As PC and consumer electronics vendors work to move digital media off your PC and into your living room, they're calling on a familiar favorite to lead the way: the DVD player.
DVD players and recorders have a great advantage over many other approaches to creating a digital home: They are well-established living room products that connect to a TV, the traditional centerpiece of a home entertainment system.
Add high-speed wireless networking to distribute content, and you have a product set that many vendors believe will appeal to people likely to avoid seemingly complex media center PCs, media servers, and similar products.
"A DVD player is a model that people already recognize; it's not a mystery box," says Walt Dreschler, product manager of digital solutions for Gateway. And that familiarity is essential, since many users still have trouble programming VCRs--never mind understanding how stand-alone networking components might fit into their home theater setup.
The timing may be right, as well. For one thing, the content is there: Users now have hard drives bulging with ripped MP3 files, music from services like ITunes, and digital photos. Meanwhile, streaming services (video on demand, Internet radio, and the like), are picking up steam. And networking in the home continues to grow: In 2003, 17 percent of U.S. households with a PC also had a network (40 percent of these were wireless); that number should grow to 29 percent by 2006, according to research firm IDC.
Networking DVD
Photograph: Marc SimonThe emergence of the DVD player as a hub in a digital home network began last year when Gateway and GoVideo were among the first to release connected DVD players.
Gateway's first-generation $250 Connected DVD player streamed digital music, video, and still images from a PC to a TV via ethernet, and it could be upgraded to 802.11b or .11g wireless with a PC Card and new firmware. Gateway is planning its third-generation unit (slated to ship by the middle of 2004), which should support streaming audio services and sport an improved interface.
Photograph: Marc SimonMany more players are getting aboard the connected DVD bandwagon this year. Just in April alone, Apex should release its $200 AD-8000N, which offers 802.11b networking, while Linksys and GoVideo plan to debut products that opt for integrated 802.11g; the Linksys will also support Internet radio. The same month, Philips will ship its MX6000i Streamium Home Theater System, a $799 product that includes a five-disc DVD/SACD changer designed to use 802.11g.
Kiss Technology's $649 DP-1504 adds a 40GB hard drive to its connected DVD player. Later this year, the company will enhance its player with DVD recording capability, HDTV and analog TV tuners, an 80GB hard disk, Internet radio, and 802.11g connectivity. The likely price: $1300.
All of these units come with software for turning your PC into a server that can stream a slew of audio and video formats--including MP3, WMA, JPEG, and MPEG-4--from your PC to the DVD player.
The user interface and networking setup remain knotty problems for connected DVD players, however. The shipping models we looked at--Gateway's Wireless Connected DVD player and GoVideo's D2730 equipped with version 2 software--proved equally challenging to configure and to navigate. For example, to set up 802.11g networking, we had to enter our WEP key; before running the devices, we had to disable our PC's firewall, And the server software (an applet by Digital 5) makes importing digital media files counterintuitive.
Luckily, some of these problems will be fixed in newer models. We tried Apex's pre-production AD-8000N, which uses a new version of Digital 5's applet. The software improves media imports, and it now supports thumbnails (so you can identify your pictures) and image rotation (so you can see them properly)--features that were previously missing.
Server for the Den
Another approach that's gaining momentum is the all-in-one-server model, which similarly places a DVD player/recorder at the center of the action, but which doesn't rely heavily on a PC. Both Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard will have offerings by early 2005.
Shipping in early 2005, Toshiba's Advanced Digital Media Server will start with a connected DVD recorder, but it will also simultaneously--and wirelessly, of course--stream three TV signals (including an HDTV signal) and digital audio to at least two devices, without signal loss. The package will also include a PVR to perform TiVo-style recording and a 250GB hard drive for storing your digital content. In addition, it will provide software that lets users see and access all of the multimedia content stored on the network from any properly connected device. The data will travel over 802.11a, but you'll also be able to stream signals over ethernet or coaxial cable (see the accompanying diagram).
Toshiba plans to offer IPTV modules to convert the IP signals from the primary server into component or composite signals that your TV can accept. Pricing is not yet set.
Details about HP's Entertainment Hub--including its name--are tentative, but the product is due by year's end. The Hub should have all the video and audio connectors you'd expect from any entertainment-component device, along with a DVD burner, a TV tuner, an FM tuner, and a large hard disk capable of storing at least 100 hours of TV. Since the Hub will also have integrated wired and wireless connectivity, however, you'll be able to stream content from the PC--as well as from the Hub--to receivers across your home. Pricing should fall between $1000 and $1500 for the Hub itself, and between $250 and $300 for the receivers, which may also be integrated into devices such as LCD or plasma TVs.
TVs with built-in Wi-Fi are on the way, ready to talk with your PC and possibly to media servers like the ones just described. For example, Sharp's Aquos LC-20PX1U, a 20-inch LCD TV due in May, has two PC Card slots that can accept 802.11b adapters to let you stream media files from a PC. The TV itself incorporates a menu interface to handle on-the-fly viewing of photo slide shows (stored on flash media cards) and recording TV to the bundled 5GB PC Card hard drive (which can store up to 4 hours in the ASF format used by Windows Media Player).
Later in 2004, Philips should ship the 23PF9976i Streamium FlatTV, a 23-inch 1280 by 768 LCD with 802.11g built in. The unit will rely on the PC to act as a server, streaming audio and video files back to it. In addition, it will be able to play streamed Internet media from such partners as IFilm, Musicmatch, and Yahoo. (See "New Living Room Wish List" for other wireless goodies.)
Challenges Ahoy!
Few industry experts expect one type of connected device to dominate in the near term; but all speak of a networked nirvana where media servers feed content wirelessly throughout the home, to every TV, DVD player, and stereo. Today, however, interoperability is a bit of a hodge-podge.
Should you buy now? Last year, when some of the first devices designed to shuttle media from your PC to your living room debuted (see "From PC to Rec Room"), we advised holding off. This year's devices offer you more than a means to connect your PC to your home theater system--they promise key components of that theater system, such as a TV or DVD player/recorder. Because their connectivity features add little to the price (often less than $100), members of this year's crop deserve a closer look.
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