution that’s approximately 80% superior to regular VHS. Likewise, the new compact Hi-Band 8mm format is a quantum leap beyond 8mm. Because it’s compatible with recordings in regular VHS--the most pervasive VCR format, by far-- Super-VHS seems to be the most practical high-end format. Standard VHS tapes will play back in a Super-VHS machine, but Super-VHS recordings won’t do the same in a standard unit.

Aside from picture quality that surpasses broadcast-TV images, S-VHS decks pump out hi-fi stereo (same as ED Beta) and decode and record stereo-TV sound. Many of them offer wild digital effects.

Examples? The JVC HR-S8000U ($1,599) and Toshiba’s SV-970 ($1,600) have a “zoom” feature that magnifies portions of the picture, a “mosaic” feature that displays all available channels on the screen at once, picture-in-picture and broadcast-TV freeze-frame that can stop a careening “Miami Vice” speedboat in mid-careen.

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Can’t overlook the myriad accessories on the market. Even a modest stereo monitor/receiver can rock the house with excellent video speakers, like the add-on Bose Video RoomMates ($279), or NHT’s Model 1 bookshelf speakers ($250). These are excellent choices for a surround-sound system.

Tired of juggling stacks of remote controls? New unified remotes from Onkyo, General Electric, Magnavox and others can be programmed to operate every component in a home entertainment system--any make, any model. The price? From about $80 to $150.