Internet Content for Your Media Players and HTPCs

Internet Content for Your Media
Players and HTPCs
If you’re really into this HTPC thing, think about whether setting up an HTPC
is really worth the trouble just to playback DVDs (although the quality would
be way high). Probably not, huh? So, you might ask yourself, what else is in it
for me? What really makes an HTPC useful is its ability to provide a portal to
all sorts of great Internet-based content — that is, music and video content. A
portal is simply a one-stop shop for movies, songs, animation clips, video
voice mail, and so on. Think of it as a kind of a Yahoo! for your audio and
video needs. (In fact, Yahoo!, a portal itself, is trying to position itself to be
just that! You can play great music videos from its Web site at
launch.yahoo.com.)
You’re not getting much Internet content if your HTPC isn’t connected to the
Internet. And don’t forget that a connection to your high-speed Internet
access (digital subscriber line [DSL] or cable modem) is part of the overall
equation. (Yup, a regular ol’ vanilla dialup connection will work, but — we
can’t stress this enough — not nearly as well. Pony up the cash and come on
into this century.)
Again, if you’re really interested in your home entertainment system and
home theater systems, you should check out Home Theater For Dummies for
lots more info.
You’ll find a load of good content on the Internet, just waiting for you to
come around and get it. Note that these sites charge you for the services
and content they provide, but the content is well worth the price. Take it from
us. Some of the most popular online content providers include the following:
Listen.com (www.listen.com): Listen.com’s Rhapsody online music
service is a great source of quality music for your home theater (via an
HTPC). From its library of over 20,000 albums (and for a paltry $9.95 per
month), you get unlimited, on-demand access. And check out its radio
service ($5 per month) that offers differently themed radio stations. The
Rhapsody player (the service uses its own proprietary player) is based
on Windows Media Player, so it should work with just about any HTPC
remote control.
MUSICMATCH MX (www.musicmatch.com): Like Listen.com, MUSICMATCH
MX comes in two versions: gold ($2.95 per month) that gives
you radio access, and platinum ($4.95 per month) that gives you ondemand
access to the catalogs of over 8,000 artists. MX is fully integrated
into MUSICMATCH jukebox, so you’ve only got one interface to
deal with.
Movielink (www.movielink.com): Check out Movielink, which is a cool
site from which you can download and play current Hollywood movies
(meaning about when they make it to DVD). A six-day “rental” is about
$3 per movie — the catch is that you gotta finish watching it within 24
hours after you start playing it.
Other wireless ways (Where there’s a will . . .)
We are very obviously biased toward the
802.11x technologies because we believe in a
home wireless network backbone. We think that
with all the focus on standards, costs will
decrease, new features will evolve, and the
overall capability will continue to get better.
Collectively, it simply gives you more options for
the home.
That doesn’t mean that standards are the only
way to go. There are plenty of proprietary 900
MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5 GHz approaches — as well
as other frequency bands — that are popular
because they’re just cheap to manufacture and
cheap to implement. For instance, the
SoundLink (www.usr.com/products/
device/p-device-product.asp?sku=
USR6003) Wireless Audio Delivery System
(Model USR6003, list price $105) uses FM frequency
bands to link your PC and stereo over
channels 88.1 or 88.3. This is basically an FM
transmitter for your PC. (In Home Theater For
Dummies, we tell you about how to use this type
of transmitter to make your own drive-in!)
For another approach, check out Terk’s (www.
terk.com, $99.95) Leapfrog Series Wave
Master 20 (Model LF-20S) that uses the same
2.4 GHz frequency spectrum as does 802.11b
and 802.11g to carry audio and video around
the house. So 802.11 is not the only way, but
we prefer it. Just remember: The more signals
that you put in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz ranges to
compete with your 802.11 signals, the more
problems you’ll have.