Brennan’s Blog

For years now the dream of the home entertainment system converging with the home computer has eluded reality. Over the years attempts were made to break into this market but nothing has really stuck. My idea of a modern home theater includes a DVD player, Digital Video Recorder (DVR), a gaming console and access to my home computer which holds digital video content which has been purchased and downloaded from the internet. Finding everything for such a system is difficult.

As yet, I have not been able to walk into a nearby Best Buy and find such a system. They have systems set up with a great screen and stereo system but the rest of the system is missing. Ask the staffer in the Home Theater department at Best Buy about DVR options which work with Time Warner Cable and they can give no answers. Ask them about integrating with your home computer and there are still no sufficient answers. It is clear there is nothing mainstream yet.

One option is the Windows Media Center. With this solution, you make an S-Video connection from the computer to the TV. But what if the computer is in the home office while the TV is in the living room? What if I want to have more than one TV pulling video from the same computer? These are unwanted limits for my ideal home theater.

Alternatively, Apple has announced the upcoming iTV. There is very little information available about it as the final product has not been released and more features may be in the works. What is known is that a small box will be located near the screen with a wireless connection to the computer. This means the computer and TV do not have to be located in proximity due to wiring constraints. That is a clear advantage. It may also allow multiple screens to display video from the same computer. As Steve Jobs puts it, "2007 will be the most exciting year ever for new products." With an offering like iTV, I agree.

What makes iTV work will also allow competitors to work. The reason we have not seen video streamed from a computer to a TV has been due to a limitation of the WiFi bandwidth. The iTV solution makes use of 802.11n, the latest WiFi specification which dramatically increases the available bandwidth. At the moment 802.11g is the most commonly used standard. In comparison, 802.11g runs at 25 Mbit/s while 802.11n runs at 200 Mbit/s. Such bandwidth should be more than sufficient to stream high quality video.

With part of the video coming from a computer in another room and the new flat screen mounted to the wall, the entertainment center seems like an unnecessary waste of space. So I plan to use an IR Repeater to relay signals from the remote to the electronics hidden in the hallway closet. By relocating all of that hardware I will have more space for seating. I also like the fact that everything that goes with the TV will no longer be an eye sore. I never liked having those electronics blinking at me while watching a movie. I just want a blank wall and a clear screen.

It appears my ideal home theater will emerge in 2007 due to these technologies. I find that iTV is very appealing, but if Windows Media Center did produce a wireless solution it would be more appealing because of the available Media Center SDK. An example of this being applied is MobileRecord by Casey Chestnut. I realize that most people will not be writing software for their home theater, but we will benefit from the community of developers who do produce useful applications.

Since it still unclear what products will be available in January or later, I will simply plan to save up for a system I am sure will blow away anything I could assemble today.