Home Theater View

When the walls are open, Microsoft's moving in

I was at Microsoft's Preview Day today in New York, which for me was largely about mobile devices (see my bio). One thing that came across clearly, however, was the centrality of Windows XP Media Center (XP MCE) to Microsoft's overall consumer plans.  This reminded me of an interesting case study in Digital Connect about a custom installer, Silicon East, which has a somewhat unique specialty putting systems into new construction. That's nothing new - when the walls are open, it's the best time to put in home networking gear, and the walls are never more open than during new construction. But rather than get Mr. New Homeowner to buy a typical custom installation A/V system, Silicon East is pushing PC's with XP MCE. 

This should be a pretty tough sell, as the notion of using a PC as a media hub still hasn't hit mass adoption yet - at best, builders are content to wire up a house for broadband and create a media nook where a plasma TV can be hung on the wall.  Silicon East gets around this by selling the builder first.  They actually go out to builders and hook their offices up with MCE boxes.  The latest version of XP MCE is nearly as slick as a TiVo (and far more versatile - I'm typing this column on one); once the builders are hooked, they demonstrate it to potential customers in the model homes.

Silicon East gives up some margin figures (7% on hardware, 30% on service), and notes that they turn down business that's likely to be unprofitable (any time the customer uses the term, "Dell"). The initial foray is almost a loss leader - once the customer is hooked, there are follow on opportunities for display sales, system extensions, and all kinds of home automation.

-avi

HDTV and Plastic Surgery

I maintain that the worst thing to hit to our "national pastime" (officially still baseball) is not steroid abuse, but HDTV. In high resolution closeups, players spitting chewing tobacco and "adjusting themselves" is far more offensive than Super Bowl halftime shows or Desperate Housewives previews. In a high def world, certain things have to change: performance enhancing drugs are fine - until they kill the athletes, they make their muscles look nice and ripped. But chaw, and polyester pants that gather in the crotch? Those have to go.

It's not that HDTV has so much resolution that you can see every pock mark and wrinkle on someone's face; it's that the camera zooms in much closer than you'd ever get in real life. OnHD.com has long maintained a snarky list of which celebs look better or worse in HD, and Hollywood makeup artists have been altering their technique to airbrush on makeup rather than simply apply it in swatches.

The New York Times Magazine finally picked up on the story, with a twist (free registration required) - younger celebs are now opting for plastic surgery. Conversely, for older celebs, surgery is counterproductive, because its so obvious. The Times also points out something most others miss - it's not just the higher resolution that points out very human flaws, but also that HDTV supports a richer color palette.  However, the article makes it sound like there was some sort of ban on specific color shades, rather than a simple technical limitation.  You can wear subtle red lipstick on standard NTSC TV, it just won't appear quite the same shade.

Let's not forget the most important thing we've learned about HDTV: some celebs actually look better in HD. Penelope Cruz shows up as #10 on OnHD's list (she was on Leno in HD recently, and I have to concur). It's not just the women, either: George Clooney is #7, and Jay Leno himself gets an honorable mention - I'm sure Jay would have something to say about that.

-avi

Yes, it was a live demo... also a misleading one

Back in February I wrote about Microsoft's Lightspeed IPTV demo at CES and linked to BusinessWeek's skeptical coverage.  Well, the magazine was just biding its time and this week they completely skewer the initiative (subscription required), highlighting the endless delays in commercializing it.  It seems the impressive demo I saw at CES was real.  The problem is that the technology doesn't work for millions of users at once, which is kind of important for the operators who want to broadly deploy it.  Live and learn.

Still, TV over IP seems somewhat inevitable. Japan and Korea have DSL service 10x faster than what U.S. operators provide and at lower prices. I'd think that deploying dramatically faster DSL would both solve many of the technical problems with IPTV and at the same time provide the service justification for consumers to upgrade to broadband (or even switch from cable modems).

-avi