4. The Display

Last summer, after signs our 17 year old TV was giving up the ghost, we finally bit-the-bullet and retired it in favor of a Westinghouse LCD HDTV. We choose this particular model for a number of reasons. At the time, it was among the least expensive models on the market; it had gotten generally good reviews and it had an extensive set of inputs, including DVI, which would give us flexibility in selecting how we would hook it up.

In general, we've been pleased with the unit. One thing I haven't done yet is acquire HDTV service. We're unable to get over-the-air HDTV service, and I'm still evaluating my options for either cable or satellite HDTV service, which both seem a bit expensive. In the mean time, I've just been experimenting with HDTV content through my LinkTheater, and I've been pleased to be able to display 1080i clips across the network without problem. We also enjoyed the ability to view ripped wide-screen format DVDs that use the entire screen.

Remote Control

As I started this section of the article, I thought I'd take a count of my remotes. I found 18 (Figure 7), five of which I used on a day-to-day basis and five others that were "universal" remotes which just never seemed to control everything I needed.

Figure 7: This is not a good thing

I always needed to keep the original remote around for some features. That is, until I finally figured out that there was something better than the $9.99 models found in the checkout line of most electronic stores.

Since I ended up on Santa's "Nice" list this year, I was rewarded with a component video) input, turn on my AV receiver, switch it to the audio from my DVD player, turn on my DVD player and open it up for disc insertion.

Figure 8: Logitech Harmony 688

When I'm using my PVR, the pause button will pause the video and the volume commands will be directed to the AV receiver instead of the TV like my old remote did. If I need a function that doesn't have a button, the 688 has an LCD with programmable buttons, and it can also "learn" new IR commands. It all works. All of it!

I could go on, but you get the idea. Even my wife, who often gets frustrated with the control of our complex system, switched over to the new remote in a day's time. The street price of the 688 is $120 and up, which seems like a lot, but for me, it's worth the price, especially considering all of the money and time I'd spent on cheap universal remotes over the years.