Manufacturers have big plans for machines
Monday, January 02, 2006
Matthew Fordahl
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN JOSE, Calif. — It’s long been the PC industry’s dream, to take center stage in the vast home entertainment market. Success, however, has been elusive.
And so the industry will introduce in 2006 its most aggressive effort yet to persuade people to buy computers for wrangling the expanding universe of digital content.
Leading the charge are longtime PC collaborators Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp., both of which are promising better support for highdefinition programming and an improved ability to send video, still pictures and music throughout the home and to portable gadgets.
Macintosh maker Apple Computer Inc. also is widely expected to join the fray and, perhaps, do for entertainment computers what it did for digital music players when it unleashed the iPod in 2001.
But itÂ’s not going to be easy to overcome a checkered past, particularly given the problems that emerged in the industryÂ’s first forays.
Most companies havenÂ’t taken close enough notice of whatÂ’s behind AppleÂ’s iPod success, said Rob Enderle, an analyst at the Enderle Group research firm.
‘‘Most of the technology products being thrown at the home market aren’t particularly attractive or well priced, and ease of use isn’t anywhere in their description," he said. ‘‘Until that gets fixed, we’re going to have some serious problems."
Such PCs — even when decked out with programs that can be controlled from a couch with a clicker — are criticized for being too complicated for consumers.
People are simply tired and frustrated by computers that take too long to boot, crash, get infected by viruses and demand constant updates with security patches.
Why would they want such a thing controlling their entertainment? Old set-top boxes supplied by cable and satellite TV companies might be dumb and slow but at least theyÂ’re low-maintenance.
IntelÂ’s answer is Viiv, a hardware and quality assurance platform thatÂ’s expected to be launched in the first part of the year. As Intel did with its Centrino brand for notebooks and Wi-Fi hot spots, it will make sure Viivstickered PCs, gadgets, services and content play well with one another.
Viiv-branded PCs, not surprisingly, will include Intel chips that should enable smaller and more appealing cases, said Eric Kim, Intel’s chief marketing officer. ‘‘Until now, devices (media servers) were PC-like devices with fans, a tower, and lots of noise, and people don’t want that in their living rooms," he said.
ItÂ’s also going to build on MicrosoftÂ’s Media Center Edition of Windows, which has sold more than 4 million licenses since its 2002 debut, including notebooks and laptops without TV tuners that canÂ’t rightly be classified as entertainment delivery vehicles. By way of comparison, analysts have predicted that more than 70 million consumer PCs were shipped worldwide in 2005 alone.
‘‘It really hasn’t taken off because it didn’t meet that threshold for ease of use, the hardware wasn’t good enough and there wasn’t enough compelling content," Kim said. ‘‘What we’re doing is bringing all these parties together."
Microsoft also isnÂ’t planning to stand still in 2006. Late this year, it will introduce its long-delayed, nextgeneration operating system, Windows Vista, as well as a Vista-based update to the Media Center Edition for Windows.
The upgrade will support a technology called CableCARD that will allow users to access all their digital cable channels without having to use the cable box that the cable company supplies — one of the biggest headaches faced by Media Center owners. (This version of CableCARD will not, however, support video on demand or pay-per-view services.)
Microsoft is expected to stress VistaÂ’s capability to handle high-definition programming, which should be more readily available late in the year. And it will coincide with ViivÂ’s marketing, said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, a research firm.
‘‘Vista and Viiv are going to be hyped in parallel," he said. ‘‘There’s at least a billion dollars worth of ads that are going to run as result of this."
Yet with new content, just as with old, the bugaboo of piracy and how to prevent it on a historically open system could stymie the PCÂ’s quest to rule the living room.
To help entice Hollywood to offer up its programming for home-networked PCs — and allay fears of rampant HD piracy, Vista will support digital rights management technology that will allow content owners to determine how their works can be used.
One of the more controversial features of Vista will be its empowering content owners to disallow — or downgrade — high-definition video unless the graphics card and monitor support protecting the signal from unauthorized duplication.
Marcus Matthias, product manager at Microsoft’s Windows Digital Media Division, said that other consumer devices — such as a stand-alone high-definition DVD player — will have to play by the same rules.
But that’s not the only ‘‘digital rights management" technology. Audio CDs are increasingly coming with programs to prevent improper copying on PCs.
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