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Blueprints to the Ultimate Home Theater PC

I just received an email from Derek Flickenger this morning notifying me that his new Ultimate PC page is up and running.  This page is on Microsoft's Ultimate PC site that is still in beta.

I've spent some time on his site and I'm very impressed.  He's gone over the top in detailing every aspect of his set-up.  He's got a number of downloadable pdf documents that further explain all that he's done and how you too can create a similar set-up and experience.

As many of you can attest, the PC/Home Theater convergence has been difficult and clunky to say the least over the past few years.  And despite all the enthusiasm of Media Center fans, and investments by Intel and Microsoft into this space, its remained really tough to deliver a great Home Theater experience for clients with the Media Center interface.

But we all know that eventually it will get better.  Derek is on the front lines working hard to make that a reality.  Dig into his site and see what he's doing.  He offers a ton of great information.

DVR's Are Popular....You Don't Say!

1 in every 5 consumers has a DVR in their home now according to Multichannel . 

This is up from 1 in 13  just 2 short years ago. And is expected to grow to 60 million units by 2011.

This category of DVR's is a very interesting one for system integrators for a couple of reasons.  One, we rarely make any money with them.  The DVR's that usually go in the house come from the cable companies, satellite companies, and/or Tivo.  And although we don't make much (if any) money on the product we're still expected to integrate these products into the home theater, entertainment center, or distributed A/V systems of our clients. 

Since we have to integrate them, wouldn't be nice if we had a choice of products to use rather than being religated to try and work with the one that was supplied?  We typically choose which TV's, which Amps, which receivers, which DVD players, etc.... And we often choose specific products because of their "integration" qualities.  In other words, how well to they play with the other products and/or control systems that we are using.  But with many DVR's on the market today this is not a choice we are able to make.

Well its starting to change.  With Cable Card and Satellite Card functionality starting to work in some PC based systems we can start to decide which system integrates best for us.  Then the cable and satellite companies just show up to confirm that signal is being received, the account is established and leave. 

This recently happened on a Fuze Media install.  The cable guy was onsite for 15 minutes and he didn't deliver any set-top box.  All the DVR functionality was delivered within the Fuze Media product and they were responsible for the integration of their system into the rest of the home.  Now that's putting the choice back into the hands of the installer.  Hopefully we'll see more success stories like this in the near future giving us more confidence is these types of solutions.  Fuze Media is proving that it can be done well and integrated seamlessly.

Costco's Installation Service ?

Reuters just reported that Costco has announced plans to start a in-home installtion service for the "complicated" electronics products that they sell.  Evidently Costco is finding that many of these items such as Plasma TV's are too complicated for homeowners to install and since Costco does not charge a restocking fee for returns, the customers are bringing the products back and it's affecting Costco's profitability.

If you are a professional integrator in this industry this news will come as no surprise.  Of course people want help installing these products....why did it take Costco soooo long to figure that one out?  Well who knows, but the real question remains.....now that they've figured it out, can they execute on the idea or will they leave customers even more frustrated than before?

If you are a homeowner wanting help with the installation of Home Theater products in your home their are several networks of professional installation companies that you can turn to for help.  I'll list them alphabetically:

CEDIA (Custom Electronics Design & Installation Association) (their tradeshow is happening next weekend in Denver)  Connet Home; this organization requires (among other things) customer references before allowing integrators to join.  This increases the chances that you'll be working with a professional that has a history of POSITIVE customer relationships. NASBA, who has recently partnered with the CEA and is bringing strong value to their IT professional members. And finally, TechHome; a division of the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) that works closely with EH Publishing to pull-off 2 wonderful tradeshow events for this industry each year and provide some of the best training in the market for professional integrators.

New THX Certification

Interesting news from THX this week.  They have announced a certification program for "Integrated Home Theater Systems".  This program focuses on the theater design and performance rather than on individual components.  Now that we have become pretty familiar with the THX brand by seeing it stamped on so many components, THX is leveraging that branding and creating a program that focuses on the whole room. 

Interestingly they have joined with Onkyo to make this launch.  The Onkyo product that is being branded with this story is the HT-S990THX theater system.

I find this very interesting.  The price point is certainly appealing, it's listed to sell for a retail price of $1099 which certainly hits a unique price point.

However, system integrators that are certified by Marantz and JBL Synthesis have been selling and installing THX certified systems for years.  Both of these companies have created solutions that adapte their products to work in a variety of home theater room configurations. 

I have personal experience with the JBL Synthesis line.  We've installed a number of these systems in homes around the country.  With the JBL calibration equipment we were able to make nearly all of the home theaters "THX Certified". 

Here's a picture of one that we did in the Seattle area. Of course the price tag on those systems were substantially more than this Onkyo system.  And I believe there is a large market for systems that provide a certfiable result and deliver a consistent audio experience.  We found this to be true in the $50k+ systems that we service.

I'm looking forward to hearing the Onkyo system to experience how the system stands up to their promise.