SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Despite the best marketing efforts of big technology companies, personal computers have never felt much at home in the living room.
But a new PC makeover by the likes of Intel and Gateway could soon give the home computer a central role in the way consumers watch television and listen to music.
The device, which Intel calls the Entertainment PC, is designed to connect directly to the television, and will look more like a souped-up DVD player than a personal computer. Entertainment PCs could be on the shelves as early as the second half of this year, starting at $799.
Controlled with a remote, the Entertainment PC can flip through and record television channels, play music and movies, and even connect to the Internet to download shows and songs not available from cable or satellite TV operators.
Moreover, it can stream video from the living room to a PC elsewhere in the home, or even to a wirelessly connected handheld device.
"One PC replaces a whole stack of CE," or consumer electronics, "equipment," said Louis Burns, an Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news) vice president who directs the world's largest chip maker's consumer electronics initiatives.
With the growth of PC sales slowing, Intel and the large computer companies are once again focused on the living room, where several separate devices dominate home entertainment systems.
Instead of the DVD player sitting atop the stereo atop the TiVo (news - web sites), the Entertainment PC is designed to replace them all. That's the idea.
It's not a new concept, and PC brands like Gateway and Compaq have fallen flat on their faces trying to push the same idea in years past.
But Intel has its chips on a big bet: that PCs, running a special version of Microsoft Windows, can replace a pile of consumer electronics devices at a significantly lower price, and at the same time add new features.
The Entertainment PC represents the core of that initiative. New Intel chips allow surround-sound audio and integrated wireless networking abilities. A version Intel expects to be sold next year, code-named Sandow, includes a high-definition TV tuner, a smaller form factor, and software to aggregate media from multiple PCs in the home.
Jay Srivasta, an analyst at iSuppli, said Dell and Gateway's success with electronics like digital cameras and television sets suggests that their consumer electronics ambitions are on track. But, he wrote in a recent note, "the road won't be smooth for either of these U.S. companies."
"Whether they are able to capitalize on their success in the PC world and translate such expertise into penetrating the consumer electronics market remains to be seen," Srivasta wrote.
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