Defying the consumer ratings services and the unreliable bloggers, our experts pick what they purchased, used, enjoyed and would recommend to our readers and viewers:

From the Digital Family Advisor staff: Livia Bergovoy, Barry Melemed, Katharine Czechowksi, Richard Macias, Mark Parrella, Matt Larose, Jan Jaben-Ailon, Yoab Ailon and Richard Michael Sherwin

50 inch and above TVs with Multifunction Features: No hands down winner here because Vizio, once a bargain brand, has now eclipsed Panasonic, Samsung , LG and even Sony in many of the high end function categories. While all of them make a 3D TV, we still don’t see the need to buy a 3D model until there’s a lot more TV content and Blue Ray disks. But if you truly are springing for a top of the line LCD model, then choosing the Samsung LN 60c, Vizio 553, Sony 52nx500 or Panasonic Plasma and LG Plasma, will give you the highest quality backlit picture with, in many cases, Internet access and other functions. For many of us who are blinded by the many tests we’ve run, the Panasonic Viera TV model P58 may still be the best all-around TV you can buy.

Just Plain HDTVs: If you just want to watch high quality HDTV, but don’t need a super large screen, 3D, the Internet or any widgets and Apps, there are some great deals out there. Philips, a pioneer in budget priced, high quality TVs, sold their name to Funai a few years ago and that company is producing under 46 inch TVs in the Magnavox, Sylvania, Philips names, while stalwart’s like Sharp and Westinghouse and upstarts like Haier and Best Buy’s Insignia house brand make budget priced, but high quality just plain HDTVs. Some of these models, when placed in the den, living room or bedroom, are indistinguishable from TVs costing sometimes twice as much. And, yes, Vizio has models in that category, too.

Home Theater in a Box: While we still think Yamaha beats Onkyo, Sony, Harmon Karden and Panasonic in HTIAB combos, Yamaha still has such confusing controls that, unless you are very familiar with the many settings you can have with HTIAB, you may be happier without Yamaha. JVC has moved past LG and Samsung in systems you can purchase at the wholesale clubs. Please be very careful with the store brands from Target, Sears, K-Mart and others as these combo products are only 50 to 75 dollars cheaper than the name brands, but the name brands will offer you better service and quality.

Just Speakers: While Home Theater in a Box has surpassed component (individual products) as the all around favorite for your home listening pleasure, audiophiles still migrate to buying their receiver and amplifier individually and then marrying them to high quality loud speakers. Our former first choice in that category was Klipsche, but some troublesome hardware issues that we don’t think were addressed well enough (speaker stands bending, cloth coverings not so secure), lead us to downgrade the venerable audio company. We’ve seen and heard models from KEF, Polk and Acoustic Research and have been pretty much blown away by the range and accuracy of those speakers. Bose still trails Boston Acoustics, JBL and Sony in quality in the bookshelf speaker category…and in this category, Best Buy’s own branded models and the new (check on back for factory date) Panasonic models are really terrific.

Streaming Audio: A once confusing, yet rewarding, technology now has entrants from big and small manufacturers. Devices from Belkin, ORB (great price, easy to use) and Sonos (expensive, but the most features and super quality) are all gaining in sales and enabling you to enjoy your digital music and internet and customized radio anywhere in the house or on your high or low end audio systems.

But in this category, there’s a hands-down winner. Logitech’s Squeezebox wireless streaming music systems (boom-boxes, component, desktop models) are all feature wise and functionally our choice. From as little as $99 to models costing around $299, Squeezebox can play your own music collection to 1000s of Internet radio stations to Apps like Pandora, Slacker and Sirius on almost any audio receiver in any room in your house.

Handheld Multimedia Players: If you match some of the now lower priced IPod Touches against the competition, they are one of the few Apple premium products worth the premium price over other multifunction players. Some of the newer models from Archos have better sound quality than IPod Touch, but still haven’t mastered the sensitivity of the IPod Touch. Archos and Sony offer slightly better video quality than Apple, but of course if you sprang for the IPad or Samsung Galaxy tablets, you’d receive the ultimate in handheld multimedia experience.

Standard MP3 players: While many of us have some form of an IPod, those of us more fortunate to use any of San Disk’s underrated MP3 players get better sound quality, easier music transfers and a lot more features for the money than any Apple product or any standard MP3 player. Even the much maligned Microsoft Zune and fast rising Sony players stack up nicely, while Creative Labs has almost disappeared from our top choices. Archos still makes a top product if you can find one.

