Entertainment hub: the PC is at the center
of multi-room audio and video
Twenty years ago, when PC makers were trying to convince a skeptical public about the benefits of a home computer, they offered the promise of storing recipes on a hard drive and using number-crunching software to simplify tax returns. It wasn't an alluring sell. Early on, few foresaw the sweeping advances that the Internet would bring. The idea that the home computer would one day become the central vault for family entertainment was as remote as MP3 music.
But a look at the latest wave of audio/video products shows that's just what's happening. Sure, consumers might still bring home a DVD from Blockbuster, but a new generation of products is changing the organizational chart of the electronic home. Legitimate music-download services are pointing to the future of music and movie distribution, and network-friendly audio and video products are becoming peripherals to the PC.
Whether the revolution occurs next year of next decade, it's all more fodder for structured wiring. The high-bandwidth wires of a networked home will be the pipelines supplying the connected audio and video products of today and tomorrow. Unlike custom-distributed audio and video systems affordable only to wealthy homeowners, these PC-based solutions are affordable to mainstream buyers. Whole-house multi-room entertainment will no longer be limited to the carriage trade.
These audio and video devices are appearing in a variety of shapes, sizes and configurations. Everybody--from mainstream audio/video companies to PC sound card suppliers--wants a piece of this emerging market. Network connectors will be as standard in digital products of the future as the AC power cord is today.
Onkyo, a traditional audio company, sells standard audio/video receivers and desktop music systems outfitted with Ethernet jacks for connection to the home PC. One of the first audio companies to identify and develop products designed to work with the PC, Onkyo launched the Net-Tune concept a couple of years ago in a high-end $1,500 audio/video receiver. Now the company has brought the entry point below $1,000 in the TX-NR801, a 700-watt, 7.1-channel A/V receiver with a full palette of surround-sound formats and enough inputs to manage a tall stack of A/V gear.
The NR801 comes with Net-Tune software that users load onto the PC. Music stored in MP3, WMA, or WAV files on the PC hard drive is organized according to artist, album, genre, or in custom playlists that users can access from the Onkyo receiver in the home theater. A Net Audio button calls up the PC music, and using an on-screen menu users select tunes via playlist, artist, genre or album. Users can also create playlists from the hard drive library. Net-Tune also pulls in several hundred Internet radio stations and offers 20 presets for quick access to favorite stations.
Net-Tune not only liberates music from a PC but distributes it to 12 rooms in the house. Onkyo "clients" amplified music systems with an AM/FM radio and an input for a portable music player, bring PC music to any room with wired or wireless network access. The NC-500, without speakers, has a suggested retail price of $399, and its counterpart with speakers sells for $499.
The PC itself is becoming an entertainment device in the form of Microsoft's Media Center PC, which is currently available in PCs from HP and Gateway. Connect a large-screen monitor--Gateway would suggest one of its 42-inch plasma TVs--and the PC becomes an all-in-one media center. The Media Center PC's DVD drive plays back movies, music is stored in MP3 or WMA music files on the hard drive, and digital video recorders similar to ReplayTV and TiVo record TV shows from a connected cable modem. With the TV record feature, users can store as many programs as the hard disk allows, receive 14 days of program guide information, search for programs by actor or title, and pause live TV. Unlike TiVo or ReplayTV, there's no subscription fee. Media Center PCs even come with a remote control for operation from across the room.