Special Gadgets/Vudu

Sick of trying to get downloaded movies from your computer to your TV? Vudu ($400) eliminates the middleman by connecting directly to its companion service's catalog of over 5000 films, available to both rent or own. Along with the expected HDMI and component video and coax and optical digital audio outputs, Vudu also features built-in storage capable of holding one hundred hours of purchased content, making it a one-stop shop for movies in your living room.

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Special Gadgets/TiVo Premiere Elite

Recording two shows at once? That's so 2008. The TiVo Premiere Elite ($TBA) blows past this limitation by integrating multiple digital tuners and a two terabyte hard drive, letting you record up to four shows at once and save up to 300 hours of HD programming — for those that weren't counting, that's nearly two weeks of eyeball-rotting goodness. Other features include THX certification for optimal sound and video quality, TiVo's legendarily elegant interface, and integrated Internet entertainment like Netflix, Pandora, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and YouTube. You'll be able to pick it up this fall, so to avoid confrontation, you might want to break the news to your current cable box now

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