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To: VINTHO who wrote (27274)	12/30/1997 3:51:00 PM
From: Stoctrash	Respond to of 50808

DVD Diversifies popsci.com Digital versatile disc (DVD) players are about to shrink in size and go mobile, to judge from the variety of new models and prototypes displayed in Tokyo during the recent Japan Electronics Show. Panasonic's new DVD portable with wide-screen LCD monitor is minuscule and trŠs-cool in a clamshell-style design. The DVD-L1 is only slightly larger than the 4.75-inch discs it displays, and it runs on battery or AC power. Stereo speakers flank the 6-inch-diagonal, 16:9-ratio wide-screen active-matrix LCD; the display's brightness stood up well under the harsh lights of the Makuhari exhibit hall. The player can also be connected to larger TV displays. Either way, both 16:9 wide-screen and standard 4:3 pictures can be displayed. Price and delivery date have yet to be determined. Equally transportable but without a screen is Toshiba's SD-P410 (about $625; U.S. availability to be announced). Like Panasonic's offering, it's a top-loader. More to the point, the 2-inch-thick charcoal-colored 2-pounder is designed for easy deployment among different TVs in the home or while you're on the go-and uses a Walkman-type miniplug cable for quick connections. A credit-card-size remote control completes the road-show motif, and built-in Spatializer 3D audio provides the surround sound that a vacation-home TV setup might lack. Flexible if not so transportable are minicomponent-size DVD configurations from Pioneer and Sharp. The latter's deck has the 230mm (about 9 inches) width designed to match today's popular shelf-top mini-stereo systems-and the high-resolution component-video outputs and image-enhancing circuitry that will make the most of the picture from tomorrow's digital TVs. It arrives here this spring; the price is yet to be determined. Pioneer, meanwhile, builds a DVD player (which also spins music CDs) right into a complete audio/video minisystem (Model FX5-DVD, about $1,650)-including a MiniDisc recorder for digital audio. How mobile can you get? How about DVD in your car, complete with dash- or console-mount wide-screen LCD monitors. Several companies will offer such systems, in- cluding Panasonic, Pioneer, and Sharp-but you may have to go all the way to Japan to see them. These systems are actually meant for car navigation, with detailed road maps stored on DVD, but they could keep the kids entertained with feature fare during holiday long hauls to Grandmother's abode. Pity is, the concept's a legislative long-shot in the litigious United States-driver-viewable displays are potentially hazardous. But even if it were here now, no navigational maps are yet available for DVD, and CD-ROM maps don't work in DVD drives. -- Stephen A. Booth Article Resources About Popular Science How to Contact Us Subscription Information Copyright c 1997 Popular Science, a division of Times Mirror Magazines.