Thursday, January 08, 2004
Microsoft's software targets TVs
This isn't the first time we've heard about it, but this time it looks like it's maybe not too far off. Microsoft are pushing (again) their idea of a centralised entertainment centre (running MS software of course) that can pull together feeds from your PC, DVD player, games console, online content etc etc etc and display them on your TV.
There are a few reasons why this might not be the best way to go. Firstly, it's another example of how a big company like Microsoft can use its muscle to get into other domains, in this case making the jump from computer entertainment to audio-visual entertainment. This is bad for the small fry out there who tend to get overshadowed by the big fish.
Second reason: people generally don't like everything to be all mixed together. There are good reasons why convergent devices aren't that popular, beyond the fact that at the moment we just can't make a device that does *everything* well. The danger is that entertainment devices and platforms will fall foul of the multimedia fallacy that plagued early attempts to make existing content (encylopaedias, textbooks etc) exciting by re-deploying them on multimedia PCs. The problem is that there is only really one media: the PC itself. And the 'multimedia' content can suffer from being squeezed through this single delivery medium. True multimedia is about offering multiple sources, multiple displays, and multiple perspectives. Can a centralised Microsoft hub in every home deliver these things? Well, I don't want to say it can't, but knowing that people continue to like separate devices for different media, it seems like a bit of a mis-step to try and give them everything through a single channel.
Last but by no means least, the proposal from MS is very much of a hub architecture - is there scope for distributed, decentralised communication between different media devices? Anyone who has ever put together a decent hi-fi from separate components will know that the best set-up comes from a mix & match approach, rather than buying everything from one manufacturer. I don't want to have to buy an MS-compatible amplifier just so that I can plug it into my Media Centre.
This isn't the first time we've heard about it, but this time it looks like it's maybe not too far off. Microsoft are pushing (again) their idea of a centralised entertainment centre (running MS software of course) that can pull together feeds from your PC, DVD player, games console, online content etc etc etc and display them on your TV.
There are a few reasons why this might not be the best way to go. Firstly, it's another example of how a big company like Microsoft can use its muscle to get into other domains, in this case making the jump from computer entertainment to audio-visual entertainment. This is bad for the small fry out there who tend to get overshadowed by the big fish.
Second reason: people generally don't like everything to be all mixed together. There are good reasons why convergent devices aren't that popular, beyond the fact that at the moment we just can't make a device that does *everything* well. The danger is that entertainment devices and platforms will fall foul of the multimedia fallacy that plagued early attempts to make existing content (encylopaedias, textbooks etc) exciting by re-deploying them on multimedia PCs. The problem is that there is only really one media: the PC itself. And the 'multimedia' content can suffer from being squeezed through this single delivery medium. True multimedia is about offering multiple sources, multiple displays, and multiple perspectives. Can a centralised Microsoft hub in every home deliver these things? Well, I don't want to say it can't, but knowing that people continue to like separate devices for different media, it seems like a bit of a mis-step to try and give them everything through a single channel.
Last but by no means least, the proposal from MS is very much of a hub architecture - is there scope for distributed, decentralised communication between different media devices? Anyone who has ever put together a decent hi-fi from separate components will know that the best set-up comes from a mix & match approach, rather than buying everything from one manufacturer. I don't want to have to buy an MS-compatible amplifier just so that I can plug it into my Media Centre.
(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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