The best-selling Blu-ray Disc player today is disguised inside the Sony Playstation 3 video game console. Netflix, which reshaped the video rental business with post-paid mailers, is now offering video downloads that bypass the post office and shoot straight to the TV. A Sony PSP portable video game player shows movies and plays Internet radio stations. And TiVo boxes are flexing their processing muscle to become virtual one-man bands of digital content.
What does all this technology multitasking mean? The consumer electronics industry is moving away from dedicated devices as the line blurs between computers and traditional audio/video products. Elastic feature sets give consumers more bang for the buck, pumping additional functionality into the set-top box.
Next-generation consumers are already being weaned on the Web. Music stations at CD stores that let you audition a disc before you buy have given way to 30-second clips at iTunes, Wal-Mart, and other online sites. In the digital world you can download an album or an individual music track to your PC and shuttle it around the house.
In fact, the next wave of multimedia fans may never know what it’s like to purchase a CD, DVD, or other packaged media. Their PCs serve as their dictionaries, their typewriters, and their photo albums. And for many people, the hard drive has replaced the CD rack as the storage unit for complete music libraries.
The same scenario is beginning to play out in the video world as hard drives get larger and compression technologies become more sophisticated. Park Associates, a market research and consulting firm, estimates that annual revenue from Internet video could top $7 billion in the United States alone by 2010. The idea of having to get in the car to go rent a movie will soon be as outdated as the tube TV. You’ll download or stream a movie on demand instead. Following are a few of the Internet boxes that are changing how homeowners get content:
TiVo. TiVo is about more than just recording TV shows and skipping commercials. In competition now with cable and phone companies who offer their own video recorders, TiVo has forged deals with content providers to broaden its offerings. TiVo subscribers can now purchase or rent movies and TV shows from Amazon’s Unbox service and they can rent Disney titles through online provider CinemaNow. Homeowners don’t need CDs anymore if they subscribe to the Rhapsody music service via their TiVo box. They can play the tunes through their entertainment systems. They get the benefits of a vast digital music collection stored on someone else’s servers, which they can access at any time. They can make playlists; find music that matches their tastes; search by song, artist, or genre; and see what others are listening to—all for less than the cost of a standard CD each month.
Apple TV. Apple has expanded the iPod universe to the living room. All music, movies, and TV shows you’ve downloaded for viewing on the iPod can now be enjoyed on any TV in the house. Apple TV connects to the Internet either by Ethernet cable or via a wireless network. Users can rent movies directly from iTunes or pull content from their iTunes library on the computer.
Microsoft Xbox 360. Users will still be able to get Netflix movies in the mail, but owners of Xbox 360 video game consoles will get their Netflix movies faster—in as little as 30 seconds—without leaving the living room chair. An exclusive deal between Netflix and Microsoft makes available 10,000-plus movies and TV shows to Xbox users who can fast-forward, pause, and rewind movies as they like. The service will be available late fall as part of the Xbox Live service that enables users to play games online.
