Back in the days of bachelor-hood I was quite into my HIFI sound systems, TV widescreen, surround sound setup, DVD players, PC, Gamecube, PS2s.......changed days with the family, I've no time to even research new gear, let alone be able to afford it.....so..

My 32in CRT widescreen is still hanging on in there, my Sony DAV 550 home theatre or something still plays most things chucked at it (I had to give up the two rear speakers cos of the trailing speaker wire :-( ), my 2nd gen Apple Ipod classic battery is on its 9th life (need to be permanently plugged in), but still giving us living room music through the DAV, and the best piece of equipment I have the Sky+ is the piece de resistance!

Now we've come to Blu-ray players, Apple TV, plasma/LCD HD screens......and I'm in need of upgrading. But where do I start?

I've a few questions,

1. As mentioned on the other thread, I need a new PC, and was intrigued about this BBC iPlayer service which seems worthwhile, but I don't have a PC yet. Not that I'd be wanting to watch the shows on the PC, but can I stream the content from it to my tv? I have a wireless network. If so, whats the best product? Is Apple TV good? I suppose I'd need an Apple then. Is that better than a PC. Its not cheaper anyway. I know you can dual boot into Windows so that would be ok on a Mac....as well as that iPlayer through the Wii, Blue Ray player on the PS3? What console is needed?

2. For the living room multimedia experience, display photographs, DVDs, football/sport on the Sky+...what TV should I look at? What is upscaling DVD players? Do I need to get full hi-def? Been looking at the Panasonic plasma 37in tellys. Good reviews. Better for watching sport than LCD? No trailing.

Any recommendations? Whats the ideal setup? Whats your setup? Share all....

Popcorn Hour...google it.

THere are way more than two questions there

I wouldnt pin any hopes on iplayer TBH. The times Ive used it both the streaming picture quality have been poor. Its web based, so you cant stream it to your tv as such (you probably can get some expensive device to do it but you'd have to question if its worth it), but you could plug the PC into the tv - thats what I do. You can also get it through the Wii, but AFAIK its still on beta and didnt work very well when I tried it.

An upscaling DVD player will display normal DVDs at a higher definition than a normal dvd player. The quality wont be anywhere near as good as blu-ray, but if you have a decent tv and a large dvd collection, its well worth it.

If you want to watch blu-ray then, yes get full hi-def. Otherwise, its not worth it unless you plan to keep your tv for quite a while.

A good plasma tv is better than a good LCD tv - yes.

If you want to spend lots of money you could get a proper home entertainment system - you plug everything into it the cable multiple outputs around the house.

BBC iPlayer is rubbish.

Xbox360 can stream media content from your PC over the home network, it's pretty good. Basically just; download .avi, stick in shared folder, press play on xbox, watch film on your telly.

Been reading reviews of the Apple TV produc this afternoon. Could be useful? Saves going to the office in the house to look at PC media stuff. Photos (I liked that Apple TV can hook up to your Flickr account), music, podcasts, etc. In time movie rentals may be decent. Don't think you can in the UK yet.

Think that movies went live in June for the UK....