November 13th, 2003
Home Entertainment Doesn’t Equal a PC Server
A report (not study) from the Internet Home Alliance (never heard of ‘em) says consumers want ‘eHubs’ — basically one-device PC servers for their home entertainment networks. I’m gonna have to call them out on this one — this is propaganda from PC manufacturers, plain and simple.
“There is a clear indication that consumers want to have the PC become part of their entertainment world at home,” Barra told internetnews.com in an exclusive interview today. “It’s not that the set-top box won’t be there, or that gaming consoles won’t have some role, but that the perception out there today is that consumers are expecting the PC to become the entertainment library for their homes.”
Tivo, recording DVDs, digital cable, home networks — these are all appealing, yes. But that doesn’t mean that we need or want a central home media server. Why?
A single server — made by PC manufacturers — is likely going to be too expensive and too complex, while serving as a single point of failure. Gateway, one of the supporters of this eHub concept, has already proven that a few chips in a DVD player can serve as a cheap digital media player, allowing TV viewing of PC content.
We’ve got *many* options here. A network is designed to bridge many devices, the hub-spoke model is only one configuration. The emerging WiMedia standard is designed to form P2P networks between devices, alleviating the need for a central server.
With storage cheap and plentiful and technologies like Apple’s Rendezvous, I’d be happier to see all my specialized devices on the network, talking to each other, sharing and collaborating — including my PC — than be reliant on a single server (with a single OS & GUI).