Who Will You Invite Into Your Living Room?

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.techi.com/2010/09/who-will-own-the-living-room-apple-google-sony-or-microsoft/' target='_blank'>http://www.techi.com/2010/09/who-wi...y-or-microsoft/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Think about it: unlike so many other sectors of society, the living room is one in which traditional approaches to media still largely dominate. DVD sales still dwarf streaming and online video in both numbers and revenue, while the web has yet to make any serious inroads onto people&rsquo;s TVs."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1283884613.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>I remember when the PlayStation 2 first came out, Sony was touting it as a home entertainment center.&nbsp; Microsoft also made some comments to the same effect when their original XBox was released.&nbsp; Convergence was all the talk.&nbsp; As it turns out, neither really lived up to the hopes of their creators, but it looks as if the battle for the living room is still going strong, but instead of Sony and Microsoft duking it out, two other challengers have entered the ring.&nbsp; Each have their own advantages, though I would think that Sony and Microsoft have an edge, with their well established install base of game consoles.&nbsp; Apple also has some strengths owing to its iTunes empire and iSomething devices.&nbsp; Google seems to have the greatest challenge ahead of them as all they really have is their branding.&nbsp; Of couse, if one company manages to ink deals with a lot of cable companies (something that Microsoft seems to be trying to do, really hard) that may just seal the deal.&nbsp; All I know is that for many years to come, I will have to be satisfied with watching a blank TV screen, in HD, of course, since it will be decades before any of these neat devices comes to Canada.</p>

[Sven Johannsen]

I don't know about the living room but I can certainly see inviting a $100 Netflix appliance into the bedroom, or den, or somewhere else. If someone (MS?) had created a $100 media center extender I'd have a house full of those.

[Reid Kistler]

All four of our older kids (all in their own homes) have one, or more, Non-Cable-TV "boxes" that are capable of providing video to their tv sets. And our youngest is still in college, & thus doesn't count yet!

My guess is that this will become more common as the younger generation(s) reach the age where they have their own homes, apartments, or sufficient disposable income (or family influence....) to choose their preferred video delivery devices / methods.

Most of our friends who are in our age group (obviously greatly advanced :eek: ), are still running "traditional" cable or AT&T U-verse (no FIOS in this area yet), with a handful subscribing to one of the satellite services.

Still, our newer HT arrangement, featuring a Pan blue ray player & plasma tv, does provide "Streaming media" access through Panasonic's "Viera Cast" service, which means access to Amazon VOD, YouTube, and a number of other content providers - although "Viera Cast" is built into either the blue ray player or tv (or both), so no extra "third party" box is required. (And, of course, other HDTV manufacturers are touting their own built in streaming media features.)