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...

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.

When I moved from Aus to the US I tried to change my Xbox360 Gamertag from AU to US so I could take advantage of the cool new content available locally for my (US bought) Xbox360.

I'd hoped it would be something simple - a change to my LiveID or an upgrade to my Gamertag ... contact customer service and have some magic happen.

Sadly that couldn't happen.

Then in December there was a new update to the Dashboard on the XBox360 that allowed me to change the LiveID associated with the Gamertag. Yippee I thought, problem solved. So I changed the LiveID to my new US-centric one (with US billing records for MSN Direct, Hotmail Plus etc) ... but that didn't change my country for the Gamertag - it left me with both the US and AU accounts tied to the Gamertag.

So... another chat with customer support (externally and using some contacts internally) and the upshot of the story is that because the EULA I agreed to when I signed up says I can't change countries with my Gamertag I have to cancel the account and create a new one (because the Gamertag doesn't get released into the pool I can't even re-use the name). So I lose my history / reputation / stats (which I'll admit isn't that crucial for me) but (more importantly) my identity.

I can't imagine I'm alone in this.... in fact I know a few others who've faced the same problem (but are obviously better mannered than me and don't complain!). As someone who's not a hard core gamer but more uses the Xbox360 to supplement our home entertainment solution this is annoying and hopefully something will change in the future to stop anyone else having to give up their identity because of a line in a EULA.

When I moved from Australia to the US I discovered a not so small problem. Because me Xbox Gamertag was tied to a LiveID which had billing services (my, now expired, Gold account) in AU there seemed to be no way to access the US goodness without giving up my Gamertag and picking a new personal.

In the latest update a new dashboard option was added to change the assigned LiveID for a Gamertag which got me all excited as I thought this would help.

Wrong!

All it's done is tie the two LiveIDs to the same Gamertag in the billing page, and left me stuck in AU. At least it doesn't appear to have screwed up the existing US billing stuff for my new LiveID but it's not turned out to be quite as good as I hoped.

I logged a support request on the off-chance, but after trying on and off since getting to the US I'm not holding out much hope (after all, I had to clear my Space and sit with the name in limbo for 60 days just to swap that between LiveIDs and I still can't use my nickname in the Windows Live Gallery with the new LiveID - I just get told it's "in use")

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.

Luckily I've not had a ring of death with either my AU Xbxo360 or our US one but to help reduce the fear and uncertainty of the one year warranty Microsoft has announced they're going to extend the warrant to 3 years to cover the problem.

The best news is for existing customers who've had to pay for the fix...you may just get some money back.

For the full story read the open letter on Xbox.com or check out the FAQs.

I can slot a DVD into my Xbox360 and watch it just fine. I can slot the same DVD into my Media Center PC and watch it just fine.

When I buy a DVD for my daughter I can rip a backup to my Maxtor HDD and file the original away to keep her sticky fingers off it but let her watch it on the Media Center. But what happens if I want to use the Media Center and have her watch the DVD in the other room on the Xbox... I've gotta go find the original disk again.

Why? Because while the Media Center is quite happy to stream a DVD image over the local network from the network connected Maxtor (or maybe soon a Windows Home Server) the Xbox only lets me do that for photos and music.

IMO this is a real limitation, a pain, and thorn in the idea of connected home entertainment. I'm not going to argue the legalities or the technicalities, just the user experience.

In his CES keynote this year Bill Gates talked about the connected media experience. I want it, and I want it all and now!

Well, in order to live the dream for the moment I have to make some sacrifices. Namely quality and convenience. While the Xbox won't let you stream a DVD to it, you can transcode it to WMV and it will let you watch that.

There are two solutions - live transcoding and manual. While Live transcoding seems like it should be the best solution it's fine for me, but a little hard for my daughter to control so I've gone the manual route at home.

The live solutions are Transcode 360 (for WinXP MCE and Vista) or TVersity. The former requires a Media Center machine, and the latter runs under any flavor of Windows XP or Vista.

Transcode 360 plugs into the existing Media Center interface or can be accessed as part of My Movies and is fairly simple to use though (in common with other on-the-fly solutions) you're at the mercy of a remote transcoding queue. Movies are selected from the usual user friendly UI within the Media Center Extender display and you then elect to start the transcoder to play it.

TVersity is another good solution (and doesn't need MCE - it works on any PC) that works pretty well (with the same caveats as Transcode 360) however the selection of available content is from within the Xbox Video list - a text filename list... so it has the added disadvantage for my daughter of no pretty pictures.

With both the live solutions I've had problems with the queues not starting/stopping as expected and the software getting itself tied in knots. As I say... okay for me, but not a good user experience for the wife and daughter.

So, that leaves manual transcoding. After looking around at a few I've settled on one that's fairly quick, easy to use and a good price.

Mobile DVD from SPBSoftwareHouse is intended to take your DVDs and transcode them for portable devices (mainly aimed, like most of their apps, at the Windows Mobile platform). I tried it because I use some of their other apps every day and think they're very good developers. With some tweaking of settings the resulting movie is as good a quality as pretty much anything I've seen via a transcode (and their forums indicate that support for a specific Xbox profile might be in the works).

This solution enables me to keep the original DVD in their jewel case and just transcode the main movie to a WMV, attach a pretty JPG to the folder and present the movies to her in the Media Center interface and she can use the Xbox just like she would the Media Center. I do however resent the extra work and storage space (as some movies we keep in DVD archive format as well because we want the special features and are happy to usually watch on the Media Center machine)

Note: With Transcoding you will loose extra material, multiple audio tracks, subtitles, etc., and a transcoding process always degrades the quality some

Update: Wii users can brag... Orb makes their life even easier!

The Xbox360 just became a more integral part of your home media experience. Carbon adds IPTV support to the dashboard - allowing you to watch high quality digital TV without needing a third party set-top box, TiVo or a Media Center PC.

Cool features such as picture-in-picture, media guide and full PVR support make this a great add on.

Luckily it's early days yet for this product as I think there are some questions that will need to be addressed before it's prime time.

• With only a very small HDD on the Xbox360 how much content are you going to realistically be able to store?
• Will it talk with a Media Center PC - allowing me to deliver live or recorded TV to a tunerless but still MCE capable machine (like my laptop)?
• Will it be able to consume recorded TV from a Media Center?
• Will it be able to store recorded TV on a Windows Home Server device?

I'm a huge fan of the idea of totally integrated, seamless home entertainment but I think at the moment we need to do some work to get that goal. I'm happy to have an Xbox360 and a Media Center as they're both good at different things, but limiting content to one platform or place is frustrating as it means I can't optimize placement and setup - having a Media Center capable Windows Home Server (or a pair of devices) that does all the gruntwork hidden away in a cupboard and just needing the Xbox360 in the living room would be awesome. But at the moment the "best of both worlds" involves having two living room devices, some hacks to get the MCE working with WHS and it still won't stream archived DVDs or CableCard content to either device.

Still, the delivery is slated for the 2007 holidays so there's a lot of time to tweak all the platforms to make something truly awesome...