Brian Kendig, a computer consultant in Orlando, Fla., connected a computer to his TV set in the mid-1990s because he wanted a bigger screen for his computer video games.
"It worked, but the quality wasn't there," Kendig said. Nevertheless, he still has an Apple Macintosh hooked to his TV so he can surf the Web and play MP3 files in his living room.
The computer industry looks at consumers like Kendig and licks its chops. With sales of desktops in the dumpster, manufacturers are hoping to carve out expansive new roles for computers in entertainment and home automation--roles that prod the public to buy another PC.
In particular, companies such as Microsoft envision the computer as the hub of the new digital home, directing audio and video streams from room to room and pulling in new material from the Web.
At the recent International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft showed off new software that lets consumers play or display the audio, video and pictures on their computers with a simple remote control. It also demonstrated technology that would let consumers tote flat, touch-screen monitors around their homes while maintaining a wireless connection to their PC.
Other computer companies are developing entertainment-oriented products too, and not always with Microsoft. Hewlett-Packard, for example, has built a digital music center with Microsoft rival RealNetworks, while Compaq is working on a line of interconnected audio and video gear with Mediabolic.
Meanwhile, another camp is emerging that wants to minimize the role played by personal computers. These consumer electronics companies are building TV set-top boxes that bring the networking smarts and storage capacity of computers to the living room, but not the Windows (or Apple) operating system.
Examples on display at the Consumer Electronics Show included a next-generation personal TV recorder by TiVo that captures music, video and games from the Web, and a forthcoming Digital Library from Pioneer and Mediabolic that will store and transmit digital audio, video, photos and Web-based media.
These products represent the first salvos fired in the war to come over the wired home. The battle lines are loosely drawn, but the central dividing line is whether the computer or the TV will rule over the digital domain.
"There is absolutely a long, long fight ahead," said Gary Arlen, a media and consumer electronics consultant.
