Intel Makes Major Home Entertainment Push
SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel announced Wed. a major push into home entertainment, including creation of a Centrino- style PC brand for the purpose: “Viiv,” pronounced as in “five.” The machines should be available starting first quarter 2006 from multiple system makers “worldwide” in “various shapes and sizes to fit different styles and sizes of homes,” the firm said at the Intel Developer Forum here. They will be suitable for games, movies, music, photos and other media, Intel said.
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“We plan to deliver and brand a premier entertainment experience,” Don MacDonald, gen. mgr.-Intel digital home group, said in a keynote speech. Viiv Program Mgr. Merlin Kister said Intel had focused on ease of use, performance and connectivity.
All PCs will have remote control devices, 5.1 surround sound and optional support up to 7.1, the Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition, and media software allowing use mimicking that of a TV, including quick on- off after initial boot-up, through what’s called Quick Resume technology. An optional TV tuner will make the PC work like a PVR, allowing recording, pausing and rewinding live TV and hard-drive storage for viewing on demand. Included software will contain a network configuration wizard intended to make all kinds of media-playing devices easy to connect, they said.
Intel worked more closely than ever with CE companies and content and service providers, as well as PC makers, to set interoperability specifications allowing easy movement of all kinds of online media between rooms and among devices in a home network, the company said. An integrated media server “engine” is supposed to reformat digital content files so they can be used on all devices verified to work with Viiv. “It happens on the fly, in the background, so no consumer intervention is required,” Kister said. Dual-core processors will allow the PC to serve different purposes in rooms around the house at the same time, Intel said.
To ensure “interoperability above standards” with Viiv, Intel started with DCNA and DTCP, MacDonald said. It went further with a “comprehensive tests and certification program,” he said. In a U-turn, MacDonald said Intel has rejoined the HomePlug Powerline Alliance to use electrical wiring in homes for networking. Intel quit about 3 years ago to focus on wireless technologies, a spokeswoman said. Now it realizes “we need a good wired solution,” MacDonald said.
Intel’s “system on a chip” strategy for CE products is “hitting the price points, hitting the performance and the feature sets that the CE industry demands,” MacDonald said. Among firms working with Intel technology, he singled out Onkyo, with its “high-end heritage,” as evidence Intel is “on track.”
Digitizing most content erases the need for dedicated players, since it can be used on many kinds of device, he said. Digital media -- like movies, radio and broadcast and then pay-TV -- is transforming content, distribution and display, plus technology, creating a new industry. For Intel and its developers, this means consumer business opportunities grow from 100 million home PCs to a billion digital devices, he said. Unlike previous media technologies, “you guys can see this opportunity unfolding,” he told the developers, “and you're very much at the beginning.” Intel technology platforms now support creation of digital TV, set-top boxes and digital recorders, MacDonald said.
But in consumer entertainment “the bar is much higher than the IT industry is used to,” said Genevieve Bell, Intel dir.-domestic designs & technology research, in a walk-on appearance. Not only must consumer devices be more reliable and “more robust” in meeting hazards unique to the home, but they also must be desirable, she said. “How do we humanize the technology?” Bell said. “How do we make it something people really care about?”
MacDonald hinted at developments soon on standardized interfaces for proliferation of devices and displays. “Stay tuned,” he said. He did unveil a new display processor, the Oplus MN301, with a 32-bit integrated display processor and advanced video processor, plus computer power, for set-top boxes, AV receivers and other devices. It offers “razor-sharp images with true color and noise reduction,” MacDonald said.
In a recorded video plug, Thomson IP decoders gen. mgr. Keith Wehmeyer praised Intel’s 854 chipset, announced at the spring developer forum and commercialized by the CE maker. Wehmeyer said the product let his company “leapfrog the industry by 18 months or more” and telcos to test advanced compression technologies.