Best Products of the Year

Best MP3 Player/Jukebox
Panja BMP-100
This specialized Internet appliance uses its built-in Ethernet to connect to your computer and plays your MP3s, encodes your music CDs and stores them in your MyPanja storage area. Its outputs connect to your stereo and television, which is essential in navigating its on-screen interface. Once you go through the process of converting your CDs to MP3s, you can trade jockeying CD cases for navigating user-friendly menus, and you can listen to songs in whatever order you want. The Panja BMP-100 is the bridge between home entertainment and home computing.

Best PVR TV
Panasonic PV-SS2710
Replay-enabled PVR TV
With the ReplayTV technology built right into this Panasonic TV, you don't need another black box crowding up your entertainment center to get the advantages of a personal recorder. The combination unit has a 27-inch screen and can hold up to 30 hours of television programming. It has a vibrant image, thanks to the PanaBlack picture tube. Enjoy the ability to pause live television for up to seven hours and use the QuickSkip button to fast forward 30-second blocks of programming (good-bye commercials). With its no-nonsense setup and its user-friendly interface, the Panasonic PV-SS2710 is worth the price.

Best Wireless A/V Transmitting System
Jensen Matrix
The Matrix Wireless Internet Audio Transmitter is a 900MHz transmitter and receiver that sends MP3s and streaming audio from your computer to your stereo. The units are small and each has its own A/C adapter. The Matrix can transmit at distances up to 70 feet and the audio contains minimal distortion, no artifacts, and interference was rare. It's easy to use and easy to set up, and Jensen's wire-free Matrix means it adds nothing to the wired chaos of your entertainment system.

Best TV Web Surfing Set-Top Box
Neon Technology SurfReady NTV-2500
SurfReady comes ready to wow you with an increased functionality over other set-top boxes. It includes picture-in-picture Web surfing and videophone, as well as video and still photo e-mail attachments with an included WebCam. And by adding a DVD player and TV tuner, this net-top Internet appliance can replace two or more components in your entertainment center. In addition, you'll find other fun and useful features like a karaoke function and a TV Search mode that displays stills of all the programs currently airing. The intuitive interface has easy to read menus for both TV and Web functions. While the unit's Internet functions lack polish, its space-saving functionality makes it a good buy.

Best PVR PC Card
nVIDIA Personal Cinema
Personal Cinema jumps into the video capture and editing world with a hardware and software bundle that includes a 3D video card, TV tuner, DVD playback (DVD drive not included) and a software-driven time-shift function (think TiVo or ReplayTV). With a view toward ease, the hardware cards are easily installable. On the software side, the intuitive VideoWave allows for basic editing and the InterVideo WinDVD expands DVD playback with features like zoom, pan, playback bookmark and still capture. Also, the 3D video graphics make it a great gaming card.

Smartest DVD Player
Vialta ViDVD Player
Even though the Internet functions didn't work as well as they could have, DVD, VCD and SVCD playback, MP3 playback, karaoke and photo-CD viewing can all be found in this unit, making it a smart DVD player that's hard to beat. It's as easy to hook up and get running as any other DVD player. With its sharp image and quick responding remote, the Vialta ViDVD played all the DVDs and home-burnt VCDs we threw its way. The karaoke function also worked nicely.

Best Internet-Ready TVs
Princeton Ai3.6HD
As the first TV with built-in Internet functionality, the Princeton Ai3.6HD offers access to Channel 1's Internet portal, full Internet access and a channel guide. This TV allows you to choose from a variety of service accounts and price ranges and also allows you to create up to five password-protected Web access accounts. The electronic programming guide can be a bit problematic. Make sure you are in one of the top 50 U.S. markets that Channel 1 supports. And despite the fact the TV is also the grand prize winner of the overweight electronic device competition (coming in at 210 pounds), the device is easy to setup - assuming, of course, you can get it out of the box.

Best PC-TV-PVR
Sony VAIO MX PCV-MXS10
While the price may seem a bit steep, Sony's MX is packed with some powerful hardware and easy to use software for the home entertainment enthusiast who wants to create original material or reformat existing material. With the Sonic Stage Premium software, you can capture audio from a variety of sources and put it together with video or burn as audio only. This is powerful software that grants easy access to novices who want to learn how to get started. And the included burner allows you to burn to DVD and CD formats.

Best TV-VGA Monitor
DM-6952ST TV-VGA
For those who want to build their PC/TV systems from the ground-up and need a monitor, Monivision's XGA/SVGA/VGA high-resolution computer monitor and television display is worth a look. The two 18-watt speakers and sub-woofer and the 34-inch screen combine to make a great interface for your smart entertainment center. Again, if you don't have big friends, make some. It'll help moving this beast around. And our problem with proper vertical screen setting during setup was easily rectified by a visit to Monivision's Web site. The monitor displays Web sites clearly, including Flash and Shockwave sites and streaming video also looked good.

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