Intel's Linux Based Home Media Gateway

An anonymous reader writes "This article at LinuxDevices.com takes a look at a new 'home media gateway' design that was unveiled today by Intel at the Intel Developer Forum in San Jose, CA. The device is expected to be manufactured by multiple consumer electronics manufacturers in Asia, and will enable the distribution of PC digital media to TVs and stereos throughout the home. The gadget is based on one of Intel's new XScale processors running a customized version of Linux, provides support for JPEG, MP3, and WMA digital content, utilizes 802.11b wireless networking, and supports NTSC/PAL/S-video TV connections and AC-97 stereo connection. The home media adapter is a key component of Intel's 'Extended Wireless PC Initiative', which is part of Intel's greater Digital Home initiative."

Comments

How many of these are out there?

[KelsoLundeen]

I bet this one will be as popular as Indrema.

Whatever happened to Indrema, BTW? I know they closed and went out of business, but for some reason I thought they'd written a bunch of code and given it out under GPL after they went under...

Any notice

[interstellar_donkey]

On their little diagram showing photos of individual components, that the TV in the 'living room' appears to be displaying an MS blue screen?

That gave me a chuckle.

Media Box Wars

[JayDiggity]

So here's what we have so far:

Sony's new PS3 may have some digital media capabilities, but no one's quite sure. But it would seem to make sense considering that there are rumors all over that the MS XBox 2 is going to serve as a hub for digital family entertainment. Course, that's running the XBox OS (or Linux depending on the hack). And now Intel is coming out with something that's running Linux? Intel and Microsoft are usually in bed together, and suddenly they're releasing competing products and Intel's is even running Linux? People are fleeing Microsoft in droves... maybe their tactics are coming around to bite them in the butt? At first it was "Game Console Wars," and now it's "Digital Media Center Wars." Let's sit back and watch.

I think the best part

[PhysicsGenius]

is the WEP-enabled 802.3 compatibility layer that will optimize the window polarization diffusion. OTOH, you really have to love the 25 micron fabrication process for the sub-floor insulating layer as well as the silicon-eroded conduction density valences. I was talking with the kids and they feel that the biased temperature inversion lattices and Java insertion sorts embedded in the bathroom towels are going to rock.

My wife said to stop being stupid and use my money to buy food for homeless people, but that seems like a waste to me. Any thoughts?

whats the real feature?

[stratjakt]

"Intel anticipates that PC vendors will bundle the media adapters with multimedia PCs in order to allow consumers to deliver music and video to their entertainment centers from their PCs."

Ok, aside from it not using the PCs CPU horsepower, how is this altogether different from a really long set of A/V cables? (or a 900mhz broadcaster?)

Oh yeah, DRM.. Silly me. Asked and answered.

Of course this is automagically wonderful because they used linux to save time during development.

Re:whats the real feature?

[KelsoLundeen]

Yeah, but you know you've got the mojo crackerjack when you're a geek in a studio apartment -- and you have a a Murphy bed.

That said, I have to wonder if Bill Gates (for once) was right when he suggested several years ago that "media convergence" isn't really a thing that people want. People want to compute on computers, watch TV on a television, and watch movies in a movie theater. Converging the three into the single PC -- or the PC breakout box hooked up to a PC -- is nifty and very George Jetson-like (and who can forget his boy Elroy spiralling down from the old man's hoverbug in a mini-hoverbug of his very own?) -- but it seems that technology (in this case and others [palladium and MS's MediaPC's especially) is thinking too far ahead for its own good.

Watching TV on a computer is (for me, at least) much like reading e-books on a palm or an Ipaq or on the computer screen in a library -- it gets the job done, yes, but it's not very enjoyable. (I'm trying to figure out why the only ebooks I'm able read at any length are non-fiction. I can't, for example, bring myself to read fiction electronically. It seems, well, not right. And not comfortable. Yet I can sit on my little ragged sofa -- feet up, trusty Bawls soda beside me -- and can read deadtree fiction until the cows come home. But that's another story for another day ...)

hmmm....

[edrugtrader]

"home media gateway" gets translated in my head as "RIAA funded home media rights management filter"

might want to check the source before you turn it on...

WMA on Linux?

[namespan]

The interesting surprise for me is the idea of WMA-enabled applications running under Linux. Is this a first?

Re:$79.00

[Enry]

That's the BOM (Bill of Materials) cost. That is, the parts. Not including packaging, profit, making back the engineering $, sales, support, and the cost to actually make the thing.

Expect it to be in the $150-$200 range. Still sounds like a good price for what it provides.

DRM issues - Research before posting, please!

[BenEnglishAtHome]

From the FAQ at the Intel developer's site for this thing:

How will audio, imaging and video content be protected using the digital media adapter?

Protection of digital media content is a concern of Intel and many other industry leaders. Although several viable solutions exist today, a singe standard has yet to emerge that will satisfy the needs of all content owners. Intel is actively working with the Copy Protection Technical Working Group and other industry bodies to get comercial content protected when it is created. In the interim, Intel believes that the first phase of Digital Home will focus on personal content.

Emphasis added.

In other words, they're hedging their bets by going to market with a product/product spec/development framework that might not be all that the content providers want while still saying they're a bunch of cooperative guys.

How should we read this? How about - "Buy it when it comes out, because as soon as the CPTWG people get their act together, the next generation will be crippled"?

blue screen

[wiredog]

Several years ago at Comdex one of the casinos (MGM Grand?) had their outside display blue screen on them. It was the talk of the show. Well, that and the new digital LCD screens.

Come to think of it, digital LCD screens were the last new consumer item that everyone at Comdex was talking about.

why this idea misses the mark

[jjtime4sko]

Here's what the customer experience has to be to make something like this OK for the mass market:

1. Turn on.
2. Select media.
3. Push play.

What this idea would look like:
1. Turn on "media adapter"
2. Walk across the house to where the computer is.
3. Boot computer. Wait 5 minutes for boot.
4. Walk back to living room.
5. Find remote for media adapter.
6. Browse through dozens of menus and file systems to locate content.
7. Computer crashes. Repeat steps 2-6.
8. Push play.
9. Wait for content to buffer.
10. Little Johnny decides to play his new networked game.
11. Repeat steps 9-10 until (A) Johnny doesn't get to play any more or (B) you give up.
12. Turn off media adapter.
13. Shut down computer.
14. Go to bed.

I'll wait for the Apple version, thank you.