Which is better, or more precisely, which isn't worse

It's not that I hated Time Warner Cable. In fact, in a lot of ways I kind of liked them. For several years, I had the Scientific Atlanta 8000HD DVR box, which, after many updates, was a pretty decent piece of equipment. Then, after my second one died (as hard-drive based equipment is bound to do), they gave me the 8300HDC. This is the worst consumer electronics product I've ever used, and my days with TWC were numbered. And along came AT&T.

Real Wide Screen and No More Black Bars

One of the most common questions I get is about the black bars that appear above and below the image with many movies.

After all, a spiffy new HDTV and Blu-ray player will banish the black bars we had with DVDs and old TVs, right? Nope.

But with the right projector, screen, and lens, you can have CinemaScope in your home.

And no more black bars.

What happens when a company updates a classic? Often disaster results, as anyone who ever sipped a New Coke or drove a Mustang II can attest. But occasionally the new version preserves the original’s magic while smoothing its minor imperfections, as anyone who owns a Mini Cooper will happily confirm.

Our 10 Best Gear Awards

The best gear of the year.

Blu-ray. Now with YouTube!

Already, Blu-ray players are separating into two camps: the uber-expensive, and the commodity. It’s easy to see what you get with the step-up players.

But what about the high end of the low end? What do you get at a step or so above the bargain players? Something like this $400 Panasonic, say. Well, turns out quite a lot.

The Crestron Experience Center in Las Vegas is one of the few places in the world delivering hands-on demos of the wonders of home automation.

With its new Las Vegas Experience Center, Crestron—which in home automation is perhaps even more pervasive than Microsoft is in the computer business—seeks to make its creations more accessible to dealers and customers. The Experience Center is one of only a few places in the world where one can witness home automation at work.

The next step in Internet-enabled video-on-demand.

“Internet-enabled” could very well be the CE industry’s 2009 catchphrase. Some manufacturers are adding simple Web widgets to their products, like the ability to access news, weather, or online photo albums.

Others, meanwhile, have embraced what many of us deem to be the Holy Grail of Internet-enabled functionality: video-on-demand access.

TV Stands as Furniture

More than ever before, TVs are design statements. Sure you could show it off by mounting the TV to the wall and displaying it like a piece of art. But why not take the design statement one step further and mate your new prize with a unique TV stand that serves to elevate the entire room’s aesthetic appeal?

Gone are the days of utilitarian steel racks and boring black particleboard. Today’s A/V furniture designers really do offer something for every taste and décor.