Best TV Accessories – Gifts for You (and, I guess, other people)


There are certain things no TV lover should be without. From a few dollars to a few hundred dollars, here are the absolute must-haves this holiday season for the TV lover in you, and if you’re really generous, for the TV lover in someone else too.
Apple TV ($99)
Beyond the hype the Apple TV is a simple, easy to use and just plain fantastic device. Yes it’s 720p only and you’re tied to Apple for your paid content. But it’s so easy, small and cheap, these small faults are forgiven. It’s also one of the best Netflix streaming devices.
Or you could get: Roku XDS 1080p($99).
Or you could get: Xbox 360 w/Kinect
Any Blu-ray Player
You can get a Blu-ray player for under $100, and one that has 3D and other bells and whistles for just a little bit more. The picture quality is so much better than DVD, there’s really no reason not to get one at this point. Even the price on BD discs has dropped.
Or you could get: A VCR
Programmable Remote Control
The average home has several hundred remote controls stuck in the seat cushions of the sofa. Leave them there with a decent remote control from the likes of Harmony or URC
. The programmable ones are the way to go. Most are fairly easy to program, either just with the remote or using the computer. So easy you won’t even need your kids to explain how to use it.
Or you could get: trained monkey
Setup Blu-ray
and Spears & Munsil High-Definition Benchmark
include tests and patterns for the advanced user as well as basic setup patterns. Discs like Disney WOW: World of Wonder
has Goofy. So there’s that.
Or you could get: ISF Calibration. On second thought, get that too.
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Also, regarding blu-ray and HTPCs: $100 for crappy blu-ray playback software!!?!?
Ridiculous.
The PS3 is a great blu-ray player and gaming box. But calling the web browser a nightmare would be overrating it.
It crashes often… I mean OFTEN. Its page loads are glacial. It won’t display youtube videos in anything but unacceptably low resolution. It doesn’t render webpages properly. It won’t play most flash videos or other flash-based content. It won’t play my Flip Video videos. It won’t play Apple Lossless audio. It doesn’t play Hulu.
I haven’t tried Netflix because I just bought an ASRock Core100 HTPC. It truly does do everything…and quickly. Plus uses less power.
I’m going to keep my PS3 for blu-ray & games, since my experience with my other HTPC indicates PS3 is a far superior disk player. I love the bluetooth remote and can’t understand the numerous complaints about the lack of IR. You get one-button subtitles, pop up bit rate, time, chapter display. Great navigation of disks. It’s the best disk player I’ve ever owned.
Also great playback of media from NAS. I just can’t tolerate the horrible browser.