Give Dad the gift of entertainment on Father’s Day

[ Photo courtesy of Paula Pandey Chhetri ]

With Father’s Day just 3 days away, here are some last-minute suggestions that don’t include either a Sham-wow or a Snuggie. Instead, get your Dad or husband something he’d actually want—a gadget to make his entertainment more, well, entertaining. Here are a few suggestions for any budget.

$50 or less: Consider a set of decent earbuds (the Sony MDR-ED21LP, $20, is one example), or a DVD or Blu-ray disc of his favorite flick or series. An iTunes gift card, $15 to $50, will let him download music as well as movies and TV shows he can watch on an iPod, iPhone, or computer.

$50 to $100: A pair of noise-canceling headphones can deliver satisfying sound while providing a sonic sanctuary from unwanted outside noises, whether he’s on the go or just hanging out at home. We found several that fall into this price range in our last headphone Ratings (available to subscribers).

If you can spend $60, consider a basic Netflix subscription, which entitles Dad to two DVDs a month for a year. That translates to 24 movies, or a compilation of a TV series he might have missed. (A few critically acclaimed series to consider: Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock, Mad Men, The Wire, The Shield, and Dexter. And allow me one personal recommendation: If he’s into history and mystery, I think he’ll love Foyle’s War, a PBS series about a police inspector dealing with espionage, sabotage, propaganda, and everyday crimes on the English coast during World War II.)

$120: A small bump in the budget to $120 can yield a gift of a one-year subscription to his cable company’s DVR service. You can generally swap the standard box for one with a DVR at no extra cost, and you can pick up the $10-or-so-a-month tab for a year’s worth of DVR service. Dad can always go back to the basic box when it’s his turn to pay—though I doubt he’ll surrender it without a fight—or you can make it a gift that keeps on giving by extending it next Father’s Day.

$200: If you’re willing to part with a pair of Benjamins (as in Franklin), a home-theater-in-a-box system can transform a mundane night of TV into a virtual trip to the movie theater. (Check our HTIB section for general buying advice; we’re currently testing a bunch of new models, so we’ll have new HTIB Ratings recommendations soon.)

If you're more flush with cash, check out our other gift ideas, which go for more dough. Do you have any inspirations? If so, share ‘em, and help out the procrastinators among us. —Eileen McCooey