Left money on the table with ETEL, but still a profit. The
momos are playing HAUP based on this article. I searched the thread
and no mention of HAUP since Jul 19.
Broadcast.com Debuts
Broadband Box
Broadcast.com chairman debuts all-in-one HDTV,
TV, PC, home stereo, VCR, DVD, and radio PC. It
even does Windows.
by Tom Spring, PC World
September 14, 1999, 4:16 p.m. PT
NEW YORK -- Never mind 500 channels to choose
from -- try a zillion. That's the vision of Mark Cuban,
chairman of Broadcast.com.
During a keynote address at eTV World Tuesday,
Cuban announced that Broadcast.com and its
soon-to-be-parent company Yahoo are working with
CompUSA to manufacture a PC set-top box that will
bundle wireless broadband Internet access via digital
TV broadcast signals.
The device, yet to be named, is best described as a
set-top PC, and will likely gain popularity as the
much-heralded convergence between PCs and TVs
finally takes shape, according to Cuban. The device
could go on sale as early as December. Cuban says
the set-top PC will marry high-definition television,
broadband Internet access, and a home entertainment
center.
The demonstration model shown at the broadband eTV
conference was a souped-up CompUSA PC loaded
with special software and hardware and connected to a
21-inch computer monitor. The PC ran the Microsoft
Windows 98 operating system and came in a jet black
and bulky desktop computer form.
Cuban says that the boxes will be marketed as set-top
box alternatives meant to reside in living rooms, not
home offices. "The war for broadband will be fought in
your living room," he says. "What we are trying to do is
get people to change their attitude toward what a PC
is."
Prices start at $1899 and include a 600-MHz
processor, DVD-ROM drive, 27GB hard disk, Ethernet
card, a high-definition television decoder TV tuner card,
and video in and out ports. Cuban says the PCs will
come with pre-loaded movies and music.
"A set-top box is a stupid computer that isn't
upgradable, has no hard drive, and you can't take it
back," notes Cuban. "What good is that?"
Set-top Hybrid
Short on detail, but grandiose in design, Cuban says
his set-top hybrid would allow one to usurp many
staple functions of cable set-tops. Not only would you
be able to watch broadcast and interactive television,
but with the set-top PC you could subscribe to
Web-based movie channels, and listen to thousands of
Internet radio feeds. The set-top PC would come with
ample connectors allowing you to connect speakers,
handheld video cameras, and monitors to the device.
Cuban says that he is working with undisclosed
companies to send one-way high-speed Internet
access to PCs using up-and-coming digital broadcast
signals. He says typical customers would have
high-speed digital subscriber lines or cable connections
to upload streaming content both ways.
TV tuner card maker Hauppauge will supply the digital
TV tuner cards. Hauppauge says its cards can receive
digital broadcast signals along with data broadcast over
the same spectrum at speeds up to 2.5MB-per-second
-- or a full CD every 5 minutes.
At those speeds, streaming video is TV quality, Cuban
says, opening the door for Broadcast.com and others
to offer viable options to watching broadcast and cable
television on TV.
"This means your 22-inch monitor has become your
TV, computer, and your own private broadcast center,"
he says. He says that with a mammoth hard drive, you
would be able to download programming and save it on
your PC for viewing later.
"In the end it's all about bits," he says. "We can create
new ideas of what is media and what is content. But
we can't if we get stuck in the past paradigm of what it
was."
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