Devices make sharing PC and entertainment content easy.
While many consumers are starting to realize the benefits of a home network, the majority never venture beyond basic Internet, file and printer sharing. Not that the big three applications aren’t important; when I help them install a wireless network, my friends and family are still amazed they can now surf the Web or send a photo to the printer, all from their couch. Yet only the most technically adventurous have gone beyond – to fashion a network that connects their PC to a TV or even their stereo. The few who knew to buy a 1/8-inch mini-jack-to-RCA-converter cable from Radio Shack may have earned bragging rights. But then again, who wants the PC sitting next to the stereo?
I’m Mike Wolf, an analyst at In-Stat/MDR, covering the home network and entertainment market. In my new bi-monthly column for Net.Worker, I’ll bring you market trends and analysis in the exciting, emerging market of digital home convergence. In other words, I’ll tell you about the products and services that let you connect all sorts of devices, yielding a variety of new applications for work and play.
One new category of products we’re calling “media adapters.” Sometimes called “media receivers,” these hardware products lack a hard disk, and include some type of network connection (Ethernet, wireless, HomePNA, HomePlug), and traditional AV outputs, such as analog audio L/R or composite video. Media adapters look and feel like traditional consumer electronics devices. To select and program content, some use a remote control, others the TV and some have a small LCD screen built right in.
What do media adapters do? They fuse the PC/data network and entertainment devices (stereo, TV), allowing traditional AV devices to access content on the PC hard drive or out on the Internet. Today, if you rip CDs off the Internet, you have to listen to them on your tinny PC speakers. Add a media adapter and now you can stream the audio directly to your stereo. You can also play audio from a streaming service such as PressPlay or Listen.com’s Rhapsody service through your stereo.
Some media adapters will also let you stream video. If you have a copy of a digital home video that a relative sent to you, for instance, a media adapter lets you view it on the TV rather than huddling the family around your 15″ PC monitor.
SonicBlue, Turtle Beach, Compaq and Motorola/SimpleFi have been showing media adapters for more than a year. One product available today is Turtle Beach’s AudioTron, which costs about $300 for the Ethernet version, $350 for the HomePNA/Ethernet model. When other products enter the market later this year, prices are expected to drop to $200 or below, an attractive price for consumers.
But even before media devices become commonplace, such “bridge” devices are destined to fade away as network ports are integrated into AV devices. Yet, we think media adapters will play a key role in the next 24 months, providing consumers an affordable way to bring their PC and entertainment devices together.
