Philips view of the digital future reads like they bought the play book form Sony. Read the following from Philips. Read Sony's vision for CoCoon. And we are riding the same rails as both of these guys. Man I love trains.
Philips
Opening the door to a dazzling, interactive future
You're working late at the office. Suddenly you remember the big soccer match is on TV tonight. No problem - you just phone your 'home entertainment centre' and ask it to record the game. When you get home, before you settle down to watch, you connect to the on-line supermarket via your TV and arrange for your usual groceries to be delivered next evening. Sounds convenient? These are just some of the possibilities digital technologies are opening up as TV and today's set-top boxes are transformed into multimedia gateways at the heart of the digital, connected home.
Exciting functions for real needs TV-based interactive services and interconnectivity will transform the way we enjoy home entertainment, the way we receive information, how we shop and much more. And set-top boxes and future sophisticated Digital TVs will be the keys that unlock this exciting world of services, multimedia and fun.
At the heart of the home entertainment network, the set-top box will act as a gateway to data networks and the broadcast infrastructure beyond the home, while also functioning as a server or 'home entertainment centre' interconnecting all kinds of consumer electronics equipment such as TVs, audio systems, video recorders, DVD players and camcorders, as well as home PCs. With a hard disk for local video storage and time-shifting of live TV, and a rewriteable optical storage medium for archiving, the 'home entertainment centre' will have all the resources in-home networking requires.
Philips Semiconductors is developing a range of solutions for DTV and home networking, created around a vision of this technology that is both imaginative and firmly rooted in real needs. The connectivity adventure must deliver valuable practical benefits, not 'technological gadgetry'. In our model, consumers will have access to a powerful, coherent home network via an easy-to-use interface which allows them to concentrate on what they want to do. Users will focus on activities and needs - "I want to watch the movie I downloaded yesterday", "I have to read my e-mail" - and simply use the most convenient device, whether it's a TV, a PC screen or any other part of the network.
Sony
"CoCoon" is a term for a series of home AV gateway devices equipped with a large capacity hard disk that enables consecutive recording and playback at the user's leisure of music and movie as well as always-on network functions that realize access to a variety of network services.
These new home AV gateway devices function as an "evolving product" and offer the following features; "Personalization" for a device to learn a user's preference and automatically choose and record matching television programs, "Ubiquitous Network" that enables an instantaneous preset recording of television programs from a PC or cellular phone by always-on network connectivity, and "Upgrading Ability" to realize an expansion of functions and use of new network services through automatic software upgrade. In addition, the "CoCoon" home AV gateway devices are designed to offer enhanced ease of use of consumer AV devices for every user to access various network services by a single remote control operation.
Sony positions "WEGA", "PlayStation 2", "VAIO" and "mobile devices" as the key gateway devices for users to easily enjoy a variety of content and services anytime, anywhere in the coming Ubiquitous "Value" Network era. A new lifestyle in a home environment can be realized through the Ubiquitous "Value" Network by merging "CoCoon" home AV gateway devices with "WEGA" television products which always seek after high definition picture quality
