If there's one bright spot in the consumer electronics business, it is the DVD, which was first introduced in late 1996. Lower prices, an increase in movie titles available in the new format, and an increasing preference among consumers for entertaining themselves at home, have pushed DVD technology into the mainstream.

Recent figures from the DVD Entertainment Group, a Los Angeles-based trade organization, suggest that DVD disc sales reached $4.6 billion in the U.S. last year, nearly twice the level of 2000. The group estimates that consumers bought 16.7 million players in 2001, compared with 9.7 million in 2000. The sudden surge in the DVD business has brought color back to the faces of consumer electronics manufacturers, which have seen other sectors of their business fall off because of saturated markets or drops in consumer spending. Japan's Panasonic, a division of Matsushita , Sony , Pioneer and Korea's Samsung are just a few of the companies making DVD players for the home. But the DVD tidal wave has also created new business for various semiconductor and electronic component companies, who supply the chips that make the players work.