Tech2

I'm writing this from my sofa. In my lap is a keyboard. MS Word is part of a 50-inch tall image that also includes Netflix playing an episode of Sports Night, and Steam downloading Portal 2.

That, and much more, is the promise of a home theater PC. But in this age of ultra-cheap everything, is the complexity of an HTPC worth it? Well, I'm about to find out. Again.

In the late 1990s, a product manager from Zenith brought me the company's first HDTV set for review. After an afternoon spent checking out the TV - an engineering marvel for its time - I told him how impressed I was with it. "Yeah, we'd sell a ton of them if it said 'Sony' on the front," he wisecracked.

I've got LG's new 50PZ950 plasma in my lab for an upcoming review in the magazine. The set had some cool features I didn't have space to mention, so I figured I could talk about them here instead.

The short version? It has some of the most extensive calibration settings I've ever seen on a TV.

And yet, they're not enough.

Call me purist. Call me curmudgeon.

For most, the terms "video game" and "computer game" are interchangeable. I disagree, and my complaint is more than just semantics.

You see, the difference is a simple one: video games are dumb.

That in itself isn't a bad thing. The problem is, they're making computer games dumber as well.

Last year, an audio dealer named Gordon Sauck called to get my permission to use a 1997 article of mine on his website. As I chatted with him, I realized there was a huge emerging trend to which I and most of the other guys who write about audio have been largely oblivious.

When Netflix announced their new pricing plans this week, it was as if they'd kicked a baby. Twitter, Facebook, and even the desolate Google+ ignited as thousands cried out in horror: "How dare you raise your prices!" "I'm cancelling my subscription!" and the terseless "Netflix is making their service more "convenient" by charging me $5 more a month. Thanks a lot."

Sitting beside my laptop computer is the coolest portable TV I have ever used. But the question I’m trying to answer is whether anyone’s going to want it.