It's no secret that we love HDTV around here, but we get all sad and lonely when we're on the road since our hotel rooms' standard-def tube sets could never give us the kind of HD love we get at home. With RCA's MPC4000 "Laptop Teleceiver," though, all we'd need is a notebook with decent resolution to get those beautiful HD images — direct from the airwaves and fed right into our PC's USB port. At 2 ounces, the mini HD tuner won't weigh down our carry-on, and the collapsible antenna neatly clips onto the side of the monitor. A larger tabletop antenna is included for when reception isn't so great.

Not content with merely bringing in HD shows, the tuner also receives standard analog broadcasts and combines all the data into an onscreen program guide. The included software uses the laptop's hard disk as a PVR, so you can pause live TV, save shows, even schedule recordings and engage parental controls — basically turning virtually any Windows machine into a Media Center PC. It sounds kind of too good to be true, and actually, it is: RCA is holding off the release until April next year, when it'll cost $199 (plans to debut it this year under the Jensen brand were apparently scrapped). Until then, we'll just have to play with Pinnacle's HD Pro Stick, which does pretty much the same thing for $70 less. — Peter Pachal