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HDTV, also known as digital TV, doesn't just stand for High Definition these days — it stands for Huge Disappointment, Heinously Delayed, and Humongous Down Payment. The first digital HDTV sets to roll into stores are absurdly pricey (ranging from around $5,000 to as much as $25,000), there's precious little high-def broadcasting available as yet, and there's still been no formal roll-out of high-def cable service (standards aren't locked in). So if you're hungry for a visual upgrade and have money to spend, you might focus instead on a new pair of non-digital TVs from Sony.
Lumpily christened the FD Trinitron Wega (pronounced VAY-guh) XBR200 line, the new sets are the first virtually flat ''tube'' TVs ever and are available in two screen sizes, 32-inch (typically $1,800 in stores) and 36-inch ($2,400). Why pay that? Because the Wegas can take any existing analog image sources, from low-end VHS to broadcast to DVD, and tweak their definition — right out to the farthest corners — more pleasingly than any non-HDTV set I've seen. Since TV, cable, and video are sure to stay predominantly analog for at least several years, why not savor analog's last stand?
Watching Ally McBeal on a 32-inch XBR200, I swore I saw Calista Flockhart's collarbone protruding ever so slightly more with each passing week and saw the faintest sign of blue blood pulsing through veins in her pale forehead. During ER, I deciphered tiny signs I'd never noticed before: ''Please turn pagers and cell phones off,'' read one near the OR (now, that's detailed set decoration). The best DVDs, like The Wizard of Oz, looked thrillingly three-dimensional, with black shadows so deep and dark it's hard to figure out how a screen that's gray when it's off could produce them. Thanks to the flat screen and squared-off edges, movies watched on it also feel thoroughly cinematic — yet with so much detail and color that a Wega beats most multiplex projectors.
Major caveat? Two words: big backside. Despite misleading illustrations in brochures, the Wega's chassis isn't remotely slim. The 32-inch-diagonal-screen version is nearly 2 feet deep, making it the Jennifer Lopez of TVs. The 36-inch model weighs more than 200 pounds, enough to buckle many a particleboard stand. But hey, it's worth upgrading the furniture. It may weigh a ton, but the image quality of a Wega is enough to make you light-headed.
