Best & Worst Gadget 2009

Posted on | January 31, 2009 | 2 Comments

this post is part of Ritchie’s blog carneval ‘Best & Worst Gadget 2008′ (or ‘Bestes / übelstes Hardware Gadget 2008′, if you prefer german), which is about to end today – so if you want to join, better hurry up!

in 2008 I finally settled to buy a new TV-set for my living room. not  being the decisive kind of guy (+a serious lack of knowledge), it took me weeks over weeks to decide on brand & model. most people I’ve talked to recommended Samsung & Phillips for their superior image-optimization features, but even within these two brands there’s plenty of options. at the end I got a Phillips 42PFL9732D set, 42″, 100Hz (which should really improve quality), Full HD (which makes not too much sense, living in Austria where PAL still rules the cable). but what really makes it stand out is ‘Ambilight’, a gimmick found in many of Phillip’s top-of-the-line models. Ambilight projects a colorful & dynamically responsive halo on the wall behind the TV-set. while definitely enhancing the viewing-experience (esp. in darkened rooms) , this also lends your TV a shrine-like appearance

after almost a year of usage I’m still pretty satisifed with the Phillips. sometimes it’s pushing too hard when auto-scaling & -zooming non-16:9 content to the screens dimensions (it does so by increasingly zooming at the images borders, which introduces a strange 3D-like-effect), but of course that can be turned off. on digital inputs (which it has plenty of), image quality is really great.

speaking of digital inputs, since most of the video content I consume is downloaded or streamed over the intertubes anyway, a TV set for me only makes sense when combined with some sort of streaming media client. my XBox 360 would do the job, but is damn noisy and way to restricted in terms of codec-support. buying a dedicated Apple Mac Mini seemed like the best solution. the Mini is super-silent so it can keep running all the time, and using media center software Boxee allows to not only playback content from your harddrive or LAN, but also streams video from populare websites like YouTube, Last.fm or Hulu (the latter of course only in the US of A). all of that functionality is conveniently controlled with the minimalist Apple Remote. 

to round things off, I wanted to get a wireless keyboard with integrated trackpad. while the Mini primarily is used for media playback, it sure would be nice to shoot off the odd mail or tweet while on the couch… after failing attempts of finding a Mac-sepcific keyboard, I opted for a Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard. very cool looking brushed chrome, slim, nice charging-station & Startrek-esque volume-controls (sliding your finger over a row of LEDs). however, while the keyboard itself is quite good, the trackpad’s quality is just ridiculous. moving the mouse-pointer is slow, inaccurate and hard-going – and even after months of usage you can’t get used to it. diNovo Edge – fail!

besides the diNovo-disaster I’m quite satisfied with my revamped media-setup. for consuming both local and online video, the Mini and Boxee are a great team I can recommend wholeheartedly. now if only I’ld find a decent wireless keyboard/trackpad-combo…

 

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