Future-proof? Yes. Other smart TV options may someday catch up to the flexibility of the media center PC, but until then, you can bet that most of the apps, features, and services you want will come from the open Web. And much of that content relies on PC-friendly Flash to run, which means your PC will continue to be relevant for quite some time.

A desktop PC also lets you add new hardware for more features, such as a Blu-ray drive or a CableCard for watching movies and viewing/recording cable TV via your PC.

High-end services such as , , , and are still the gold standard for premium TV and live TV. They typically connect to your TV via a specially designed set-top box from your cable, satellite, or telephone company. You can use them to access whatever video-on-demand libraries your network offers; the boxes also have built-in digital video recorder features to help you make sure you don't miss anything.

But the boxes don't yet have the smart TV chops of the setups described previously, and only a few providers are actively trying to develop the Internet-content aspect of their offerings.