Just as ReplayTV and Tivo are challenging conventional VCRs, the new MP3 Jukebox from ReQuest Multimedia may give home CD changers a run for their money. ReQuest Multimedia Inc. recently announced that it is now shipping the AudioReQuest Digital Music System TM. This is the first MP3-based home stereo component to reach the consumer market.

ADMIRAL TWIN - Mock Heroic (Universal) AVAIL - One Wrench (Fat Wreck Chords) BRENDA RUSSELL - Pan's Rain (Epic) BUSTA RHYMES - Anarchy (Elektra-EEG) CHRISTY MCWILSON - The Lucky One (HighTone)

ANNA AND THE KING (Fox Video), directed by Andy Tennant, is the 1999 latest screen version of the true-life adventures of Anna Leonowens in the 1860s court of the King of Siam. Jodie Foster is Anna here and Chow-Yun Fat is a most charismatic King. The film is gorgeous to look at but can't quite seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be a plausible tale of people who affect each other in incremental ways or a more conventional movie romance. The political subplot yields at least one excellent explosion for viewers of a mind to check out how the film impacts home audio equipment.

BACKLASH (aka JUSTICE), from Columbia/TriStar, was originally a made-for-TV movie. Directed by Joakim Ersgard, the thriller stars James Belushi, Charles Durning and Tony Plana in a tale of two lawyers on the run from drug-dealing mobsters and dishonest law officers. BICENTENNIAL MAN, from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, is a 1999 adaptation of a short story by Isaac Asimov and a novel by Asimov and Robert Silverberg, directed by Chris Columbus. Robin Williams stars (with Oliver Platt, Sam Neill and Embeth Davidtz) as a robot who yearns to become more human, achieving his heart's desire in increments over two centuries. It's important to remember that Asimov is largely the father of modern robotic fiction - otherwise, BICENTENNIAL MAN looks a lot like a slowed-down, extra-sentimental episode of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION focusing on Data.

DVD-Audio, the technology that will replace the CD as the world’s standard for music playback, is still in development with the hold up being CSS codes for copyright protection. The big manufacturers have players ready to roll but until Working Group 4 gives the standard the OK everything is on hold. In a way the waiting period is good in that it gives the record companies and media empires a chance to understand how 24/96 resolution is better than 16/44.1 as well as how 5.1 audio gives them a one -- two punch when trying to resell their lucrative catalogs. Catalog sales make up more than half of most labels yearly profits and with Gen-X demanding more WOW factor from their music technology, DVD-Audio is going to be able to ride the market success of DVD-Video.