Two of the best purchases so far for my (still in progress) home theater:

1. Home Theater Master MX-500 remote. Pays for itself every single day when I'm not having to juggle 3 remotes just to watch TV.

2. Cheap fluorescent TV backlight. A buddy of mine always complained about eyestrain when watching with all the lights out, and I had the VE disc that recommends the backlight, so I overcame my skepticism and tried it. I wired it into a switched AC outlet on the back of the old Onkyo I'm preamping with (til I get to have a 950) so it comes on when I power up the stereo.

Almost a year later, I simply cannot watch TV at night without the backlight. It�s a huge difference. I turn it off, and it�s immediately uncomfortable; turn it back on, and I can literally feel my eyes relaxing. I totally hadn�t noticed how uncomfortable the completely dark room was, and I thought that if anything the backlight would be distracting (why the hell would you want to light a wall, won�t it compete with the brightness of the picture, etc.), but for me it�s an absolute winner.

So, I�d say Lena has the right idea: get a cheapie and see if the general effect is something you like, then get the fancy bulb if you feel like it would make enough difference to justify the cost (it seems like when I researched that it was a standard size bulb, just a different color temperature). I�m fine with el cheapo until I get further along with my system.

Just my .02, YMMV...