A few reminders here about digital music content: If you are new to buying and using an MP3player or any multimedia device, ITunes no longer has the best or most complete library of files to buy or rent. Amazon’s portfolio is better and is easier to download and easier to share with friends or relatives. San Disk makes a half dozen pre loaded micro SD cards. Dubbed slotRadio cards. From Classic rock to oldies to health and fitness, these cards are preloaded with 1000s of tunes from the original artists for instant gratification when using your new SanDisk Fuse MP3 player. Another way to expand your mobile collection of digital music without buying a bigger capacity MP3 or multimedia player is to purchase a blank SD or Micro SD card from Kingston Technologies. They’ve dropped their prices, so that 4 gigs to a whopping 32 gigs of music can be added to your player for very little money, if it has a card slot. In addition, as video files and more sophisticated TV recordings require more memory capacity, the Kingston SD cards are a very affordable way to update your multimedia phones, players and other devices, without having to purchase new ones.

Integrated PVR: TiVO still wins hands down in this category. The new Apple TV and the fast rising Roku are somewhat improved over last year’s editions and, while Verizon and Cablevision also offer recorded programs on their HD PVRs, they are still not as easy and fast to use. TiVo also reigns supreme because it has added features like Netflix, Pandora, Amazon and YouTube which work well with the main menu, so that novice users don’t have to futz around with these extra applications called widgets.

Mini Camcorders: Once a gimmick item , mini camcorders have become the biggest sellers in the camcorder category worldwide. Flip, the former ruler of this genre, still sells the most HD mini camcorders. The availability of wide angled lens and water proof casings will only solidify its lead at retail….and its built-in software makes it very easy for first time users to get their home videos on their TVs and on the web quickly. But DXG has taken over the lead in quality and built-in features with its more comprehensive lineup of models. Yes they are way bigger, but for the money, they are better made and more reliable. Sony and Panasonic have joined the mini- cam fray with decent models, too, and Kodak has some terrific features for the price, now that they’ve have had to drop their price to compete. Off brands and store brands using names like Polaroid, Memorex or Insignia, or lower priced models from Coby or RCA, are often stripped down versions of the more famous models and not usually worth saving the few bucks over the leading manufacturers.

Digital Cameras: Point and Shoot: Canon Powershot, Nikon Coolpix and Sony Cybershot traditionally have the unanimous first choice with the best lenses, fastest shutters and best features. However, slowly but surely, Casio has forged its way back into the top five and Panasonic, which disappointed many buyers a few years ago, now charges in with its terrific Lumix line of digital cameras. Kodak, Samsung , Fuji and Olympus are still good buys, but Canon and Nikon are real offshoots of their professional line of cameras if you are going to spend more than $200 this holiday season.

Home Entertainment Networked Devices: For many consumers, anything with the word home network is a technology scourge. Most people still can’t set up a wireless network at home. And, because of the inabilities of the router makers like Linksys, Netgear, D-Link, Action Tech and Buffalo to improve their relationships with the service providers, the true merging and convergence and use of home networking of computers and consumer electronics is only in about 12% of U.S. homes. YouTube, Pandora, Hulu, Amazon On Demand, Netflix, Slacker and more applications have become, for the technically minded, as common as NBC, CBS and ABC. And, all of a sudden, even the average non technical consumer is being confronted by TVs and Blue Ray players and other devices that have many of these networked features (called widgets) already built-in. Well, some computer oriented companies like Intel, Yahoo and several others have finally landed on regular retail shelves with products that add some form of Internet access or Internet driven features to your TV if your service provider or cable company hasn’t done so already.

(A brief explanation is in order as even the advertisements start using the new word Widgets. Widgets , which are small applications available on many networked TVs, PVRs, Blue Ray players and plain old cable boxes, are still the least used applications features on all these TV devices. Slowly and surely, they will become more prevalent as the hardware makers get a kickback from the firms offering these applications…in essence subsidizing the cost of making a TV, Blue Ray player or PVR. )

There are a few of these devices that we heartily recommend even if you have some form of Internet access on your TV or Blue Ray player: Logitech’s Revue and Sony Bravia’s Blue Ray player using Google TV and a special Intel chip, are the best bets for adding easy and functional Internet applications and web browsing to your TV. While some lingering legal issues are preventing these products from offering you full Hulu or other Internet TV sites on your TV, there are plenty of easy workarounds and tons of features that, for the cost (under $250), make it like having a computer built-into your TV. Orb Networks has the least expensive way to add many popular web sites to your TV and Orb’s home audio player offers an affordable and easy way to add your favorite audio and radio programs all across the household. Orb cuts its costs of adding Internet TV to your TV by making your Android based mobile phone or your IPhone into a sophisticated yet easy to use remote control.

