Sennheiser HD202 headphones

Wow, these are good. And I mean good.

Sure, a $100 or $200 pair of headphones might be better. And sure, a $10 pair of headphones might be cheaper.

But for the $25 these cost at Newegg, these are simply phenominal. I've purchased these for myself, and for a bunch of people in my office. Every one of them has loved them, and a good number of them have gone on to buy a pair (or two!) for themselves at home.

The cords on these are 10 feet long. That's a good thing if you need the length, and a (very) small annoyance if you don't. Sennheiser includes a little cord-wrap to keep it tidy if you don't need the length.

Overall, these are definitely recommended.

Sanus Systems MF202 TV Wall Mount

Let's face it, wall mounts aren't exactly the sexiest part of your home theater system. In fact, the only time you ever see them is when you install them, then they're sort of "Out of sight, out of mind." But they are still something you should consider!

Having young children, setting a large, light LCD television on a TV stand and hoping it won't be knocked over isn't a possibility. Mine had to go on the wall.

Furthermore, I wanted to be able to occasionally swing the TV toward one side of the room or the other. Looking at the inexpensive mounts, I decided on this one because of positive reviews, and the freedom of motion.

This mount will swing up, down, to both sides, and rotate as well. I don't need rotation, but it's part of the deal. It comes with plates for VESA 100x100 mounts and 200x200 mounts. The plates can mount flat against the TV, or it also comes with two or three different-length sets of spacer rods. The spacers can be used for two situations - if the back of your TV is curved, or if you just want a little more space between the TV and wall. A bit more space helps with cabling ease, and also lets you swing the television a bit more. I chose the longest spacers for that reason.

It also comes with a LOT of bolts. Bolts of different diameters (for different mounts), and different lengths (for different depths, and for if you use any of the spacers.) This is certainly not short on hardware, Sanus really covered the bases.

Bolting the main support to the wall is straight-forward - one bolt in the top, and one in the bottom. Sanus gives you some nice lag bolts if you can go into the studs (which is a very good idea), and some plastic covers in case you want to settle for just the drywall.

After you bolt the main support to the wall, and the plate to the TV, then you slide the two together, put in one more screw, and you're set.

There are also two different places you can adjust the tension in the mount - one accessible before you install, and one accessible after. That way, you can adjust how easily the television can be swiveled. I set mine fairly stiff, I don't swivel it often - and want it to stay still.

I can't really think of any downsides to this mount. It's inexpensive (under $40 at Newegg), sturdy, comes with plenty of hardware, and does what it's supposed to. What's not to love?

Sony Bravia 32" S5100 LCD HDTV

This television has been wonderful. A real pleasure. And I like it when purchases go that way.

For starters, it has plenty of inputs. Two components and two composites for hooking up analog stuff. Three HDMI inputs. An RGB input for PCs, RF for cable or HD antenna, and S-Video. It has audio out on the back, as well, for passing your HDMI sound to a receiver.

Now, if I had my way, it would have a DVI input for PCs - but that's alright, a DVI->HDMI converter is cheap and easy.

Menus are nice. Plenty of options. One small nicety is being able to name all of the inputs - so that instead of "HDMI 1", "HDMI 2", "HDMI 3", and "Composite", you can have "DVD", "Blu-Ray", "TV", and "Playstation".

It also lets you assign names to analog channels. Yes, I still have basic analog cable. It's $7 per month, and gets me the few channels I watch.

The parental controls are nice and flexible. Separate settings for TV and movies. Parental lock on individual channels, can block unrated, and even block external inputs.

If your video source uses 24fps, like movies, this will support it without having to do conversion. It can also do a 60Hz refresh rate. Very nice and bright. Visually, it's all that you'd want.

The only feature that I would really want to see added would be an LED light source - but those are still new on the market, and significantly more expensive than this TV. This TV is certainly not inexpensive, but it sure is nice.

Update: A while back, the HDMI output from my media player stopped showing video on the TV. I figured it was the media player, everything else was working. A month later, the HDMI connection from my Blu-Ray player lost audio. A week later, the HDMI output from my Kodak ZX1 stopped working. At that point, my feeble brain realized that it was probably the TV. I noticed on Sony's web site that a firmware update addresses an issue of "occasionally" losing audio on HDMI connections. I gave it a try, and it fixed all of the issues. I think that Sony is horribly understating the bugginess of the original firmware!

Panasonic DMP-BD60 Blu-Ray Player

I purchased one of these a week ago. Keep in mind during this review that it's the only Blu-Ray player I've used.

Hookups are decent - HDMI, component, etc.. And optical for audio - I prefer optical to coax. It has an SD card slot, you can do JPG slideshows, play video files, etc.. It also has an ethernet port, through which you can easily update firmware, and access "Viera Cast". It all works.

But, there are a few things that I am having a hard time coming to grips with. First and foremost, it is slow. Slow. SLOOOOW. I don't know if other Blu-Rays are like this, but after you insert a disc, it can be a full minute to two minutes before you have anything other than "loading". Not only that, but if you hit the "functions" button to bring up a SYSTEM MENU while watching, it can take a very long time for that to come up as well. It's just slow all the way around. Occasionally, while navigating system stuff like the Viera Cast, it will just become unresponsive for a minute or two, then start accepting input again. When I say this is slow... I mean that it's unbearably slow.

Second... Viera Cast. Instead of being useful and letting you watch Netflix On-Demand, it only allows you to use Amazon's online rentals. That's a shame, and had I known, I wouldn't have bought the unit. Other than Amazon's rentals, it lets you watch YouTube videos, and see the weather. Not terribly exciting.

Third... the remote is a bit funny. It seems to have more real-estate devoted to TV controls than to player controls. And while it has buttons for "top menu" and "pop-up menu", there is no "menu" button. Why would that be important? Well, if you have a DVD disc inserted, and want to go to the menu... you need "menu". It can be accessed by using the "functions" button, but that is, as I've said, painfully slow.

Now... like I've said, I haven't tried other Blu-Ray players. Maybe they are all this painful. Maybe not. But if I find one that isn't as painfully slow as this - and supports NetFlix - this one will be for sale soon.