Home Entertainment Show: Great Gadgets

A few more cool and affordable gadgets sifted out of this show full of laser turntables and AC power cleaners:

1. Acoustic Research was demonstrating its new Digital MediaBridge (below), one of the first streaming media devices I've seen that supports HD. With support for mp3, WMA, AAC and WAV, as well as MPEG 2, MPEG 4, WMV9, and DivX, it can handle almost any codec you can throw at it.



Standard definition and hi-def movies from CinemaNow also work on the MediaBridge, which decodes and processes the media on the device, saving processing power on your PC and bandwidth on your wired or 802.11b or g network. The $349 MediaBridge should be avialable in June.

2. With most IPod stereo docks, your IPod ends up tethered to your stereo. This means you have to get up to change songs or playlists. A few companies have built remotes that let you control the IPod from your couch, but, of course, any of those remotes make you learn a new control interface for a device that many believe already has perfect controls.

Enter Belkin's $179 TuneStage, which uses a Bluetooth transmitter that you plug into the top of your IPod to stream music to a base station that you connect to your stereo receiver. That way, you still get to use your IPod's controls to cue up your music. Neat.

3. Inspired by the TuneStage, here's a free idea for all you remote manufacturers out there. Is it me, or would an IPod-style ClickWheel be an amazing replacement for the DVD menu controller on every universal remote? I'd pay good money for that.