Home Media Servers and Entertainment Hubs

Media Center PCs, Set-Top Boxes, CE Media Servers, and Media Server Software

Content providers' and distributors' thinking has undergone a radical shift over the past 12 months. They increasingly understand that the distribution of content is rapidly departing from the model that has largely relied on physical formats such as DVD, and shifting towards network-based delivery, over the public Internet or through other IP based networks. While the arrival of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray should drive substantial hardware sales for devices supporting these formats, the longer term shift to network-based delivery of content, and pervasive connectivity in the home, mean that ultimately the storage and delivery of the content will rely more on the server/client model and less on devices that are designed to play only physical media.

This study examines the positioning of four main device categories--the PC, the set-top box, consumer electronics and network storage (and their respective industries)—as the home media server. The PC market is shifting towards casting the PC as the central media hub, with Microsoft Media Center, Intel Viiv and AMD Live initiatives all key to this movement. The DLNA standard, built upon UPnP, has given life to consumer electronics vendors looking to create networked entertainment products, including devices such as media servers. Set-top box providers and their video delivery partners are positioned to have their set top box as the primary delivery server for pay TV content, but are also incorporating technology for long-tail content as well.