The Static Page

Home Entertainment... Computers?

Here's a less "professional IT" topic to kick things off. :-)

From time to time, computer manufacturers decide a personal computer would be better as part of the home entertainment system (i.e. TV, Video, Surround Sound, etc) than on a computer desk all on it's own. Witness Gateway's Destination systems a few years ago and Olivetti's attempt several years earlier. Both made a splash for novelty's sake, but didn't seem to make much lasting impression. And Creative Labs seem to be trying this again, too.

However, add-ons, either as internal cards or external boxes, that allow computer display on a TV, or video input to a PC still sell and sell resonably well. There are companies that have been around for years who specialize in this field, such as Aver Media. Yet the PC still remains stubbornly divorced from most home entertainment systems.

Curiously, it is the burgeoning DVD market that has finally encouraged the migration to occur. I have a circle of geeky friends in real life (most of you probably do too) who do things together, like play Quake II. I am the only one in our group who has bought a stand-alone DVD player. Everyone else has purchased a DVD-ROM drive and devoted a PC for this task. At least two such installations also have a long length of ethernet cable out to the other computers. One also includes a digital audio connection to a Dolby Digital decoder and a video projector for that real Home Theatre experience.

So finally, the Home Entertainment Computer has come. But in my experience, not as an integrated, sold-as-a-unit box, but as a box assembled from components. What have you experienced of computer/entertainment system integration?

Wade Bowmer, aka Static

Comments? Email me at static dash page at yceran dot org.