my tv still rocks. i refuse to stretch 4:3 content and i am extremely averse to burn-in, so plasma is out. flat panel lcds are not yet large and cost-effective enough for me to consider, but i don't see the big glamour of wall-mounting anyway. i don't have enough light control for a front projector, and i also wouldn't want to use one for general television. even if my fiancee didn't see
dlp rainbows i still wouldn't purchase one out of concern that a guest might, or that i could develop the ability to do so. i would buy the sxrd set because it's 1080p and its quality stands out when viewed side-by-side with other televisions. the xbr version of the set is reported to look the same, and has some features such as front hdmi that don't really concern me.
the bush tv stand was a lot cheaper than the sony one. it looks and holds just fine.
i can't really say enough good things about the dvd player. the performance is excellent, they add features and bugfixes via firmware updates that can be burned to cds, i love the quality, and it has a wide/squeeze mode which ensures that widescreen stuff stays widescreen while 4:3 stuff will be shown unstretched. the biggest deal for me is the control response though. when you press pause, it pauses, instantly. when you press play after that, it plays, instantly. going from a 16x fast forward to playing is instantaneous, etc. unlike every other player i've used, it doesn't feel like you're operating a disc that is being read by a laser. the responsiveness is more along the lines of a dvr. the new version also uses a faroujda chip, but it features native hdmi and 1080p upconversion.
i haven't done a lot of research on audio. i live in a condo, so i'm not at liberty to blow the walls down. onkyo had the top-rated budget htib setup at cnet when i made my purchase, so i listened to one at circuit city before buying. i'm not concerned with hdmi switching on my receiver, my television can output digital audio to the receiver from all of its inputs. i find a 5.1 setup sufficient for surround, and it minimizes my cabling annoyance because i only have to deal with two rear speakers. i bought some cheap stands at circuit city and attached the rear speakers with velcro. this setup is completely adequate, but i will probably kick it up a few notches when i purchase a home.
the harmony remotes are another thing i can't really praise enough. i initially purchased what was then and might still be the top of the line model, the
880. i found the experience attrocious because of the button layout. the dvr functions were too low on the remote, and there was no tactile identification outside of a couple dots to let you know which button you might be hitting in the dark. compared to the stock tivo remote, this was a huge failure. i investigated further and the best button layout appeared to be on the 680, which was marketed and sold as a media center pc remote. the button layout and operation is great. apparently logitech agreed with my position, because they have discontinued the 680 and released the 670 as their dvr remote. it looks like the same thing with different button labels and a new finish. the big deal with harmony remotes is that you program them by plugging in a usb cable and going to a web page. they have a huge database of devices, you simply select what you own. when i press the tv button, it turns on my tv, sets its input, turns on my receiver, and sets its input. if i go from that to the dvd button it will
leave the tv on, change its input,
leave the receiver on, change its input, and turn on the dvd player. it knows what is on and what should stay that way based on your previous activities. if i went to the digital audio button from there, it would turn off the tv, turn on the squeezebox, and change the receiver's input. it also has a great, simple help button which asks questions like, "is the television on?" and "is the television set to the right input?" you answer the yes/no questions and it will automatically drill down onto whatever your problem might be. this makes complex systems easy enough for a grandmother to use.
the tivo series3 is fantastic. if you have owned a tivo and a non-tivo dvr, you probably know where i'm coming from. prior to this i used a moxi hd dvr supplied by my cable company as well as a tivo series2. why use the series2? because the moxi dvr sucked by comparison. i used the series2 for all of my standard definition recording, and only did digital/hdtv with the moxi. this worked out okay, but i leapt at the chance to get a cablecard-supporting hdtv tivo. well worth the money in my book, and i don't want to imagine television without tivo.
as some of you may know, i'm a huge fan of the
rhapsody music subscription service. i pay $15/month for unlimited downloads, streaming, and transfers to my portable sansa rhapsody music device. this is similar to itunes, except i don't own the music and it's all i can eat as long as i pay the monthly fee. it's about $8/month if you pay for a year up front and don't have a compatible portable device. i think that price is worth it just to sample music before buying, or legally listen to music that you would never purchase. the squeezebox connects to your home network via wireless or ethernet. i bought it to play local mp3s, but i didn't hook it up until i read about how they added direct rhapsody support. now i can go in and play any music through my stereo from just about any artist i want using my harmony remote. the interface is simple and it works great. it also supports ad-free pandora if you pay the $36/year fee, but rhapsody's "channels" offer similar functionality for no additional cost.
the slingbox i bought on a lark. i had a pda and a smartphone, and it could stream television to those over wireless internet. i could watch stuff off of my tivo while i was at work or on another pc. the quality isn't bad, but i found the tivo controls too slow over my 256k upload broadband connection. i ended up splitting my cable and putting a coax connection directly into it, which limited the device to live television and analog cable. which is fine, because the only reason i really use it is to watch daytime baseball games while i'm at work. for that purpose, it works great. they discontinued the original product and released a trio, but the slingbox av appears to be about the same as the classic.