Washington is a medical ethicist and bioethicist whose attitude seems to be summed up in this quote from Thomas Browne;
“No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money changer.”

The Real Henrietta Lacks, unsung hero of Polio vaccine

Who owns our bodies? Apparently not us judging from consistent court rulings. In 1951 tumor cells were extracted without consent from cancer patient Henrietta Lacks for further study. These cells, known as Hela were propagated and sold over and over and are still available for research today. They have generated millions of dollars in fees and have underpinned research breakthroughs and treatments too numerous to mention although their contribution to the development of Salk’s polio vaccine stands out for special mention. Henrietta’s husband had refused to consent to the cell extraction and the family only learned that the Hela line was world famous in 1994 when a son was approached to provide his cells for additional study.

Alistair Cooke’s Body Snatched

Appropriation of body parts without permission continues unabated and is a huge business worth billions today. Among those appropriated without permission were Alistair Cooke, long time host of PBS’ Masterpiece Theater. Some of these bodies including children have found themselves used in auto manufacturers crash tests.

Burroughs Ginsberg writings overturned plant patent

Then in 1980 the Bayh-Dole act was passed to allow the commercialization of patents resulting from government sponsored research. In that same year, 1980, the supreme court ruled that life can be patented leading to a gold rush of patents in plant and animal life. Traditional remedies and medicines known for hundreds or even thousands of years have been patented. Few have been overturned by the courts. A 1980′s patent on a Brazilian psychedelic plant was overturned not because of the plant’s traditional and sacred meaning to a Brazilian tribe but to the 30 year prior writings of Alan Ginsburg and William S. Burroughs. Bio-colonialism is OK but prior documented western “discovery” can be used to invalidate a patent.

While the human genome project itself and its discoveries were placed in the public domain, subsequent work to isolate individual genes responsible for certain diseases were allowed to be patented. That’s right, Alzheimer’s, cancers, and many other deadly diseases are owned and controlled by patent holders. More than 50,000, almost a fifth of all human genes are now patented, more than 36,000 by a single French company, Genset. Many genes were allowed to be patented even though researchers don’t know the gene’s function. These genes patents more than any single cause have stymied, slowed down, or even blocked outright research into tests and treatments of many deadly diseases. At the very least they have dramatically increased the cost of doing research as huge patent licensing fees must be paid.

The pharmaceutical industry was once the most profitable industry ever to exist on the planet. It has now fallen to the third most profitable and profits are in free fall off the cliff. Why? Because drug companies no longer develop important life saving blockbuster drugs like the statins (Zocor is off patent and Lipitor’s patent is expiring), but put their efforts into “me too” drugs and life enhancing drugs like Viagra or cosmetics.

They also pour enormous efforts and resources into defending through litigation and extending their patents with such tricks as combining two drugs whose patents are expiring into a “new” patentable drug, or re-branding a drug for a new purpose such as patenting an existing drug under a new name with FDA approval for use by black people (whatever that means genetically) exclusively. Remember thalidomide the drug that caused all those birth defects back in the 1950s and 1960s. Guess what, thalidomide is back as a relabeled newly patented drug for the treatment of lepers.

It costs upward of $1 million to fight a patent infringement case involving drugs. To prevent “me too” drugs, companies file not only the drug they want to market, but every near derivative they can imagine. One drug patent was surrounded by 1300 similar drug patents to make “me too” drugs virtually impossible to produce. Adding to the mess, some drug patents are 400,000 pages long (not a typo) and the company requesting the patent pays most of the patent office costs. Sounds a lot like the relationship between the ratings agencies and the financial companies who pay them. Imagine litigating over a patent that no one can possibly read or understand.

What can happen once a patent is granted for a drug? One drug capable of eliminating sleeping sickness was never marketed for that purpose but was re-branded as a facial creme to remove women’s facial hair. Not enough money in sleeping sickness? Several effective cancer drugs were not marketed because of low projected revenues and the university inventors were unable to override the company decision. Those drugs sit on the shelf useless.

Available cancer drugs have been singularly disappointing resulting in an overall extension of average American lifespans a mere four months. Yet a single course of cancer drug treatment can cost $200,000 to $300,000 each. In one case, the Canadian health system, unable to reach an acceptable price agreement with the manufacturer, paid $218,000 for one Canadian patient to travel across the border for treatment in the US. We now learn that speculators often corner the market and horde these expensive drugs in order to hold doctors-patients-hospitals hostage for incredible additional markups. Oh the wonders of unfettered capitalism.

