Even when you put your TV in standby it's still sucking energy. The wall wart that charges your cellphone - yup, that's still using juice when your phone isn't plugged in.

The simple answer is to turn devices off or unplug them from the wall but sometimes that's not as easy as it sounds. For instance, the plugs for my home entertainment system are all down behind the cabinet so getting access to unplug or turn things off can be a little challenging.

Belkin think they've come up with the answer to that problem with their new Conserve power strip.

Their solution is actually quite elegant. You get a larger than normal power strip with 8 or 10 sockets and a large toggle switch that is the remote control.

The remote has a wall mount so you can stick it somewhere obvious and it's simple enough my dogs could use it!

The power strip contains a surge protector and for the larger capacity unit the protection also extends to a coax pass-through for your cable connection.

Both versions have two always-on sockets, the others are switched by the remote. This means that you can keep your DVR and Set-top box or VoIP phone always powered up but only send power to the TV, amplifier etc when you need it.

One cool feature is that using the DIP switches to select the channel the remote/power strip are using you can pair a remote to more than one power strip so you can control equipment on different sides of the room or even in different rooms.

For a home theatre set-up this is really easy to install and use. The spacing on the sockets is a little tight but I was able to consolidate two power squids to a single 10 socket Conserve.

Will this actually save me money? I think it probably will. They claim up to $60 in savings a year so should pay for itself by about September. I searched Live Cashback for my Belkin Conserve and got a great deal - you could get an even quicker return on your investment.

I can think of a couple of features I'd like to see added (that of course would make things a little more complex).

For home theatre setups it would be nice if the power strip was switched in two banks.In my setup I have both audio and video setups in the same cabinet and it would be nice to control the audio and video equipment separately (but I don't need a second power strip for that - especially as they recommend not daisy chaining them). Of course the added complexity is that when we're using the Media Center PC we need to power up the amplifier as well as the TV so I'd need to be able to turn both banks on at once.

The Media Center PC solution is the other scenario where the Conserve could be a bit more functional. With a running PC it's bad form to just pull to plug. They can get a little unreliable if you keep doing that to them. It would be great if the Conserve had a USB connection to report UPS type status information to the PC so when the "off" switch is pressed on the remote then the switch can warn connected PCs that it's about to shut down and then actually complete the shut-down a few minutes later. That would allow the PC to either save its state elegantly and in a controlled fashion or, if you're leaving the PC running but powering down some peripherals, let it disconnect from devices in a timely manner.

Hulu and Netflix are two amazing examples of using the internet to deliver content but while I don't mind watching a 30 second funny clip on youTube or Soapbox there's no way I'm going to watch an episode of Gemini Division or Dr Horribles Sing-a-long Blog, let alone a full length movie unless I can lean back in my chair with the dogs at my feet and remote in my hand and enjoy TV as it's meant to be.

At home we already have a Media Center PC (it came with us from Australia and it great for watching DVDs that are not Region 1 encoded or has interesting codecs that need some extra support), an Xbox360 (can front-end the Media Center and play back content from network) and the majority of our content living on a Windows Home Server with some Maxtor external drives to extend that a bit further.

Until now most internet content has required jumping through hoops to get downloaded and delivered... but now it's time to PlayOn!

All you have to do is install the PlayOn transcoder application on a Windows PC (WinXP SP2, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Home Server - if it can run Windows Media Player 11 it should work) that's on the same network as your Xbox360, PS3 or HP Media Smart TV (they want to get it working on the Wii as well), follow some simple instructions and you're pretty much good to go.

On the transcoding PC (which takes the Flash video or other formats from the web to something that your Xbox or PS3 can display) you can enter your Netflix account details or Hulu credentials and the application displays your queue [Actually, at the moment they don't have the Hulu queue working, but you can still access videos by navigating categories and drilling down alphabetically]

You still get to see the adverts that pay for Hulu (or need a log in to get to a Netflix queue) so it's not a way to bypass the monetization models of the providers but it's another wake-up call to the old school TV providers that they need to deliver more content when the audience wants it rather than rely on their programming schedules....

I'd happily pay what I currently pay for Cable for an online, on-demand delivery mechanism that uses much better ad targeting to reduce the interruptions to make for a much better end user experience.

I'd not bought into the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray war. Not because I thought one standard was better than the other, but because over the last couple of years I've become more and more convinced that over the wire and over the air distribution are going to dominate.

In the US with Comcast and Verizon pushing speeds (12Mbps and 50Mbps are fairly common for Cable and Fiber respectively) and despite the grandstanding about net neutrality and p2p on-demand video is growing - you only have to look at Netflix, AppleTV and the Xbox Marketplace to see that.

