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The Battle for Digital Living Rooms

1. [verwijderd] 30 april 2001 07:47

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   Bron: dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010429/tc/... Sunday April 29 8:02 PM ET The Battle for Digital Living Rooms By MAY WONG, AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - What do you get when you combine the features of a cable box, a VCR, a stereo and a computer? Plenty of companies are spending billions of dollars to find out. Many consider convergence in digital entertainment or some kind of all-in-one set-top device inevitable. Disagreement and uncertainty arise only over the business model or platform most likely to succeed. So reach for your remote. The battle to dominate armchair entertainment has been joined. From upstarts to corporate behemoths, companies across multiple industries are honing their strategies and lining up their allies, sometimes befriending opposing sides to hedge their risks. Their eyes are set on pieces of a lucrative pie - 100 million television-viewing households in the United States and millions more abroad. ``It's anybody's game right now,'' said Steve Perlman, the entrepreneur behind WebTV, whose latest venture, Rearden Steel Technologies, involves an as-yet undisclosed digital home entertainment product. WebTV, which was bought out by Microsoft Corp., allows users to surf the Internet from their televisions and play along with game shows or engage in other types of interactive TV. Rearden's plans remain secret for now, but the endeavor recently won $67 million in a first round of funding - a hefty sum in today's tight venture capital market and proof the investment throttle remains open in digital entertainment. ``You're talking tens of billions of dollars being thrown out there now in these new technologies,'' said Sean Badding, an analyst with market research firm The Carmel Group. Dozens of companies from the software, hardware, cable, satellite, PC and consumer electronics industries are staking their claim for what +may+ well be the next big digital gold rush. Hewlett-Packard Co. and RealNetworks Inc., for instance, announced last month they were working together to create products that will let consumers obtain digital entertainment via the Internet and experience it on their living room stereos and televisions. Later this year Nokia (news - web sites) Inc. plans to start selling a so-called home infotainment center called the Media Terminal. It's a set-top box that receives digital TV and video-on-demand, can play MP3 files or connect to a digital camera - and offers Internet access. The Media Terminal also will feature the latest technology in television - digital video recording, which allows users to pause live TV or record TV programming onto a hard drive, without the hassle of videotapes. With its recent debut of UltimateTV, Microsoft Corp. has also jumped on the DVR bandwagon to compete against sector leader TiVo (news - web sites) Inc. UltimateTV combines WebTV with a DirecTV satellite service, DVR technology and two tuners, allowing users to watch one channel while recording another. Motorola Corp. and Scientific-Atlanta Inc., the top makers of U.S. cable set-top boxes, are each introducing this year advanced cable boxes featuring DVR, interactive TV, video on demand, e-mail, and high-speed Internet access. The Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 8000 also has digital music capabilities and the Motorola DCT 5000 features IP telephony. Traditional PC companies Compaq and Dell are also weaving home entertainment into their businesses. One business, SONICblue Inc., even reinvented itself a year ago to become a digital media technology company. Formerly a graphics chip maker called S3, SONICblue has positioned itself squarely in the digital convergence race. ``We want to let people have audio, video, and information in their homes and we want it all to work together,'' said Andy Wolfe, SONICblue's chief technology officer. ``We are now poised to develop that all-in-one device but there's clearly a lot to
2. [verwijderd] 30 april 2001 09:39

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   optv is geen interactive tv provider, maar een software provider voor interactive tv...... verder leuk stukje...