15% of U.S. Internet Households Own Media Adapters

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/archives/000596.php' target='_blank'>http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/archives/000596.php</a><br /><br /></div>"<i>Parks Associates surveyed 4,000 U.S. Internet households and found that 15% of them have a stereo or TV connected to their home computer via a digital media adapter or built-in receiver. “Further, 75% of households with these PC/CE connections play music on their PC through a stereo and over 40% have viewed digital photos on their TV.” The survey also found that users are more inclined to purchase adapters, which they found should sell for $100 or less, for streaming audio and images over video. In addition, the likelihood of purchase is strongly correlated with the use of online music and video services, as well as, offline activities such as photo editing.</i>"<br /><br />I can't imagine how this is true. Even if they are just asking <a href="http://www.vistaseeker.com/celery/main/nerds.jpg">nerds</a>, I can't figure out how they get a number that high. Heck, I haven't even done any of these things. Am I behind the times? :silly:

[Felix Torres]

Actually, yes. ;-)

The key word is "Internet Households".
That is a subset of PC owners, which in turn is a subset of the general population.
PC owners comprise about 55% of the population in the US, maybe 60%.
So the global percentage is on the order of 5-6% instead.
And this is believable.
To me, anyway.

[Jason Dunn]

Those stats seem really high to me... :?

[Felix Torres]

Those stats seem really high to me... :?

Which?
The 15% or the 5-6%?
I think it comes down to definitions and expectations.
The way they phrased it, anybody with an All-in-wonder card gets counted.
Anybody with a networked DVD-player or media extender.
Heck, maybe anybody that bought the XBOX music mixer and similar playstation products.
There's a fair amount of home networks out there, you know.
And once you have the network (wireless or not) you might as well play the media connection game.
So, me, I accept the numbers with the understanding that not everybody counted is doing the same thing.
There are many aspects of digital media that fall in this category, ranging from Airport Express wireless speakers to full-out Media Center PCs.
So to say one in 20 households has some kind of PC to stereo or tv connection isn't really out of line.

Not the way they phrased it...
Of course it could all be just semantics... ;-)

[Crocuta]

Even given their more restricted specification of the population, those numbers sound too high. We should do a poll here on the same questions. This population must be heavily skewed toward more technology in the home than the general population, or even the population of households with Internet access.

[Jason Dunn]

The 15% or the 5-6%? I think it comes down to definitions and expectations.

5-6% is quite high to me. Part of this might be my bias because I have yet to implement a permenent solution in my own home, and no one among my family/friends is as techy as I am, yet almost all are on the "Net. I think this survey is mis-representing the number of people who are really set up this way...