Unable to get American consents for drug studies, companies increasingly are testing drugs in Africa and Asia where they ignore consent requirements and feel free to use placebos where they would be required to use the best available treatments for their comparisons. That’s OK, their test subjects won’t be able to get the test drug anyway after the study ends. This is The Constant Gardener on steroids. See also The Body Hunters. And if the patients or their families sue with government help as in a case in Nigeria where 11 children died during a test and many other were disabled for life, the drug company “lost” all its records yet once a settlement was negotiated was able to identify its test subjects through DNA tests. Very mysterious record disappearance. The drug was never FDA approved fortunately.

But avoiding the need for consent is not limited to poor countries but is practiced domestically as well. One company had developed a blood hemoglobin substitute whose early tests showed up bad side effects. Needing another large clinical study to proceed the company came up with a novel idea. They kept supplies of the “blood” in EMT vehicles operating in whose areas contained mostly poor, primarily black and Hispanic populations. Whenever the EMT team picked up a patient who had lost blood they administered the artificial hemoglobin rather than the usual saline solution on the trip to the hospital. The company’s thin justification for avoiding the need for consent was that the subject was unconscious (sometimes), that no family members were present (sometimes) and that treatment was urgently required. (No, saline would have stabilized the subject til arrival at the hospital.) Once in the hospital, the company extracted blood samples three times a day for the study. If a subject asked why they were told it was a normal part of their treatment. In other words the subjects were never informed that they were in the study, of the known risks and side effects of their treatment, they were lied to throughout. The FDA did not approve the hemoglobin substitute.

For those that think the horrors of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments on black soldiers is ancient history, think again. After the military grade anthrax samples were mailed to important congressmen and newsrooms, a drug company rushed to develop a vaccine for anthrax. While the vaccine was in testing and after significant problems such as loss of vision and hearing and miscarriages had already surfaced, the DOD determined to vaccinate more than 100,000 troops with the non-FDA approved drug. Thousands of soldiers refused and were dishonorably discharged from service at great cost to themselves and the military. A pregnant soldier asked to be transferred but her commanding officer not only denied the transfer but forcibly had her vaccinated as an example. She miscarried. The FDA never approved the vaccination but the soldiers learned they had no legal recourse either against the military or the drug company. Today thousands of former soldiers suffer from the side effects.

Also on the subject of bio-colonialism, researchers are increasingly descending on isolated groups of people whose isolation give them a limited gene pool and therefore makes them useful for isolating particular disease’s genetic causes. Thus Easter Island, Hawaiians, a 2000 year old group of Jews in India are recruited for studies for which they are unlikely to benefit. An interesting example is Iceland where an Icelandic researcher formed his own company and set out to collect samples and information promising financial rewards and medical breakthroughs beneficial to Icelanders. Icelanders love genealogy and can track their ancestry often back to a Viking. They also keep extensive medical records tracing back for generations. Thus the researcher was able to put together a uniquely valuable data base with cell samples. Unfortunately breakthroughs and profits eluded him and the company fell into bankruptcy where control of the valuable data was lost. The information has now been sold to drug companies and insurance companies (Did you know your disqualifying pre-condition originated with some ancient viking?) The possible horrors are hard to contemplate.

While government grants still fund the vast majority of research on disease and treatment, the drug companies have dominated the control and marketing of the resulting breakthroughs. Drug companies also include the government subsidies when justifying high drug prices. A Pharma sponsored study put the average cost per drug at $800 million which they round to a billion in talking points. Ralph Nader’s group, using Pharma’s own numbers puts the actual cost at about $100 million, still serious money.

The patenting mess has drawn the universities and other institutions into a dependency on marketing their patents and research that has totally compromised their role as independent investigators. One researcher assembled the worlds most valuable collection of cells and materials to study Alzheimer’s only to see his University of Washington sell the collection to Pfizer. He and his subjects were unable to reverse the sale. In one court case, Duke argued that their university researchers should be protected in their investigations only to have the court rule that since Duke patents research and sells licenses they are indistinguishable from any other corporation and their employees cannot be expected to have special privileges. Universities are no longer special. Further, virtually all researchers whether in the University or elsewhere are on the take from the drug companies.

