VoIP Toolkit

Media Center will more than entertain us

David Coursey AnchorDesk

Published: 09 Oct 2003 11:45 BST

This setup would give the Media Center systems two separate 50Mbps-plus networks. That might seem like a lot of bandwidth, but two or three video streams could easily fill the video (802.11a) side. Add something like voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony and the data (802.11g) side could quickly fill up, too. I haven't done all the math on this, but what the man says makes sense.

If Media Centers get such dual-band wireless networking, that could make it easier for hardware vendors to add the same capability to their business PCs. You can imagine the possibilities in an office setting: desktops and laptops that can handle both videoconferencing as well as data networking, all without wires, right out of the box.

Of course, Media Center has to overcome a few challenges before it'll achieve anything like ubiquity at home, much less in the office.

For example, today's Media Centers have a little problem working with set-top boxes. If you've got good ol' analogue cable TV service, and all your channels come down the coax, you can attach that cable directly to the back of the computer, and everything should work just fine.

But if your system requires a cable box or, worse, if you're using digital cable, you have to put an "IR blaster" in front of the IR receiver window (where you point your remote control). This tiny device intercepts your remote's signals and translates them into something your Media Center will understand.

Sometimes this convoluted solution works well and sometimes it doesn't. Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) should solve it, but that would require the cable box and satellite tuner firms building the spec into their equipment. Because cable companies like to hold onto their hardware almost forever, the chances of a zillion UPnP cable boxes finding their way into America's homes anytime soon is almost nil.

But what really keeps Rick awake on those flights between Seattle and Beijing (he'd just returned from the latter when we met) is digital rights management, or DRM.