Open Standards Are the Ultimate Media Extender
from the is-that-all? dept
Last week, Microsoft unveiled its latest push into our living rooms with a new line of "extenders" that allow people stream media from a Windows Vista Home or Ultimate PC to their home entertainment system. I'm sure they're great devices, but what I find really remarkable is how slowly products like this are coming to market. The hardware required to stream video over a network and display it on a television have been around for years, and there's no reason there shouldn't have been a ton of video-streaming products on the market years ago. It's worth comparing the trickle of computer-based home video products with the flood of MP3 players that were released in the late 1990s. Within two years of the first MP3 player appearing on the scene, there were at least half a dozen companies producing competing MP3 players, with a wide variety of feature sets and price point. And this was at a time when the products were still incredibly primitive: the first generation of players could hold a couple dozen songs at most.What changed? I think the big difference is that the lack of DRM on CDs allowed the industry to standardize on the open MP3 format, despite the music industry's best efforts to shut down the makers of the first MP3 players. Once the courts confirmed that CD ripping was legal, it created a thriving ecosystem of software and hardware around the MP3 format, and it made it easier for startup firms like iRiver to jump into the market quickly and produce innovative new products. On the other hand, because DVDs are encumbered with DRM, firms wanting to make digital video devices have to kowtow to Hollywood to get permission to make devices that can play their content—even if the user has already paid for it. Getting Hollywood's permission requires the sort of endless negotiation and bureaucracy that is fatal to a high-tech startup.
You can get a good sense of what we're missing out on by checking out the feature list of the XBox Media Center, an open source software project that has allowed people to use their first-generation XBoxes to play movies and music since 2004. It supports an amazing range of file formats and allows you to store media on the hard drive or stream it from another computer or the Internet. Unfortunately, the DMCA makes it impossible for American consumers to legally transfer their DVD collections (or movies purchased from legal, DRM-encumbered download sites) to the device. If an open source project could turn an ordinary XBox into a full-fledged home media hub in 2004, imagine what a well-funded Silicon Valley startups could have done over the last five years if legal restrictions hadn't been standing in the way.
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Filed Under: media extender, open standards
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XBMC FTW
no off the shelf gadget in the world can deliver what a modded xbox can. the sooner the powers that be realize that, the sooner they can start delivering useful devices again.
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Agreed
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slingbox?
However, what I heard from someone who wished to remain anonymous in Hollywood recently is that it's not that places like hollywood don't understand the standards issue, but that it's exactly the opposite. They are stalling because they know they can still milk people via alternate means. I was given the example of how in california they will intentionally "ban" something/use the streisand effect in-state to generate media attention for smaller films. I don't know fi thats necessarily true or not
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Oh my...
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mp3 isn't an open format
http://mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing_and_pa tent_issues
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Software+Convergence
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Re: Software+Convergence
The device exists already. Vista MCE with quad cable cards for 4 show HD recording, HD-DVD & Blu Ray, and Sling Box abilities via Webguide software.
Imagine recording 4 HD shows from cable at the same time and streaming them to other rooms or to your laptop when on the road.
There are some differences between makers, but they are Ace Computers, Nivieus, and Inteset. I would suggest the Alienware Hanger 18, but they don't make it. They buy it. Ace has the same thing in their product list. Alienware is a dying breed.
Oh, you never heard of these companies? Check out http://cepro.com. Consumer Electronics Pro magazine.
These products are being installed by custom integrators. It's just time the consumers learn about them.
Also, like I said in another post, check out http://life-ware.com and see what else MCE can do.
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It isn't new...
And why isn't there an extender client for PCs?
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Re: It isn't new...
You need to clarify your statement. Vista serves up Media Center content very well! So, I don't understand what you are trying to say.
I distribute Vista MCE content all over the house using small form factor PCs, like the S150 from Ace Computers, plugged into my audio or video equipment. A few of those clients are running XP Home.
And, what would be the need for an extender for a client PC? An extender IS a client.
Want to take a look as some really cool stuff you can do with MCE? Check out http://life-ware.com.
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LinuxMCE
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XBMC been around longer than 2004
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMP
Anyway, I think XBMC is great but it is missing a few vital functions to be compared directly to other media extenders and HTPC applications, see this idea of "One common PVR/DVR/HTPC front-end GUI (client)"
http://xboxmediacenter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28918
It sums up the missing features which are:
- Watch Live TV
- Record Live-TV (on the PC)
- Watch that recorded TV
- Schedule recordings
- Pause Live-TV (time-shift)
- Listen to AM/FM radio
- Electronic Program Guide (EPG)
- View Program Listings
By the way, know that XBMC is currently being ported to Linux:
http://xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=Linux_port_project
Which means that in 6-months from now you will probably be able to use XBMC on a computer, and mybe in a couple of years from now you will be able to use XBMC on both your Xbox360 and your PlayStation 3 as well.
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Open?
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