Professional journals such as JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine have been compromised to the point they are little more than paid drug ads. Journal articles are ghost written by drug employees with the named authors having no access to the underlying research numbers. Because everyone qualified is on the take, independent peer review of articles is no longer possible. The big danger in all this is that drug companies are able to hide and lie about the actual clinical trial results and cover over or minimize side effects. Thus doctors who rely on journals to keep up with medical advances are mislead as to the true risks of the drugs they prescribe.

Even worse, doctors are on the take to the tune of $6 billion a year with an additional $2 billion in junkets. How can a patient rely on a corrupted doctor’s recommendations for treatment?

Drug companies also contribute financially to the FDA’s operating costs. This gives them the power to remove FDA officials who may oppose approval. The FDA has moved from denying approval of questionable new drugs to requiring larger warning labels as if this will prevent or limit the drug’s inappropriate use. When a drug is pulled by the FDA it often is re targeted and relabeled and reintroduced with FDA approval such as the infamous thalidomide.

Lula da Silva announces Brazil’s HIV march-in

Governments all have the ability to require “compulsory licenses” for critical drugs like those for HIV. Brazil shocked Pharma in 2007 by announcing a compulsory license for Merck’s HIV efavirenz. India has long ignored drug patents and have become proficient as reverse engineering patented drugs. Brazil’s action has set off a chain reaction among other governments causing the drug industry to start to rethink its pricing policies for poor countries. In the last 20 years only 4 drugs have been developed for diseases unique to poor countries. One of those is sold only as a vaccine for visitors to those poor areas not for the residents themselves.

The Gates Foundation, WHO, and other groups are experimenting with a new model where entire governments in poor countries guarantee a market for a drug to treat diseases like sleeping sickness or malaria. It is hoped the guarantee will finally induce drug companies into manufacturing drugs for these diseases. International organizations are also encouraging drug companies to think of pricing tiers for poor countries and are helping to police the illegal re-importation of the cheap drugs. The actions of Brazil and India are encouraging this trend but counter pressures come from WTO attempts to enforce intellectual property rights, i.e. patents.

There have also been a few cases where gene patents have been overturned, most famously for the seven ovarian cancer patents on the genes BRAC1 and BRAC2. This case has been appealed and will likely end before the supreme court. Still this temporary limited victory gives Washington hope that things might be reversing and ever optimistic, she looks forward to the day when Bayh-Dole will be eliminated and the plant and animal and gene patent rulings reversed. Dream on. At least patents expire after twenty years unless companies figure cleaver ways to extend them so research and development may be able to resume after this wasteful interregnum.

We are a two PC household who were early adapters of cable broadband Internet. Cox wants $8 for each extra PC so we set up one PC with a primary Ethernet connection to the cable modem and a second Ethernet connection to the second PC. This setup meant that cox could only see the primary PC. The downside was that the primary PC had to be turned on and working for the second PC to access the Internet. This was done in the dark ages when an Ethernet card cost less than $10 and a router cost a lot.

Cox then upgraded their broadband to tiers of service with 600KB, 1.5MB, and 7MB. Our prices kept going up but we weren’t told that we were now paying for 7MB service which our old modem couldn’t handle. The modem finally went flaky and we got a hold of a helpful technician at Cox who told us we needed a newer modem that was compatible with the newer tiered services. We purchased and installed the new modem ourselves. The technician had told us of Cox’s Las Vegas Data Transfer Test that measures the actual data transfer rates of a broadband connection. We decided to save $20 a month and dropped to the 1.5MB tier.

DLINK EBR-2310

Next, our oldest PC, an IBM, died, taking the hard disk and granddaughters’ pictures and movies with it, so we bought a new HP desktop with a 19 inch LCD monitor with built in speakers for under $500. The new PC came with Microsoft’s Vista Premium operation system. We decided it was time to upgrade our Ethernet setup to a DLINK wired router which can be purchased now for under $20 and allows us multiple PCs with a single Cox connection. Our second PC was running windows 2000 Professional. Getting Vista and Windows 2000 to network was the first major obstacle and I don’t recommend anyone try it. Microsoft’s Internet site is less than helpful, even their developers site and I am a retired professional. The second major obstacle was Vista’s security system. Routers have built in firewalls which you should turn on. Turn off the firewall on your PC. If you don’t the router and PC get into wars.

