Comment: Living room in a box

By Paul Trotter

Posted on 3 Mar 2005 at 15:28

We're precious about our living rooms: they're places to relax and forget about work. So it's quite right that some people feel nervous when imagining a PC next to their TV. And however they're dressed up, Windows Media Center 'hubs' are still PCs.

So that's why they were given a grilling at last month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). All that talk of a Microsoft-based product that connects and controls everything we own was enough to inspire many attendees to bark: 'not if I have anything to do with it'. And this despite the fact that, of all the world's top trade shows, CES is the perfect platform for this product.

It seems the message has historically come from the top. The chief executive of CES, Gary Shapiro, told me he'd long been at odds with the man he'd invited to present the opening keynote: Bill Gates. CES was initially an exhibition for TV manufacturers who regarded themselves as being a world apart from Microsoft, companies that sneered at the boring old IT firms that were trying to get a piece of the action. And Shapiro has led their criticism.

However, using his words at CES, Gates is now 'the symbol of what's right at this moment in history'. What's this? A sign that the consumer electronics industry thinks Gates is the man to lead the new world of connected entertainment devices? Don't bet on it. He's probably realised the notion of 'one system to rule them all' is no longer fashionable. Unlike Microsoft's assault on PC OSes, it's improbable that one type of entertainment device will be used in 90 per cent of living rooms. Last month, we extolled the virtues of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. We liked the systems we reviewed and believe PC Pro readers can now see real benefits from using these Microsoft machines.

But you have to remember, you and I are not 'normal' people: we like computers. As Dick Pountain wrote last month (see issue 125, p13), many people can't stand the things, and that's why some manufacturers of traditionally PC-centric consumer electronics products are seeking to cut out the middle man. We have digital cameras that can print without a PC, cameras that email pictures without a PC (see p163), and even PCs that play DVDs without booting into Windows. And the PC-hating populous these products are designed for are quite happy watching TV in the evenings without the interference of Microsoft, thank you very much. They need a product to be up and running 30 seconds after opening the packaging.

Even the world's second largest PC maker - HP - has noticed the bad will against the devices we know and love. Chief executive Carly Fiorina launched an entertainment hub at CES designed for simplicity when controlling all of the digital technologies we want to use. It's not a PC. And not being a PC makes it less likely to suffer from the problems our industry regards as the norm. Sure, PCs are less likely to crash nowadays - it was incredibly unfortunate that a slide show from a Nikon D2X camera failed to show on the Windows Media Center PC screen during Gates' CES keynote. However, they're more likely to get infected with viruses or spyware. And they require technophobes to undergo a steep learning curve.

The masses aren't ready to go through all this bother for just another PC, and an expensive one at that. A friend of mine - a computer programmer with more than just a passing interest in PCs - picked up last month's PC Pro when he saw that DVD player look-a-like PC on the cover. It stoked his interest in Media Center, 'but what about the price?' he protested. So not only is Microsoft's living-room catchment area limited to techies, it's limited to techies who are willing to pay a premium for the latest in technology.