Entertainment hub: the PC is at the center of multi-room audio and video

Custom Home, March, 2004 by Rebecca Day

HP's Digital Media Receiver 50013 ($199 for the wired and $299 for the wireless 802.11b version) streams WMA and MP3 music files from a PC to an audio/video system elsewhere in the house. As a supplier of PCs, digital cameras, printers, and scanners, HP is pushing the digital imaging benefits of a connected home. The Digital Media Receiver enables users to play back a wide variety of digital image formats, and you can also play back music and photos simultaneously in a multimedia slide show.

It's not just hardware companies that are delving into digital media receiver products. Pinnacle Systems, known for consumer and professional digital video editing software, is using its video expertise for the ShowCenter ($299), a Windows-based set-top box for the TV that plays back music, images, and video stored on a PC. Users load ShowCenter software onto the PC and the software automatically locates all media files and organizes them by category into manageable lists. Users then access those lists on TVs connected to the ShowCenter box.

It wasn't long ago that only doctors and lawyers could afford cell phones, and now it seems everyone has one. Digital technology is having the same leveling impact on distributed entertainment in the home. There will always be a place for high-end control systems that separate the luxury entertainment systems from the mainstream, but in the home of the future multi-room audio and video will be as commonplace as cable TV. Structured wiring is laying the foundation for the future.

Rebecca Day specializes in writing about home electronics. She can be reached at customhomerd@aol.com.