The new HP computer came with a trial security suite from a major vendor who will remain unnamed. This software went to war with Microsoft immediately, even with the firewall turned off. Dump this software. Cox offers its customers its own security suite supplied to Cox by a major security vendor. Its anti-virus and anti-spy-ware features appear to work well, but turn off its firewall or you’ll be back to the wars again.

I use the HDTV as the monitor for the second PC and wanted to watch instant movies from Netflix. Netflix only supports XP or Vista running Microsoft Explorer so I decided to upgrade the PC to a dual boot Vista Windows 2000 system. Microsoft has grown increasingly paranoid about software piracy and looking for installation help on the Internet is to enter a battleground between Microsoft and its users who the company seem to view as a bunch of hackers and thieves out to break their system and steal their precious flaky software. Hence, the ground keeps shifting and Microsoft now insists on being able to on-line activate (or not or to deactivate an already active system) and monitor your software forever. Its pretty scary knowing that big brother Microsoft may disable your PC at any time at their slightest whim.

After some study on the Internet, I learned that Microsoft is up to new tricks in licensing. They now offer a single machine OEM license at slightly lower prices. The fine print says that once this OEM software is installed, it is wed forever to that particular piece of hardware to the extent that if you change as few as three component peripherals on the PC the software may be disabled. The educational version requires so much proof that you are associated with an educational institution that I wonder anyone tries to buy it. Will Microsoft disable your PC if you change jobs or retire? The Vista Premium upgrade version is available to anyone currently running XP or Windows 2000 Professional (if you are not running the Professional version forget it).

Vista Home Premium Upgrade

Being budget conscious, I purchased a “new” copy of Vista Premium Upgrade on Ebay for $51 (it can retail for up to $200), about the same price as the educational version (pretty stupid huh?). The seller claimed it had never been installed (activated) and PayPal guarantees they will refund your money if you return the product within 7 days. So I received Vista in its original box and set about installing it. I was terrified Microsoft would try to destroy my Windows 2000 Professional (OEM) installation and all its software including my Microsoft Visual Studio .NET while “upgrading”, but I finally figured out how to install Vista on a separate hard drive and get it to leave the Windows 2000 alone. But when I tried to activate Vista online Microsoft refused to do so. I guess maybe the seller had installed and activated Vista before selling it on Ebay. Rather than immediately returning the package, I decided to try Microsoft’s manual activation procedure which involves Microsoft generating a long series of numbers which must be some combination of Vista’s product id and information identifying your specific PC. You then call an operator (in India judging by the Hinglish accent) who you read the numbers to and try to convince you have come by Vista legitimately. Microsoft makes you feel like a criminal out to defraud them. Fortunately, I succeeded, telling her honestly I had purchased Vista on Ebay and she allowed me to activate the software, probably simultaneously deactivating the seller’s copy if he was still using it.

NetGear WGR614

Our son has a new Toshiba laptop computer with Vista premium which a friend tried to connect to Cox Broadband Internet with a refurbished Linksys wireless router. They couldn’t get it to work and I determined that the router had broken once again, so I picked up a NetGear for less than $30. It has the same problem with firewall wars as the Dlink and when I deactivated the Microsoft firewall and removed the trial security software replacing it with Cox’s, the wireless router started working properly and the laptop can be used from anywhere in the house.

The problems with firewalls and security software needs to be highlighted in the installation instructions for routers and PCs. It took awhile and some trial and error to figure out the problems.

After two iterations of trying to figure out the new wild west world of video, I thought some might appreciate a little of what I found helpful as most introductions are not. For more details and numbers see Wikipedia.

Desert Traveler

SHAPE OF SCREEN
The old analog TV had a standard width to height ratio of 4:3. The new HDTV has a standard width to height ratio of 16:9. All standard TVs of either type must conform to these shapes. Both formats are measured diagonally; because of their different width to height ratios a 25 inch 4:3 TV has a screen roughly the height of a 32 inch 16:9 HDTV and a 27 inch 4:3 TV has a screen roughly the height of a 37 inch 16:9 HDTV.

BROADCAST STANDARDS
The old analog standard of broadcast is the NTSC which mandates 525 scan lines, constant since 1953 and broadcast in the VHF frequencies. Starting Feb. 17, 2009 the FCC has mandated that NTSC broadcasts cease forever. Cable and satellite providers will continue to support 4:3 analog TVs with their converters for some time but they can be expected to slowly pressure subscribers to switch to HDTVs.

