Forget Streaming Video, How Do I Stream My PC Instead?

December 5th, 2007 Davis Posted in Media, Technology, TV, VOD, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Microsoft, Netflix |

Over the last week, I’ve put a lot of thought into how I plan on networking my home entertainment system. After bouncing around for the last few months, I’ve finally found a place to call home (for now), but haven’t figured out my digital strategy yet. 10 years ago, this would have involved hooking up a DVD player and forgetting about it, but today things are far more complicated. While doing an inventory of my entertainment options, I was surprised to realize that I now have eight different devices, that are capable of bringing digital entertainment straight to my television.

Having to allocate electrical outlets is a tough enough problem, but figuring out how to network each device has proved to be even more challenging. Despite having a plethora of choices, I still can’t figure out the best equation, for maximizing my entertainment experience.

My current plan is to set up the Media Center PC in my office and stream the videos to an Xbox360. Because I don’t want to deal with slow WiFi, I plan on drilling holes through the walls (don’t tell my landlord) and running ethernet cable straight into the living room.

My only reservation in using this set up, is that I won’t be able to get the real internet, directly on my television. This is important, because I want to be able watch YouTube, Stage6 and Netflix videos on my big screen TV. In order to solve this problem, I could hook the Media Center PC, directly to the TV, but then I miss out on all of the computing functions, that are more ideal for a desktop environment.

It may seem like I’m asking to have my cake and eat it too, but the experience has made me wonder, if Microsoft has their extender strategy backwards? Instead of being able to stream video files to the living room, why not let me stream the computing functions to an office monitor?

This would unlock the media experience in the living room, while preserving the PC functionality in the home office. Instead of selling media extenders, Microsoft could be offering a networking dongle that connects your monitor, mouse and keyboard to the living room PC. They could even set it up, so that someone could watch the media center, while another person was using the computer. While I know that a lot of consumers don’t want a PC in their living room, a bizarro media extender would be more practical for me.

A few years back, I had a friend who used some kind of networking equipment to cut back on the number of PCs in their office, but this was more expensive and complicated, then what I’m trying to accomplish. I tried to find out more about desktop extenders, but wasn’t familiar with any of the companies I found online. If anyone has ever used a remote computing setup, I would love to find out more about your experience. Is this even possible and is there a solution for the home consumer market? Is this something that would even work or am I better off hooking up an Xbox360 and an old computer to my television instead?