Becky Waring

I had high hopes for Belkin's new Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit. Having recently reviewed Belkin's Powerline AV+ Starter Kit, which performed well and had great features, I was expecting to find more of the same, plus faster performance in the Gigabit product. However, the results made me wish that Belkin had forgone the use of the word Gigabit.

Powerline networking kits are a great way to connect setups that may be in one part of your house (like your home entertainment center) to your home network, which may be in another. They connect to your router and a power outlet on one end and to another power outlet elsewhere in the house at the other, essentially turning power outlets into ethernet ports, without the hassle and expense of running cables. And they can provide the stable high-speed connections required for HD video streaming, unlike most Wi-Fi options.

Got your new HDTV in place? Next you'll need to make sure that all of the sources that will feed your new set with video--whether your DVD player, DVR or cable box--are HD ready. These tips will help you make sense of how best to manage that process. We also include some tips on where to find the best over-the-air HD content, and how to set up your own free DVR.

Bringing home your shiny new HDTV is just the beginning of your home theater adventure. But don't settle, as many HDTV buyers do, for just plugging your new set into your existing setup. The next steps you need to take after bringing your HDTV home are crucial to both your enjoyment of the set and getting the most out of your investment.

Your new set is in place, you've got your DVR ready, and your service for HD signals is set up. Now you have the hard task of connecting all the pieces together. Using just any available cables isn't the best choice, though. These will tips help you figure out how to choose the best HDMI cables, how to make sure that all the wiring doesn't take over your living room, and how to pick the best universal remote to manage your new home theater.

Once your new HDTV is set up and connected to your home theater, it might seem that you can just power up and watch your favorite shows. But not so fast. You'll first need to calibrate your set to get an optimal picture. And as for the sound, you'll need to make sure that your speakers are put in the proper place to ensure immersion in high-quality audio. These tips will walk you through those steps, so you can finally relax and enjoy all your HD content.

Netgear's Digital Entertainer Elite is the most versatile example to date of a rare breed: set-top media players that can be used by "the rest of us." With their terminal-like interfaces that only a geek could love, most such boxes seem to appeal mainly to the file-sharing/hacking crowd, but the $400 Entertainer makes it painless to connect your TV to your PC or Mac, and to the Internet at large.

Without reading the manual, or even looking at the foldout quick-setup sheet, we were quickly watching videos streamed from our PC and YouTube. You simply connect the box to your TV via a cable--HDMI, component, or composite--then run through a quick on-screen setup procedure using the included remote control.

Netgear's Powerline AV kit puts an ethernet port wherever you have a power outlet. Plug one of the two included adapters into a wall outlet and into your router, and then plug the other one into an outlet next to the remote device you want to connect, such as a game console, a streaming media box, or a printer. They will detect each other within seconds, and you'll be up and running.

To change the default encryption passphrase (recommended if you share electrical circuits with others or are concerned about security), simply press buttons on each adapter within 2 minutes. Data-transfer performance was very good, as the Netgear hardware streamed glitch-free high-definition video from my Slingbox, with sustained throughput of about 60 mbps.

Since a powerline network requires at least two adapters, we combined ZyXel's PLA-401 v2 HomePlug AV Powerline Wall Mount Ethernet Adapter with the company's PLA-470 HomePlug AV PowerLine Switch to form our own "starter kit." The total price is about the same as that of two-adapter kits from other vendors. We connected the PLA-401 wall-mount adapter to our router as the base station, and used the PLA-470 desktop adapter (with four-port ethernet switch) to connect our remote devices.

As was the case with the other powerline kits we tested, setup was plug-and-play, throughput was very good, and video streaming performance was rock-solid. You simply plug the two adapters into the wall, and then connect your devices via ethernet to the adapters, and the devices detect each other automatically within a few seconds. The powerline LED glows red or green depending on the quality of the connection, which helps you to troubleshoot bad outlets.

Wireless networks today are faster, more secure, and more reliable than their predecessors. But to some extent Wi-Fi is a victim of its own success: Search for a Wi-Fi hotspot these days, and you may find a dozen networks competing for the same 2.4GHz bandwidth-so nobody gets a good signal.

At the same time, changes in the way we use networks demand better performance than ever. Exacting applications such as network backup, high-definition video streaming, BitTorrent downloading, and VoIP can choke even the fastest Wi-Fi: At best, a draft-2.0 802.11n router delivers a little over 100 megabits per second in real-world throughput. If multiple Wi-Fi clients claim a share, performance can rapidly--and, in the case of streaming video, visibly--deteriorate.

Like the Netgear XAVB101 Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter Kit, the Actiontec MegaPlug AV Powerline Gaming Kit HPE200AV, and other Homeplug AV-based kits, Belkin's Powerline AV+ networking kit lets you extend your home network over your electrical wiring.

HomePlug AV powerline kits tend to be similar in most respects, but the Belkin has two compelling features that set it apart from the rest, at little or no added cost.

D-Link's DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router ($100 as of April 20, 2009) was one of the first gigabit draft-2.0 routers, and it's still one of the best. D-Link has added a number of valuable features via firmware updates, such as USB drive and printer sharing, and a special Wi-Fi guest zone. Factor in a low price tag plus comprehensive routing and firewall features, and it's no wonder the DIR-655 is one of our top picks.

The D-Link's throughput was very good overall, though certainly better at short range. This 3×3 antenna router also performed well with both the 2×3 and the 3×3 Intel cards.

Despite its moniker, Actiontec's HomePlug AV Powerline Gaming Kit HPE200AV isn't just for gaming--it's good for any spot that needs a network connection, that you don't want to run wires to, and that can't pick up a Wi-Fi signal.

The kit consists of two shiny white wall-wart-style adapters with ethernet ports at the bottom. One adapter plugs into your router and into a power outlet. The other adapter plugs into a power outlet elsewhere in your home and provides a network connection for your remote device. The kit is completely plug-and-play: It's ready to go within seconds, as soon as the two adapters detect each other and the lights come on. A green powerline LED indicates a good connection of 100 mbps or more, an orange LED lights up to indicate a connection of between 50 mbps and 100 mbps, and red signals a poor link rate of 50 mbps or less.