The new digital High Definition standard is the ATSC that mandates three broadcast formats 1080i with 1080 vertical pixels; 720p, with 720 vertical pixels, and for backward compatibility with 4:3 ratio material the 480i with 480 vertical pixels. The first sets were available in 1998 and broadcasts are in the UHF frequencies.

CABLE AND SATELLITE STANDARDS
There are no HDTV broadcast standards for either cable or satellite other than displaying images with a 16:9 shape. This means that the customer has no way of knowing how much actual resolution is being broadcast for so called “HD” channels. The FCC doesn’t care. Knowing that both media have limited bandwidth, and judging by the programming I have seen, the actual resolution looks pretty limited, I would guess something significantly less than 720i. The actual resolutions are closely guarded secrets.

PHYSICAL RESOLUTION
Each HDTV has a “native resolution”, the actual number of pixels contained in the unit. Each pixel also has a number of bits allocated per pixel to display the color. Most units have been built with less than 1080 vertical pixels because of hardware and price considerations. Our Samsung has 1360 x 768 pixels with 32 bits per pixel for color, typical in cost effective units today. Still, it is easy to see the difference between 1080i and 720i broadcasts on this set even if there are only 768 vertical pixels available on the screen. Technology purists love 1920 x 1080 physical pixel displays and pay dearly for the privilege.

TECHNOLOGY
There are four major types of HDTVs. Plasma and LCD have virtually the same characteristics today. Both are rated to last 20 years although, of course, this claim cannot be proved today after only 10 years actual experience. The LCD units are getting larger and use slightly less power. DLP projection units are being widely hyped today and they are a little less costly than LCD or Plasma. What they don’t tell you is that the lamp is rated for three years and costs $300 plus the labor cost of replacement. A lot of buyers are in for a big surprise down the road. The least developed technology is the old fashioned tube in a 16:9 shape. Once the analog NTSC sets are obsoleted next year, the tube companies can be expected to put all their energies into producing HDTV tube sets. Today HDTV tube sets remain a limited novelty.

SPECIFICATIONS
Specs are important but the most important consideration is to buy a unit that meets your own requirements. The screen size depends on how far you expect to sit from the screen. At 6 feet, a 32 inch screen equals a much larger screen seen from 15 feet away. LCD and Plasma sets appear less bright than tube TVs. Good brightness and contrast specs are desirable but more important is being able to control the light in the room. LCD and Plasma pictures also slowly disappear as the viewer moves off to the side (the viewing angle) until no picture can be seen at all. The importance of viewing angle depends on what angle you need to be able to view the picture clearly from various parts of the room. Response times are mostly important to gamers with 5-8 Ms response being adequate.

51 Elements Ready for Takeoff – 100 Miles to Tucson

ANTENNAS
Taking advantage of over the air broadcasts is important when picture quality is actually higher over the air than is available from cable or satellite. Unlike analog broadcasts where picture quality degrades with snow and ghosts, HDTV ATSC broadcasts are either received perfectly or not at all. This reverses some of the rational for getting cable or satellite as the only means of receiving a clear picture. Like cellular telephones, the number of bars representing signal strength is important. You need a bunch of bars to be able receive the ATSC program. To take advantage of the superior quality programming of over the air broadcast, you will need an appropriate antenna. This may not be as easy as it sounds and judging from the number of visible antennas in Phoenix, most people haven’t tried or haven’t succeeded in getting an antenna to work. We read that the major networks (owning TV towers and frequencies) expect to recapture market share from satellite and cable once all have converted to ATSC. Judging from the lack of antennas in the stores selling HDTVs in Phoenix, the networks better figure out how customers are expected to switch back to over the air broadcast of HDTV. The good news is that the UHF antennas will be smaller than VHF or VHF-UHF antennas.

My own experience is instructive. Our son is 6 1/2 miles from the Phoenix TV Towers mountain which you can see from his roof. A simple $30 antenna, without amplifier, mounted in his attic provides perfect reception of ATSC channels. Our house is less than 5 miles from the TV tower mountain but the entire distance is one big range of mountains and we get no signal with any antenna. We installed the biggest antenna we could find (Lowes) above our roof, supplemented by a 12dB signal amplifier pointed to the TV towers in Tucson, 98.4 miles away. With this setup we receive perfect ATSC broadcasts. Total cost was about $100. (Best of all, we avoid the Cardinal NFL Phoenix blackouts!) The lesson is don’t give up even if you need to hire a professional antenna specialist to help you. The result is free broadcast 1080i reception of all PBS, significant sports and other events, to say nothing of crystal clear soap operas. For information about the distance and direction of ATSC broadcast sites from your residence see AntennaWeb.

