Gift-Box Derby

Musical Roots or Branches? New Video's Roots of Rhythm ($39.95), hosted by Harry Belafonte, repackages a 1990 three-hour PBS documentary on the history of Latin music, while Kino's four-tape Hollywood Rhythm ($89.95) collects 31 proto-MTV musical shorts made by Paramount between 1929 and 1941. Our recommendation: With Belafonte declaiming in front of cheap-video backdrops, Roots is strictly for musical anthropologists. Hollywood Rhythm is the real deal: Stuffed with rare film appearances (Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith), rising-star cameos (Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers), and gonzo mini-productions featuring jazz greats (Armstrong, Ellington), the shorts should appeal to anyone with an interest in historical pop or weird Hollywood.

French People Sublimating Sex via High-Minded Chat or British People Sublimating Sex via High-Minded Chat? Of course, some people think good conversation is better than sex, in which case they're ripe for either director Eric Rohmer's six Moral Talesfrom the 1960s and '70s, issued as a boxed set by Fox Lorber ($79.98), or the recent BBC-filmed Pride and Prejudice six-tape set from A&E Home Video ($99.95) — or a copy of 9 1/2 Weeks and a can of Reddi Whip. Our recommendation: Rohmer classics like Claire's Knee and My Night at Maud's are wonderful in single doses, but five tapes of wall-to-wall subtitles could induce grand mal seizures. The five-hour Pride, however, is one of the best of the recent Jane Austen adaptations: funny, heartfelt, knowing, and grounded by an Elizabeth (Jennifer Ehle) and a Darcy (Colin Firth) who make wisdom seem sexy.

Discreet Rock Kitsch or Blatant Rock Kitsch? MGM/UA has finally done the King proud — but it depends on how big a piece of the kingdom you want to give. The 18 slices of Day-Glo celluloid cheese known as Elvis Presley movies are available in three different formats, and your choice will depend upon whether you're a cash-starved redneck (three 4-tape sets, $44.92 each), nouveau-riche rockabilly (two 9-tape sets, $134.92 each), or rhinestone cowboy (all 18 films, a booklet, photographs, and the Jailhouse Rock script in a guitar case, $350). Our recommendation: The four-packs make the best budgetary sense, especially volumes 2 (featuring two of the singer's least campy forays, Jailhouse Rock and Kid Galahad) and 3 (which includes Viva Las Vegas). On the other hand, nothing quite says ''Love me tender'' like a guitar case full of El under the pink plastic Christmas tree.

Mary or Bob? For the cash-conscious shopper, New Video's repackaging of two 1970s sitcom classics presents a Solomonic dilemma. To wit, how can one possibly choose between the seven-tape Very Best of the Mary Tyler Moore Show ($99.95) and the six-tape Very Best of the Bob Newhart Show ($79.95)? Our recommendation: We'll get letters on this one, but we stand by Bob. The Mary Tyler Moore Show defined its era, but it's also pretty dated by it, whereas Newhart's crystalline wit is as timeless as Peter Bonerz's bell-bottoms are passe. You really can't go wrong with either box, of course, and in terms of TV history, both are fascinating: With two episodes from each season, you get pilots, series closers, and ragged but right production values that make sitcom descendants like Friends seem unbearably slick.