So you're thinking about getting an Xbox Kinect, and you're not sure exactly what you need?  Or you just got one and you want a few quick tips.  Here's some thoughts to get you started.

There are two flavours of Xbox Kinect.  If you already have an Xbox 360, you can just get the Kinect for Xbox 360.  This has the sensor, software, and adapter to plug it into the USB port of any Xbox 360.  If you don't have an Xbox, there are two bundles available with the Xbox and Kinect.  The only difference is the size of the hard drive (4 Gb or 250 Gb).  Given where media is going (Zune, Netflix, and others offering streaming and download movies and TV shows) you probably want to get the 250 Gb model, even if you're not a big gamer.  Be aware that if you get the bundle, it doesn't come with the adapter for older Xboxes, so you can only use it on the new models.

Once you get everything out, clear some space for your play area.  Kinect likes 6-10 feet of space in front of it, so you'll need to move coffee tables and such to have a good play area.  When you fire everything up it takes you through an easy step by step of calibrating and configuring everything.

For those of you that haven't heard of Xbox Kinect, don't worry, you will.  Microsoft is reportedly spending $500M marketing it.  If you haven't tried it out, you really should, it is very cool.  You can read all about it at www.xbox.com/en-US/Kinect.

In a nutshell, with Kinect you are the controller.  It features an RGB camera, depth sensor and multi-array microphone which provides full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition, and voice recognition capabilities.  The depth sensor consists of an infrared projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor, and allows the Kinect sensor to see in 3D under any ambient light conditions (referenced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect)

Of course being a tech geek I had to get one.  I have two theatre setups in the house. Upstairs is a 42" plasma, and downstairs a Panasonic HD projector and a 170" screen. Kinect works with both, but actually works much better upstairs on the plasma.