Comments on: Why have media extenders failed to take off?

By: Peter Antypas

Peter Antypas — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:36:57 +0000

I used to manufacture a device called the JoyPort in ‘03 (www.joyfaktory.com). Although the device could stream ripped DVDs (decrypted) from a PC to TV, that feature was never fully “advertised” because it was (and still is) illegal. The market didn’t grow as much as I predicted at the time, which is why I abandoned the effort.

For David Mackey: There are two issues with streaming analog signal:

a) The quality (obviously)
b) “Push” vs “Pull”. You will need to control your PC from your living room / entertainment center since the TV is just a passive monitor in this case. That’s inconvenient and kludgy … definitely not appealing to the majority of consumers.

Generally speaking, consumers *still* don’t accept the PC as part of the living room. Media streamers fill that gap by scoring better on the WAF test.

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:47:38 +0000

I don’t have a media extender, but I do have an S-Video cable to connect to my TV with. My question is, why the big bulky media extenders? How about a little box that connects to my S-Video and streams the content wirelessly to another little S-Video box on the TV? Seems like everyone is over-complicating the matter and putting restrictions on what can and can’t be streamed, when I can show anything I want just by connecting an S-Video.

By: Steve O'Hear (editor)

Steve O'Hear (editor) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:48:11 +0000

Thanks for this info. I’ll look into it some more.

By: G

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 13:29:32 +0000

Steve - People have been doing reference implementations in this space for a few years now. One worthy of mention is called Digitl Transmission Content Protection (DTCP-IP) - and yes it has lagged a bit in adoption. But recent agreement by Cable Labs and Intel could be catalysts for converged home networks. Intel has been a big promoter of the DTCP-IP. Although not explictly mentioned, DTCP-IP is part of the Open Cable Applications Platform (OCAP) Home Newtworking extensions.

Another one is the the Secure Video Processor being promoted by the Cable Industry - where substantial initiatives have been underway for a while - but the complexity of that initiative could stall things for a while.

Here are some references:
Websites
http://www.cablelabs.com/
http://www.dtcp.com/
http://www.svpalliance.org/

Press - Intel / Cable Labs Agreements
http://www.cablelabs.com/news/.....82307.html
http://www.cablelabs.com/news/.....July_2007/