Video wars; Couch potatoes have more choices than ever; luckily, it's hard to make a bad one>Digital battle waging in the home theater

Remember when shopping for television sets meant deciding between the 19-inch and 27-inch model? When stepping up to better video meant chucking the cable TV and buying a satellite dish? How 1996. Thanks to technological innovation and falling prices, consumers today are being tempted by dozens of gizmos designed to make their TV watching more enjoyable. Home theater - that erstwhile luxury of videophiles - has become affordable to the masses. DVDs and TiVo have ganged up to make your VCR virtually obsolete. That's the good news. Now the rub: All these choices have made buying a TV as brain-racking as buying a PC. Do you go for widescreen or stick with the square-shaped projection set? Is progressive-scan DVD worth the extra money? If you can afford only one, do you get SurroundSound or a digital video recorder? And where do you keep all the remotes? Despite, or perhaps because of, all the choices, viewers are upgrading their TVs. Around Kansas City, dealers and installers of home theater systems report brisk sales. At least one dealer, George Wilson of Independence Audio & Video, traces the upswing to the 9/11 attacks, when people began stocking up on cocoon comforts. The market has even reeled in some reluctant buyers. Carole Damon of south Kansas City decided to trade in her 35-inch TV for a projection TV "in lieu of getting bifocals." Though she wasn't keen on spending a four-figure sum on a TV, Damon now admits she's loving it. Recently she added a nifty device to her new system - and this one didn't cost anything. Time Warner Cable selected some of its customers, including Damon and her two children, to beta-test a new video-on-demand system. Damon was told that the system, called On Demand, would be more convenient than pay-per-view - which she rarely used - because she could order the movie whenever she liked and start watching immediately. On Demand also lets Damon pause, fast-forward and rewind through a movie just like a DVD. Best of all, because the movie comes through her digital cable box, there's no video to return. On Demand is rolling out to all Time Warner Cable homes this month, so Damon will have to pony up $4 for each movie she wants to watch from now on. But as she sees it, she still saves money compared with the four-mile drive to the video store. "We have pretty much kept Blockbuster in business over the years with late fees," she says. Other consumers, like Carol Plummer of Overland Park, not only want convenience but a premium picture. For $1,900 - hundreds more than Damon paid for her big screen - Plummer bought an HDTV, or high-definition television, set. Compared with conventional displays, HDTV sets have more lines of video, so they produce sharper pictures. Plummer also sprang for a progressive-scan DVD player, which can cost twice as much as standard DVD players but is optimal for HDTV sets. Next Plummer traded in her old cable box for one that carries high-definition versions of HBO, Showtime and other channels. She recently caught an HDTV program airing on KCPT's digital Channel 18 and declared the picture quality "absolutely fantastic." High-definition TV is one of those things consumers have been hearing about for years. But most people haven't seen HDTV, except for a fleeting glance while passing through an electronics showroom. In fact, most of what airs on the high-def channels of HBO and Showtime isn't high-definition. So is buying a high-def system worth the added expense if there's not much HDTV to watch? Just ask Maurice Rosga, owner of a sleek, 69-inch Sony widescreen high-definition TV that comes with a stack of components 5 feet high. It's a home theater fit for a king. Rosga had it built into the framework of his custom-designed, 6,600-square-foot home in south Overland Park last year. Speakers throw booming SurroundSound to the back of his huge entertainment room. When Rosga watches the "Saving Private Ryan" DVD on his system, he says, "It's like the bullets are flying right by your ears." Rosga could have added a special $800 satellite box from DirecTV to get HDTV channels. Compared with the $40,000 he spent installing video into his home, $800 more was a pittance. Yet Rosga said no to HDTV - on his dealer's advice. "He said it's not ready," Rosga says. "And I don't like to waste money." In fact, the Consumer Electronics Association estimates that of the 3 million "HDTV-ready" sets in the United States, only 400,000 have the receiver needed for HDTV (extra cost: $250-$500). "Most people are using their high-definition sets to watch DVDs or play video games," says Sean Wargo, a senior analyst for the association. But is that a bad thing? DVDs may not be high-def, but they still look great on high-def screens. With their all-digital picture, durable format and only-on-DVD "extras," they have replaced HDTV as the killer app of digital video. More than 30 million U.S. households have DVD players. Compared with watching a movie on HBO, "the DVD is just a little sharper and clearer," says Mark Rosenau of Olathe, who owns a 92-inch projection set. They're about to get even more so. A trade publication last week reported that industry officials are hammering out the agreements that would have HD-DVD - that's high-definition DVD - players and discs ready by Christmas 2003. By then there should be a lot more HDTV programming on network television as well. The government recently obtained voluntary pledges from ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. The networks promise they will offer substantial amounts of HDTV or other unique digital programming starting this fall. Discovery is starting an all-HDTV channel, and HDNet, which was formerly available only to DirecTV subscribers, is now being offered to cable companies. Which means it is unlikely that HDTV is headed for the same fate as Betamax tape and the laser disc - well-known losers from previous video wars. There is one video war, however, that seems destined to drag on, and the battleground will be your coffee table. It's the war of the remote controls. Every new video device comes with its own remote, and more often than not it's incompatible with your other remotes. "It's rather confusing," says Carol Plummer, who now has three. Carl Roscoe, whose family has been selling TVs for 53 years, got so fed up with remotes that he started supplying some of his customers with a custom-programmed controller device. Every time the cable company re-jiggers its channel lineup, Roscoe has to send a techie out to dozens of homes to re-program the remotes. Some of Roscoe's customers, like Rosga, are still fending for themselves. His