NEW GEAR

Seems like a new portable video player drops from the sky every few minutes these days, but RCA's latest video Lyra has something worth catching: DirecTV2Go, which later this year will let you offload recorded programs from DirecTV PVRs to watch on the Lyra's 3.625-inch screen or any TV you hook it up to.

As convenient as it is to have music and video on things like iPods and cell phones, there are always times when you want some seriously big sound. That's where the Zvox Mini portable speaker ($200) can help.

Yes, it's two, two radios in one: the style is retro, but the technology is Space Age. Debuting at the Consumer Electronics Show and set for a spring launch, this tabletop model from Crosley offers AM and FM, but it's the company's first product equipped for XM satellite radio - hence its name, Explorer 1 ($250).

You've gotta wonder what Freud would say about all these TV makers trying to outdo each other with the biggest screen. Then again, you also have to admit that an 80-inch plasma TV is never just an 80-inch plasma TV - not when it's the biggest you can get. Taking plasma into the 80s is the (holy crap!) $150,000 Samsung HP-R8082, whose screen has 1,920 x 1,080 pixels.

Sony has re-established itself as a visionary TV maker with its SXRD models (see "Editors' Choice"), a variation of the difficult-to-manufacture LCoS technology. The first SXRD front projector, the Qualia 004, cost about $30,000.