| Forrester Research: Media Center Extenders -- ready for prime time? |
Oct. 15, 2004
In a guest column at CNET, Forrester Research vice president Ted Schadler takes a look at Microsoft's Windows Media Center Extender (MCE) technology, an approach that Microsoft is promoting as the easiest way to get music, photos and video from a Media Center PC to a stereo or TV. Schadler doesn't expect consumers to be beating down retailers' doors for MCE devices this holiday season.
Media Center Extender technology, based on Windows CE embedded software, was unveiled by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates in his keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year. The technology's objective is to extend the reach of Media Center PCs (i.e. PCs running Windows XP Media Center Edition) to television displays in various locations around the home. So, instead of gathering around the PC monitor, families can enjoy digital content in the comfort of their livingroom, den, or bedroom. Also, the large, perhaps noisy, and not very stylish PC stays in the home office where it belongs.
Schadler's list
In Schadler's view, MCE devices like those recently released by Linksys and HP are an expensive way to get digital music to a home stereo -- about twice the cost of home network music adapters from Apple Computer and Netgear. For recorded video, digital video recorders (DVRs) are "cheaper and easier to hook up", says Schadler. And while Microsoft expects users to connect their Media Center PCs to their TVs, it's not happening yet, he notes. "Only 9 percent of the DVR users we recently surveyed used a PC to record their programs", Schadler continues, adding that TiVo-like devices already provide the ability to view digital snapshots on the TV.
Nevertheless, Schadler considers MCE "an intriguing start." He thinks of the Media Center PC coupled with an MCE as a " 'personal media server' -- a universal platform for managing personal and premium content experiences." He then describes four novel applications that MCE makes possible: - Mass-customized programming, for example, would allow a user to select specific topics from NPR, for example, and have a customized "radio" program delivered daily.
- Movie distributors like Netflix or Movielink can already stream movies to PCs in off hours for later viewing on demand. An MCE can then deliver those movies directly to the TV. Schadler suggests that Movielink needs to jump on the MCE bandwagon.
- Make the Media Center PC the central control point of users' "entertainment experiences." For example, scrolling through an on-line movie guide, the user can click the "record this" button on the site, to have the PC record the next available showing.
- "Build applications that combine content with communications." Allow users to chat with buddies while watching the ball game, for example.
But will novel applications be enough to get consumers to open up their wallets? Schadler suggests some ideas for moving MCEs off the shelves: - Subscription services like Netflix and Rhapsody could partner with hardware vendors like HP and Dell to subsidize prices.
- Microsoft could "play up the game aspect" by promoting the Xbox Extender kit as the "ultimate video portal."
- Finally, telephone companies looking to fill those "big fat fiber pipes" they're laying all over town might bundle an MCE into a DSL package to create a market for video over IP distribution service.
Read Shadler's complete article, here.
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