The Top Over-the-Ear Headphones: While Sennheiser, Panasonic and Sony lead the pack by a long way in noise cancelling head-phones, you can’t discount Monster’s Dr. Dre’s, JVC or Koss’ newer models which maybe a little heavier, but do provide sensational and true sound. Bose, a consistent seller in this genre, has a new model that’s not worth the $300 or more it costs, but with Bose’ new aggressive entry into the wholesale clubs, you’ll probably be seeing and hearing more of Bose as it is bound to drop its prices with all the new competition.

The Top In-Ear and Ear bud Headphones: Here’s where comfort sometimes outranks performance. However, Ultimate Ears’ (by Logitech) top of the line model (actually worn by rock stars and musicians) scores well on both comfort and quality. Monster’s Turbine in-ear noise cancelling models, are gaining in popularity and includes many different size plugs for any size ears. The Shure line of in-ear headphones, is usually the priciest of the lot. But they have dropped in price significantly, making them a best buy. The Shure models, however, always seem to be a little too dainty for consumers who are taking their in-ear headphones in and out a lot.

Top Home Phones: While the bloggers love the AT@T and Panasonic cordless DECT phones, we still chose the Uniden for price and performance. VTech (which makes home phones for many off brands) is hard to choose because we are not ever sure which model is their top of the line. One way to choose yourself is to see and play with these units as some have different fonts on the base and satellite phones and the markings can account for wrong numbers or disconnects that are not the fault of the phone service providers. Also many of these phones have terrific conference, paging and other features that most consumers never use.

Top Smart Mobile Phones: While everyone thinks that IPhones have an insurmountable lead in this category only to get bigger soon when Verizon starts carrying the Apple signature product, Google’s Android based Smart Phones have actually outsold IPhones for the past few months and for good reason. The Droids have models from HTC, Motorola, Samsung and soon LG. Some of these models are slimmer, lighter and have better screens than the IPhone. And, while the IPhones have terrific free and low cost Apps, Droid Apps are gaining fast with a portfolio of really useful applications. In addition, Droid is available right now on Verizon.

Just Plain Mobile Phones: If you don’t need or want your mobile phone to be online 24/7 or need any apps at all (most people don’t), then LG still leads the pack over Samsung and Motorola in that category. In fact, many of the top non smart phones offer Email and easy keyboard or touch screen messaging and also have nice cameras built-in. Our favorites are the LG Octane and the HTC XV6900.

Most Reliable Easy to Use Router/Wi-Fi Modem Devices

(There are none)

Best Computer Accessories

(Mice, Keyboards, and Web Cameras)

Microsoft has come a long way and is now in a virtual dead heat for computer keyboard and mice features. Both companies have longer battery lives for their products …some models allegedly lasting 2 years on one set of batteries. And while Logitech’s set up is easier because their batteries are already in the devices, Microsoft’s packaging is easier to open up. Both companies make professional types of mice, with Logitech winning the feature battle there. Both companies now make an HD capable web-cam which may scare some families when they see what they really look like. Logitech’s free video web service is now becoming a strong competitor for Skype (which also makes a slightly less vivid web cam). If you just want a plain vanilla replacement keyboard or mice, we found that the non branded models you can buy in Walmart, Staples and/or Target do cost as much as $20 less but, with heavy use, wear out faster than the famous brands.

Best Video Game System: It’s a no brainer now that Sony’s PlayStation 3 has added so many features including VuDu, Netflix, Hulu Plus and so many others that it replaces five set top boxes. In addition, it’s built-in Blue Ray player ranks in the top three for speed and quality. We also matched PS3 against Wii and Xbox 360 for speed and accessibility in its built-in WiFi and Sony wins there too. While Xbox’s Konect and Sony’s Move out-maneuver the Wii’s live human action gaming experience, Nintendo’s is still the easiest to use.

NEXT WEEK: GPS, just plain radios, multifunction remote controls, home and mobile accessories, PC-Mac Software, Home Security, PC Security and future products….