home theater came with an armload of remotes, including one that operates his 300-DVD changer. Even though he had only six discs loaded into the changer, Rosga couldn't get the remote to bring up "Saving Private Ryan" and its ear-popping battle effects. So we watched the new "Ocean's Eleven" DVD instead. The picture is spectacular. And the sound! It's like the martinis are flying right by your ears. To reach Aaron Barnhart, call (816) 234-4790 or visit the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. Coming attractions: DTV and HDTV Perhaps the least-understood yet most vital part of the video revolution is digital television, also known as DTV. Broadcasters already have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on DTV, yet few Americans have actually seen it. But someday we'll all be watching DTV; the government is ordering broadcasters to make the switch. DTV is a fundamentally different way of transmitting TV signals. The current method, in use since the 1940s, involves sending out sound waves in the form of analog signals. By contrast, DTV uses digital data - computer code - to make a TV signal far more versatile and colorful than anything you're watching now. There are many uses for DTV. The three best known: High-definition television. HDTV (not to be confused with DTV) creates images that are exquisitely sharp and lifelike, almost three-dimensional. HDTV also features a widescreen picture (what, you thought the DVD industry invented that?) and pulse-quickening Dolby 5.1 SurroundSound. Multicasting. Currently an entire broadcast frequency (6 megahertz) is needed to send out one TV channel. With DTV, broadcasters can squeeze several channels into that same space. WDAF-DT, as its digital channel is known, could split its signal to let baseball fans choose which of three games they want to watch. Datacasting. It's not only the picture: Broadcasters can embed all kinds of information into the DTV signal. A press of the remote might someday download "extras" related to, say, an "Alias" episode on KMBC-DT. There are 18 DTV formats, and stations can switch as they go - multicasting by day, airing HDTV by night. Right now, though, most DTV signals are barely on the air. KCPT-DT has been on since the late 1990s, but four other Kansas City stations just got their DTV signals going. And four others aren't even that far along. Worse, because there's a dearth of DTV programming available, these stations (with the occasional exception of KCPT) merely simulcast their regular channels in standard-definition video. These DTV stations are playing to an audience that is absurdly small. The Consumer Electronics Association estimates only 400,000 homes in the United States are actually equipped to tune in DTV signals. Based on that figure, probably less than 10,000 Kansas City area homes are able to watch DTV. This has created what the government's chief media regulator calls a "classic chicken-and-egg problem": People don't want DTV until there are DTV programs to watch, but broadcasters don't want to produce shows for DTV until there are more viewers. KMBC general manager C. Wayne Godsey says he is excited about DTV but adds: "We rely on people being able to receive that signal. Right now they can't." But there is good news, at least for those who own home theater systems: More high-definition DTV is on its way. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox have agreed to offer some of their most popular programs in HDTV, in addition to HBO, Showtime, Discovery and an all-high-definition channel called HDNet. (NBC affiliate KSHB and CBS affiliate KCTV won't have their DTV signals on the air until later this year.) If you already own a DTV-ready set, the easiest way to pull in these new channels is through a high-definition digital cable box. Time Warner Cable has distributed 1,600 of these boxes in recent months. Unfortunately Comcast won't be offering them locally until late this year or, more likely, 2003. The next-easiest route is to buy a high-definition satellite system from DirecTV or Dish Network. You could even put up rabbit ears and pull the DTV signals out of the air. Your dealer can help you decide which method works best for you. Finally, what if you don't own a DTV set and have no interest in widescreen this or digital that? Well, one day you'll have DTV, too. At a meeting today in Washington, federal officials are expected to pass a rule requiring every TV set sold in the United States to have a DTV receiver built in, starting in 2006. Video wars Digital Widescreen ($1,800 and up) The new standard in home theater More DVDs are being formatted for widescreen Someday HDTV will look great on it Until then, though, regular TV is either stretched or squished to fit VS Regular Big Screen ($1,000 to $1,400) Better value than widescreen Makes everyday TV shows look huge! Will show its age as more video goes widescreen Manufacturers starting to phase them out HDTV 5 times the resolution of regular DTV Dolby 5.1 surround sound Could revolutionize TV sports But many shows look fine in regular definition VS DTV Still better than today's garden-variety TV signals Multicasting offers more program choices But you can't use HDTV at the same time DVRs ($300 to $450) Save shows without the fuss of videotaping Pause and rewind live TV Set it once, catch every episode of your favorite show Pricey, and must fork over activation fee too VS VOD (Pay as you go) Movies, TV shows downloaded at touch of remote No new equipment; uses your digital cable box Nothing to return or rewind Selection of programs limited High-def cable HD cable box no extra charge from Time Warner Unlike satellite, cable carries local stations in HDTV Comcast customers out of luck for now Most movies not high-def; DVDs just as good VS High-def satellite DirecTV is only service carrying all-high-def HDNet EchoStar has 5 HD channels; plans 12 once it merges with DirecTV That is, IF it merges with DirecTV DVD ($60 and up) Big improvement over videotape Still a better value than progressive scan Save your money for HD-DVD VS Progressive Scan DVD ($120 and up) Much closer to film quality than regular DVD Smoother video, sharper freeze frames If you don't have a digital TV set, don't bother Surroundsound ($120 and up) Once a pricey add-on, now affordable Essential to the DVD experience Most family rooms designed poorly for SurroundSound VS Plain Old TV sound This one's a no-brainer. Just keep it down after midnight, OK? @ART CAPTION:Video wars @ART:Graphic (color) @ART CREDIT:Designed by JOHN SOPINSKI/The Kansas City Star @ART CREDIT:Reported by AARON BARNHART/The Kansas City Star @ART CREDIT:Source: Area stores, Dealtime.com @ART CREDIT:Graphics by JOHN C. SOPINSKI/The Kansas City Star