Streaming movies and shiny Blu discs

Some great advances this year in home theater have been cheaper Blu-ray players and movies, the proliferation of online TV and movie services to feed content to your computer or TV, and HDTVs themselves that are getting connected to online services. Roku, the company that wowed the tech world with a $99 device to play Netflix’s growing catalog of streaming Internet movies and TV shows, has a new version, the Roku HD-XR ($129*). For an extra $30, you get built-in Wireless-N to stream Netflix and other online services such as YouTube, Amazon Video and Pandora Music to your TV set. If you’re all wired up, the original Roku still sells for $99 and can also serve up HD video.

If you prefer a more traditional, disc-based way of enjoying your movies, the BD 390 Blu-ray Player ($299.95*) from LG is the best of both worlds. It’s purported to load movies faster than the older generation of sluggish Blu-ray players and has Netflix streaming as well.

Then again, who needs a separate box when a new HDTV can bring you Internet movies on its own? Mitsubishi’s LT-52249 LCD TV ($3,099*) can access Pandora, Flickr photos, Facebook and 1080p-quality movies from Vudu, which sells and rents movies. It’s a bit pricey, but it’s helping usher in an era when most HDTVs will be able to get you online without a separate set-top box.

Much less expensive but very useful is Hannspree’s 25-inch LCD Monitor ($259.99). It doubles as a high-contrast 1080p HDTV; you can connect your devices to it with an included HDMI port.

* Prices correct as of 05/12/2009

Source: http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/other/2009/12/06/1206gadgetguide.html

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