Over at CNET.com.au, Asher Moses sets out to show why the forthcoming update to Intel's Viiv will see the media centre PC move from the living room back into the home office - an argument sadly undermined by his own apparent ignorance.
We wholeheartedly agree with Moses that few people really want to edit Word documents or spreadsheets while curled up on the settee 10ft away from the screen. Similarly, we also reckon that, for most people, the MC PC is best kept out of the living room.
Trouble is, Moses appears to think that the introduction of an updated version of Viiv will bring with it a new type of networking hardware - the digital media adapter. Yes - he means network media players. And yes, these have been around for a few years!
Such adapters, he says,
connect to
your existing home theatre components (e.g. your TV, stereo system,
etc) and can stream content wirelessly from any Viiv-certified PC.
He goes on to explain,
The existence of digital
media adapters
will totally remove the need to have a media centre PC taking up space
in your living room, unless you're one of the few users that finds it
practical to do anything other than passively soak up multimedia
content whilst relaxing on the couch.
As a result, the PC in your home office will likely act as a digital media hub, distributing content wirelessly throughout your house to various media adapters. And since the Windows Media Center Edition operating system used by all Viiv-enabled machines is virtually identical to Windows XP when it's not in media centre mode, you can go about your regular office-related tasks -- word processing, web browsing, etc -- while others are seamlessly streaming content in the lounge.
As a result, the PC in your home office will likely act as a digital media hub, distributing content wirelessly throughout your house to various media adapters. And since the Windows Media Center Edition operating system used by all Viiv-enabled machines is virtually identical to Windows XP when it's not in media centre mode, you can go about your regular office-related tasks -- word processing, web browsing, etc -- while others are seamlessly streaming content in the lounge.
Now, while Moses is right to think that good, affordable digital media adpaters do mean there's little need for an MC PC in the living room, he undermines his credentials for saying so by stating, in effect, that they're an all-new Intel innovation when anyone with experience of the digital home knows full well that these adapters - products that we think of as network media players - have been available in one form or another for a good few years, albeit often over-priced and under-spec'd.
What concerns us isn't so much that one journo has written an opinion piece based on a false premise but that this seems to show, once again, that despite the huge wodges of cash that Intel is throwing at Viiv to try to make it stick - or perhaps because of them - Viiv itself remains poorly understood, and not just by the public but by some of the media, too.
Or are we just being miserable scrotes? Comment in the HEXUS.community, if you would.
HEXUS.links
Asher Moses commentary at CNET.com.au
Who needs Intel Viiv and AMD Live?
Intel's original Nov 30, 2005 Viiv press release
Applying ViiV: ECS Elitegroup P60
ECS launches Viiv board
Intel on-demand entertainment press release, Jan 26, 2006
Intel Viiv home page
