Don't Box Me In!

Pop quiz! How many boxes do you have in your home entertainment center? You probably have one for the cable/satellite/telco video system; one for the audio system; a DVD player, or two if one’s a Blu Ray; perhaps a CD player if you think you get better audio from a standalone unit; maybe a turntable or tape deck—especially if it’s one of those new deals that record old vinyl onto computers; maybe a lingering VCR that hasn’t quite gasped its last breath; probably at least one game console; and perhaps a modem or some other computer-related device.

If you’re like me, you have more boxes than the Macy’s closeout aisle on Christmas Eve. So why would you want another one to do interactivity?

That’s why I have to wonder at the business models behind recent announcements by Google and TiVo that they’re pushing Web-TV connectivity. Both announcements included yet another box.

In Google’s case, the box might be a replacement for a satellite receiver—or it might be an add-on; hard to tell. One way or the other it would contain all the software elements for an interactive Web-based connection to Google and other Internet content and would probably come with some exclusions as to where it gets the content and how it puts it on the screen.

TiVo, of course, cut its manufacturing teeth building boxes and had some relative success selling them as parts of home entertainment systems for a while. TiVo might be including its software into cable hardware, but, like Google and some others who are attacking the nascent interactive space, TiVo is building another box to do the job.

Call me unrelenting but I think it’s just common sense to take away a box and put the necessary Internet and interactive connectivity off-premises in the amorphous Internet cloud. Who really needs another device to store still more content that can be accessed from sources outside the home? If you want interactivity, isn’t it easier to give a command to an existing box and let that unit, which is already there, go find the content from its convenient location off-site? It gets there just as quickly; you have as much control over it as you want when it arrives; and if you really feel like storing it, there’s plenty of storage capability on many of the boxes you already own.

Adding another box to a home entertainment center today is like throwing another pair of shoes into Imelda Marcos’ closet. It might look nice, might give you something the other boxes don’t, but in the end what’s already there is already made for walking.