Rather than jump on the Blu-Ray bandwagon with the demise of HD-DVD Microsoft are betting on downloads as the way forward. As long as the infrastructure continues to advance and the ISPs and record/music business don't spoil it for everyone I think it bodes for a great future...

It looks like the portable music player saga is going to be painful either way. Ignoring the fact that they both use proprietary connectors instead of doing something smart like using a miniUSB connector they both have some rough edges that I'm not too excited about.

Apart from needing the bloated and invasive iTunes the Nano is unfortunately inching ahead at the moment.

First factor in its favor is totally unrelated to anything Apple related... it's simply the fact that the Last.FM application can scrobble what I listen to and feed it back to their service. Sure, it requires another app to be running and that's not exactly optimal but I've got psychological investment in the Last.FM data and while I'd love to join the Social I don't want it to be at the expense of that. The app does support WMP but not the Zune desktop app or music played on the Zune itself.

Second negative for the Zune is the account tag. You may remember I ran into some problems with my XBox Live account when I moved from AU to US. Well, it turns out my Gamertag was used to "reserve" a Zune tag and... I can't log in with my AU LiveID (because it's not supported in that region), and I can't transfer the tag to my new LiveID because.... well, if anyone has a good reason please let me know. So it means, like with the XBox, I can't use "Offbeatmammal" as my online identity and have to create something else - a problem I don't have if I just get another iPod.

On the general desktop bloat... Vista comes with WMP and it's a fairly good music/video player. Why do I need a second player from MS? I actually think the Zune desktop client is pretty cool (installed it and had a play today) but it makes me wonder why we didn't put the effort into improving the one core product... unless we've written the Zune client so I could run it on the Mac (I'd like to see OSX support to help the Zune reach out to that market. I can use Fusion or Parallels but it is a barrier for some adoption)

I've read in some places that the Zune and Media Center integration isn't that smooth. Not really an issue for me as I use mostly SlimServer for our home audio though it would be nice to be able to sync recorded TV shows etc to the eventual winner.

Oh, and while the Zune has WiFi (not sure how useful it'll actually be) the iPod can be docked and output movies to a TV... now that would be useful when traveling (though I'd probably have my laptop and be able to use that)

No closer to a decision... need to make it before the next plane trip though ;)

My trusty old iPod is finally dying on me... battery doesn't even last through a flight to San Francisco any more!

I'm not a huge fan of carrying multiple devices - if I had my way I'd just stick music onto the 4GB microSDHD card in my T-Mo Shadow but the non-standard speaker connection (the phone headset isn't really hi-fi!) and the battery life mean I probably won't want to do that with a full day of travel.

So, the top 2 tiny music players are the iPod Nano and the Zune Flash. Both are 8gb, about the same size and match on a bunch of features (the iPod screen is a bit bigger, the Zune has an FM tuner etc)

iPod means I'm stuck installing iTunes which is a horrible piece of software (I like it on the Mac, but on the PC it just doesn't play well) vs the Zune which has a great desktop client from what folks tell me.

I have iPod accessories (car adapter, home stereo adapter with remote control) but we don't use them that often these days (Satellite radio and a 6 CD stacker in-dash in the car, and Logitech Squeezebox streaming music at home), I don't buy DRM music so iTunes Music Store and MS Marketplace are not really going to be much influence.

Guess I'll have to see which fits the hand better and make a choice. Of check out what Creative and others have

I mentioned the very cool BigScreen Pictures the other day, well in related and very exciting news a DelicateGenius has a couple of licenses for both the Photo and Weather apps to give away.

The competition ends on Jan 30th so you'd better hurry... but even if you don't win check it out (there's a free trial for all-comers)

Although there's been a bit of news recently about Dave Winers new FlickrFan product for the Mac Mini it's not the break-through technology that folks have been touting it as. It's pretty neat and certainly offers some value to the very small Mac Mini user base.

But there's nothing new under the sun. Before I left Australia I was running some of the BigScreenGlobal add-ins for my Media Center (news, weather etc).

Today a DelicateGenius and FrankArr both gave me the scoop on version 2 (that's right, the second generation) of the BigScreenPictures app which lets you use Media Center (either the Media Center Edition version of WinXP or the functionality included in Premium and Ultimate versions of Vista) to display a photostream from Flickr (and other data sources) on your high def TV.

I guess because it's running on Microsoft technology and Niall doesn't have quite the same blogsphere presence BigScreenPictures (which doesn't have quite the same catchy name as FlickrFan I'll admit) probably won't get as much attention, thought it certainly deserves it. Give it a try, and while you're there check out some of their other great apps.

I'll leave the last word to Loren Feldman.

