[opendtv] Sony Vaio home theater PC
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 7 Mar 2009 19:25:38 -0500
Just had a chance to play with this little, round, home theater PC STB
device. It is just the sort of PC I had in mind, to bring the Internet
to the (H)DTV and audio system.
RF remote keyboard with standard mouse pad. Built in BluRay
player/recorder. Built in PVR functionality, using its hard drive.
Regular old Internet access. Windows Vista installed. Also a normal
looking remote control, for the non-Internet related functions.
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalo
gId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665296592
This was in a store, and Saturday afternoon, which had a way of giving
me a realistic demo. Which is to say, there may not have been any RF
reception issues per se, since this setup wasn't even using WiFi (it has
802.11b/g built in), but that didn't mean "good reception" anyway. With
all the kids in the store playing with laptops and stuff, the poor guy
couldn't even manage to stream 400 Kb/s. Not even close. Never managed
more than a couple of seconds of streaming video.
Obviously, the congestion problem here was between the store's internal
network and its Internet link. However, seems to me the problem would
also occur in most ISP nets in the near term, if the majority of users
start watching TV over the Internet.
Still, I did manage to see what the low rate IP media streams look like
on a ~50" LCD HDTV. Not bad. And of course, there are sites that allow
download of much higher quality stuff. They want about $1700. It's also
very quiet. This is the sort of STB that will probably become the norm,
in short order.
Bert
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