Help me design a new home entertainment system.

rou_Xenophobe, the thing is, the Slim is cheaper than the old PS3, and the 250GB drive often comes bundled with games. Even so, the 120 is a nice bump up from my measly 40, which, like you say, I need to take care of at some point.http://www.cnet.com.au/how-to-upgrade-your-playstation-3-hard-drive-339282375.htm?omnRef=NULL

Plus, with the slim out now, with a decent hard drive, it's worth using as a media center. Don't buy the PS3 with the larger hard drive unless you really REALLY hate doing basic computery stuff. Just buy a 500GB notebook drive and swap it out; it takes 5 minutes and is if anything easier than swapping the drive in a laptop. Doesn't even break the warranty.

If you have any technical inclination at all you would be far better served by purchasing a regular TiVo HD and putting your own 1TB drive in it. All you need is a torx T15, torx T10, a hard drive, and a PC that you can hook the hard drive to. WinMFS makes it really easy on the software front, and it will save you several hundred bucks you can put towards real speakers. I've read that the PS3 isn't as good at upsampling SD DVDs as some other players. Since I don't watch regular DVDs, I wouldn't know. You might want to check it out before buying. Don't get me wrong, I love my PS3. It's a good Blu-Ray player and I have around 60 games for it. (and I originally bought it just for Blu-Ray and network video!) Also, I've had good luck in the past with LG sets. They are usually significantly cheaper than Sony and Samsung for pretty much no loss other than the brand. Lastly, rather than asking us here, [i]go look at the sets in a store[/i]. Preferably one with a controlled lighting viewing area (like CC used to have for some of their higher end stuff). Get the remote control. Take them out of torch mode and put them in movie mode. Watch them for a while. A long while. Turn off the motion interpolation. Turn it back on. Use the different settings. See whether you even like the soap opera effect that 120Hz and 240Hz can give you on some sets. Play some Blu-Rays at 24fps on the sets that support 1080p24 input. See if you like it better than 1080p60. Look at the sets from the viewing distance you'll have in your living room. Can you tell the difference between the 720p set and the 1080p set? Depending on the distance, you may not be able to see the difference. No sense in spending the extra money if you can't. Don't go for the brightest TV, go for the best TV, which is generally the one that displays the most tonal variation in near-black scenes. If it can do that well, chances are it will do just about everything well. You're making a big purchase with the TV set itself, you should treat it like one and spend the time to get to know your options and try them out in person. As far as brands, I'd say LG, Sharp, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba tend to make the better sets. If you have time, AVSForum is one of the best resources anywhere on this subject.

Various notes: An upconverting DVD player isn't a big deal. Your tv will convert every single thing it receives into 1080p -- 1080p is all it can show, ever. The question isn't whether your dvds will be converted to 1080p, it's only whether they'll be converted by your tv or by whatever's playing your dvds. Well, that and which upscaler does a better job. I would just get a PS3 and be done with it. *It does the bluray thing. *It plays dvds, so you don't need to have your dvd player hooked up. *It streams netflix and youtube directly without bothering your imac. *In the PC world, there are (nonfree) software solutions that let you stream hulu to your pc and have your pc turn around and serve it to your PS3. I assume there are mac solutions as well. *It will play damn near any divx file you feed it. *It will play 99% or so of downloaded high-def files (usually .mkv) with a very simple and painless conversion to avi. *It will play mp3 etc files over your network. TiVo is supposedly on the verge of releasing their Next Big Thing, so I might wait and see how that shakes out.

There are four Bravia 46"ers, http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=bravia+46, with differences (that I noticed) in contrast ratio and dynamic contrast. The model on sale through Sony has the 3rd best configuration (the top 2 are rather close, it seems). Good find!

Okay, so...Sony has a 46inch Bravia V Series HDTV WITH a PS3 for $1000 for Black Friday. Is there any reason that this is NOT a great deal? Yeah, that's a good deal. You're basically getting the PS3 for free, and it will get you Netflix, YouTube, and Blu-Ray. The TV gets good reviews, has solid specs (120Hz, 8-bit panel, 50k:1 dynamic contrast, 178º horizontal and vertical viewing angle), and looks like it has all the inputs you need to have your PS3, PS2, VCR, Wii, and Tivo hooked up simultaneously with your cable/satellite/antenna.

Just from the specs, that looks good. It's true 1080p, and looks to be a very good deal. I have no experience with Sony TVs, but I've used their stereo components for years and found them good and reliable.

Okay, so...http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644530352&XID=A:2187655:10383604::CJ&ref=http://bfads.net/has a 46inch Bravia V Series HDTV WITH a PS3 for $1000 for Black Friday. Is there any reason that this is NOT a great deal?

I have to say you timed this exactly right. I mean black friday is THIS week. Whatever you do, make sure you check out the deal sites first. Right now there are GOOD BIG 1080p TVs WITH blu-ray players in a package for 1000 bucks out there. But make sure you buy with your AMEX card for the purchase protection.