I was pretty excited with the December update to the Xbox360 Dashboard that provided some additional codec support but after using it for a while I'm less sure that it's solved my problems.

For a start the big downer is that, unlike with a Media Center, I still can't use the system to view archived DVDs - that means we still have to expose the physical media to scratches if our daughter wants to watch Barbie rather than have her able to stream it from a remote location (or she has to use the Media Center in the living room which does support DVD Library mode).

The other frustrating thing is that some archived content still refuses to play back - though it's encoded with the same codec as content that's fine. It also appears that I need to be logged in to play back content (though this may be a limitation brought on my my current Gamertag not being US) - which means if my daughter is watching something she still gets messages popping up from folks who think it's me logged in.

Here's hoping the next Dashboard update brings some more Media goodness (though I am questioning the value of a noisy and power hungry Xbox360 as a component in our home entertainment setup.... maybe a dedicated Media Center extender would be better).

In the meantime we're supplementing support with TVersity. This transcodes on the fly the content we're having codec issues with (it runs on the Windows Home Server where the content is archived) and is pretty reliable. Again, it currently doesn't support archived DVDs and it's not a native WHS add-in (but there are enhancement requests being considered for both). For Wii users TVersity (like Orb) provide a very good Media Experience using the built in Opera browser to render a Flash user interface - on the Xbox360 TVersity etc are limited to the simple folder hierarchy and text listing.

Just in time for Christmas there's an update to the Xbox360 firmware. I know I spotted it way after the Delicate Genius but the same thing grabbed our attention... improved codec support.

We're using the Windows Home Server tucked away upstairs for most of our file storage now and so, using the Media Connect capabilities of WHS, this now lets us use the Xbox360 as almost a first class media citizen.

It's not quite perfect - we still have some content that the Media Center with it's variously sourced codec packs plays without a hiccup that the Xbox won't touch, and of course archived DVDs (gotta try and keep 'em scratch free somehow because there's no replacement warranty) which again Vista Media Center is fine with.

As I'm not much of a gamer the rest of the update didn't make me rush to get it, but having more reasons to have the Xbox in the living room as part of a real family entertainment solution is a great move. Here's hoping we get more media support in coming releases.

I don't mean we should all start trying to inspire revolution in some far away place (though who knows what the power of thought can do) ... I mean it's time for the humble remote control in our living room to actually catch up with some of the technology advances and become a productive member of society.

I use a Logitech Harmony 880 remote. I've had it for a while and I think it's a really neat idea, but it's so let down by the things it's trying to control and how they play well with the remote and each other (or more to the point... how they don't).

Remember back in the day how the remote involved your Dad telling you to get up and change the channel by turning the dial on the TV (okay, maybe I'm older than you!).

Then came push button channel changing, followed around the time of the VCR (anyone remember VHS vs Betamax?) by wired remotes (and the wire was always too short).

The freedom brought by IrDA finally cutting the cord was, sadly, the end of any major advances in the underlying technology of the remote control.

Sure, my TV, Cable Set Top Box, DVD/VCR, XBox360, Squeezebox and Z-5500 amp/speakers all respond to remote control signals (in fact my LG DVD/VHS is really dumb because it incorrectly responds to signals meant for the Squeezebox) and if it wasn't for the Harmony I'd have a lot more batteries to buy!

But the control isn't perfect. For instance my TV doesn't allow the Harmony to send a specific source (eg HDMI1), you have to cycle through them. Which would be fine if it was always a fixed progression but it's "smart"... a source is inactive it disappears from the cycle. Even the Media Center with all it's processing power doesn't do any sort of two-way communication (though both it and the Squeezebox have IrBlaster capabilities they could make use of as a return path...)

The other pain is if things are out of sync with how the harmony thinks they're set up then it gets confused and turns things off that sound be on, or selects the wrong audio source or something. Now 99% of the time I don't blame Logitech (though for some reason they don't quite have the options figured out in the setup process for the Z-5500 audio sources)... I blame the future for not being here when it was promised.

Back in 2005 I remember reading wonderful proclamations from the ZigBee folks that their wonderful new low power radio mesh technology would be in consumer electronics within a couple of years...

... well, I'm still waiting.

Where are the smart remotes that can query device status before asking them to do something? Where are the programming interfaces so when I power up my Squeezebox via the web interface from another room it can query the Z-5500 amp and ask it to change to the right input and effect? Where are the really smart devices that can shut down everything apart from the ZigBee receiver (really saving some power) until they are needed.

Put that technology into consumer electronics, wire it up to a smart remote like a Harmony 1000 and I'll be very happy (the Harmony does support "Z-Wave", which appears to be Logitechs implementation of ZigBee but they're almost too embarrassed to talk about it!).