If you now consider a humble CD to be embarrassingly low-tech, Warners have reissued all their REM albums in CD/DVD double packs. Each CD is identical to the original album release, while the matching DVD contains a 5.1 surround-sound mix plus photos, weblinks, documentaries and video clips. If you're a fan, with sophisticated audio-visual equipment, this delivers such goodies as mini-documentaries the band made for Green, Automatic for the People and New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and live show footage for Monster.

However, despite numerous episodes of hand-held video artiness (Michael Stipe loves all this guerrilla film-making stuff), none of these trimmings will materially affect your view of the albums themselves. They're more likely to induce confusion and insecurity, since you won't know whether you're supposed to be watching music or listening to television.