Being someone who isn't intimidated by purchases of electronics, I recently entered the digital age with an alarming lack of serious forethought. I bought a digital BS tuner. At less than 50,000 yen, it's hardly a huge investment by itself, but since being hooked up to my TV, it's caused me to reflect bitterly on the kind of future it points to.

BS digital tuners allow you to access digital satellite signals broadcast by NHK and commercial companies, not to mention specialty subscription outfits like Wowow and Star Channel. You can also access "BS radio" audio signals and hook into interactive programming where and when it's available. The picture is crisp and clear, the sound noticeably better, and even if your TV is not the high-definition type, you can receive HD broadcasts, which look pretty good on a conventional CRT set.

I should be happy, especially given that next month's Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City will be broadcast almost nonstop on digital BS channels. (Mere mortals will have to make do with "digests" on NHK Sogo.) But when I look at my TV nook, my heart sinks. In addition to my 21-inch Sony and the Sharp BS tuner, there's a Sanyo VCR with nondigital BS tuner; an older, crippled Sony VCR (bad motor), which is mainly used as a tuner when the other VCR is recording, since the TV set's tuner seems to be on strike; the little box from Wowow that unscrambles the analog BS signal; a DVD player; and three or four remote controls. I was thinking of adding a hard disk, but there's no place to put it.