IPTV without the IPTV
When we show our IPTV demo to people here in the U.S. (other than service providers), we get this sort of dumbfounded look. "Well I don't have IPTV, what the hell am I supposed to do with your stuff?" they ask.
There's no doubt that computer networks and consumer electronics are on a collision course. And IP seems to be the common denominator. So what do you do if you want location-free TV without IPTV?
You do this!
This is a new in-home digital hub system from a company in the Bay Area called Digital Deck (evidently it was started by some of the TiVo founders). We have zero affiliation with them (though we'd like to have), we just think what they're doing is not only cool but a glimpse into the future.
While pricey and cumbersome to set up, the product concept is brilliant. This is one of the only devices that really bridges the gap between the world of analog consumer electronics and computer networks.
The device - called the Digital Deck Media Connector - lets you to centralize all your multimedia and distribute it around the home. You can control virtually any device located in one room and stream it to another. Users can access centralized iTunes music, share recordings with networks TiVo, watch a movie in one room and catch the rest in another, etc.
It takes in virtually any type of analog or digital input from say a DVD player, DirectTV box, MP3 Juke box, A/V receiver and provides high bit rate MPEG2 encoding and IP encapsulation. All traffic runs over Ethernet.
The idea is to centralize all your various multimedia equipment in a single room and then provide a simple and easy way to access it from any "connected room." You must have a digital deck in every room to do this.
A centralized PC running their "Media Connector" software controls everything. All traffic runs into and out of this PC which provides TiVo-like functions for cable TV, buffering and QoS and storage. So every traffic stream is first sent to the PC then from the PC out to the end point.
They've designed an elegant (click on the image over there----->), very simple (TiVO-like) common interface for users to interact with EVERY device along with a universal remote (one remote for everything and one menu structure for everything) with downloadable IR codes for pretty much everything.
The point is that - if boxes like this can be made simple and cheap - this is how the "connected home" will work. I just can't see my mom or dad setting something like this up. Then again, I don't think my mom and dad are necessarily their target market (or anyone elses).