PC and MAC MONITOR
The HDTV makes an excellent PC or Mac monitor. I use the Samsung as my only monitor today. Combined with broadband Internet (our Cox gives us 1.5 MB downloads), you can see Internet Video and full movies (NetFlix has 6000 titles for instant viewing) on a full size TV screen. The Netflix downloaded movies are lower resolution than DVD but are perfectly adequate for most movies). Material from utube or TV programs like Charlie Rose can be viewed on demand with a size larger than on your normal PC monitor.

DVD HD DVD and BLU-RAY
Each new step forward in movie formats is accompanied by competing standards; VHS had to compete with Sony’s BetaMax; DVD (4.7GB-8.5GB) had to compete with DIVX; HD DVD (15GB-30GB) and Blu-Ray (25GB-50GB Sony) both record movies in a 1080p format. Few titles are available from Netflix, Hollywood, or Blockbuster today in either HD format. Until a winner emerges, players are designed and priced for early adapters. Blockbuster and Walmart have announced they are dropping HD DVDs and Toshiba looks like they are giving up HD DVD players (after selling a million of them). Blu-Ray players now start at about $250, but for now it is best to stay with DVD but look for progressive scan and support for 1080i compatibility. Don’t spend a more than $80 unless you want surround sound.

SOUND
Stereo is the starting point for HDTV and DVD sound. HDTV models typically support the Dolby Digital (AC-3) format up to “5.1″ surround sound. ATSC Broadcasts as well as DVDs support everything from stereo to Dolby 2.1 through 5.1. To get the full benefit of the available sound, you might want to invest in a surround sound system usually packaged with a DVD player. Surround sound is what most people mean by home theater. Surround sound requires 4 corner speakers (front, rear, left, right), 1 center speaker, and 1 woofer. This means wires all over your viewing room. Using your surround sound system with a stereo broadcast sounds like you are in an echo chamber so use it only when Dolby is broadcast. The built in HDTV speakers are usually adequate for stereo. Use sound output connectors on your HDTV to send ATSC broadcast Dolby sound to your surround sound system. A surround sound system with DVD player supporting progressive scan and 1080i compatibility should cost under $200.

INFO BROADCAST
ATSC specifies that information describing the resolution (1080i, 720i or 480i), sound (stereo, Dolby 2.1 through 5.1), call letters, and usually a name and description of the show, be broadcast along with the picture itself. This allows the viewer to easily discover the quality of the broadcast and take advantage of surround sound if it is broadcast.

CONNECTORS
Connecting your DVD, VHS, cable, or satellite converter, HDTV, sound system, PC, etc. can be challenging to say the least. The old coax connector in the HDTV is relegated to the antenna cable. Newer connectors include the component (using 3 RCA cables for red green blue) and S-Video (4 wire). Neither component nor S-Video carry sound so 2 additional RCA cables are needed for left and right sound. DVI and HDMI are new connectors that support both video and sound eliminating the need for additional RCA sound cables. Cables can be purchased to convert DVI to HDMI and vice versa. The PC or Mac can be connected using the traditional 15 pin eVGA connector. Sound may be connected through your HDTV with a mini stereo jack (like your headphones) cable. Some PCs and Macs may also have built in DVI connectors.

HDTV PRICES
Prices are steadily, if slowly dropping for HDTVs. Over the last holiday season several 32 inch LCD models were sold for $500. Their specs didn’t look too bad but they were untested by major labs so they are a bit unknown. One was built by AKAI. Top rated Consumer Reports 32 inch LCD units were available from $700 and the always premium priced but highly rated Sony units sold for $850-900. Sharp now has a 1920 x 1080 resolution 1080p 32 inch LCD unit for as low as $900.The magic number has been $400 for mass market takeoff but I don’t know when this will happen.

NOTE: NTSC 4:3 analog TVs now typically come equipped with component and S-Video connectors for hookup to newer DVD and VHS players, and to cable and satellite converters. Prices are falling fast and for good reason.