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Hewlett-Packard To Offer Linux-based Media Hub
Sammy at Palm Addict writes "According to the New York Times, Hewlett-Packard is to offer a new digital media hub based on Linux," excerpting "Hewlett-Packard will introduce a new device this fall meant to record and play back television as well as organize digital media, including photos, music and video, the company said yesterday. Hewlett already offers similar devices based on Microsoft's Windows Media Center Edition. The device, called the HP Media Hub, will be based on the Linux operating system." Since HP also sells self-branded iPods, it would be great if they'd make such a box iPod friendly.
You may want to read the comments on this story and past HP stories for all the details.
HP like IBM was a different company in the past. They were once known for their engineering, ingenuity, innovativeness, and big R&D.
Today they are becoming the walmart of the pc industry while still charging high prices. Also they made some questionable business decisions in terms of their superior products. For example killing the alpha processor because they already invested billions in the sinking Itanium to killing off the clustering in the superior Digital Unix and using a vendor to write a lower quality clustering solution for HP-UX, etc.
Also do not get me started on the calculators. They are practically non existent anymore as HP killed them off.
HP has turned into a short sighted company who makes substandard products and does not look at the long term effects.
I for one would never trust an HP printer or server made after 2001 as a result. They are just not good anymore and frankly are still expensive.
Many slashdotters who have a grudge agaisnt HP were probably former HP customers and loyalists.
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But from HP's angle, I can't believe they're only doing this now. If Linux is good for anything, it's for optimized, customized systems. With Linux, HP can build in exactly the functionality they need -- nothing more. Plus it's free.
I've run Mythtv for over a year. I've been using:
-Hauppauge PVR-250 hardware mpeg-encoding TV cards (though newer models are coming out to replace these, but driver support probably isn't as good yet). Note that cards without mpeg-encoding in hardware demand a far faster system: and I tried those first, then bought 2 PVR-250s. -various remotes, including Hauppauge black (crappy) and gray (good) -nvidia card with SVideo out -external firewire DVD burner to archive shows
-a couple 120GB Seagate HDs set in LVM as storage Since the PVR-250 is an MPEG2 encoder, it's not too much trouble to export them to DVD. Editing/exporting the streams to remove commericials can be a bit annoying, though I think nuvexport can help with this.
Note this setup is more expensive (in the short run) than just going with a prefab DVR solution with monthly fees associated with it, but you do have a great deal more control over your recorded content. It will probably take a lot for me to be parted with my setup.
It's not that Media Centers are revolutionary that makes them interesting to Microsoft. It's the fact that there is the potential to sell millions more copies of Windows. Right now almost no one has a computer hooked up to their TV, and those few folks that do have computers hooked up to their TVs aren't generally using any Microsoft software. Instead they are using something like Tivo.
Microsoft sees the Media Center as a potential market nearly as big as the DVD player market, and Microsoft's marketshare in this potentially huge new market is miniscule. Microsoft is desperate for growth opportunities that would justify its price/earnings ratio of over 30, and Windows Media Center is one of the few Microsoft products currently available that has the potential to build new revenue streams.
Personally, I think that the Media Center idea is several years away from being ubiquitous, but then again I don't have cable television either. I know lots of folks that would give up their firstborn son before they gave up their Tivo. It is entirely possible that eventually the home entertainment computer could even be a bigger market than the normal personal computer that we all know and love.
More importantly, the home entertainment computer is very likely to become a very strategic piece of the overall media puzzle. For example, Microsoft is betting that if it can score big with its Media Center that it could sell the ability to do workable DRM to Hollywood. Microsoft understands the power of controlling the platform, and it knows that they could make billions if they could put Microsoft in a position to become the DRM gateway for all of Hollywood.
Not to mention the fact that Linux-based computers hooked up to the television could easily morph into game consoles. All the pieces are there already.
Microsoft is desperate for growth opportunities that would justify its price/earnings ratio of over 30, and Windows Media Center is one of the few Microsoft products currently available that has the potential to build new revenue streams.
I think the problem is that in their desperation to duplicate their success with Windows they are forced to make moves riskier than they would really like (Xbox) or safe/easy where the return on investment is zero to low (Slate). I think the media center falls into that latter category. People aren't going to pay a $300 premium just to know that the thing is running Windows. The imagined "ease of use" issue that are applied to Windows don't apply to a device with a remote control. Especially when there isn't a sugar daddy (like IBM) who has already established a market for the hardware and done all the hard design work (not to mention a host of software companies that have all but solved those problems as well).
I'll buy a Linux based solution because I know I am less likely to be locked into a no-choice-but-to-upgrade future. Microsoft can only succeed at this if they convince almost everyone to go along and nominate them as the gatekeeper of everyone else's profitability. I can't see Hollywood or the RIAA going for that. On the other hand, worse things could happen than to see MS beat the crap out of the movie and music industry, they do, in some ways deserve it.
Meanwhile, I expect Linux, which has no market share, share price, or bottom line to protect to continue to nip at the heals of these media bastards, all of them. In the end if it takes, HP, IBM, or mainland China to be the champion of freedom for certain types of intellectual property (IE that not owned by a mega corporation) then so be it.
I'll be in line to buy one of these (although I haven't watched TV in 3 years and still listen to my own MP3s made from my own CDs and records made prior to 1990.)