"The market really got a nice push last year with Microsoft launching Media Center, but we believe that the rest of the PC manufacturers will be introducing products that have television built in, both in 2003 and going into 2004. "
The hardware lets computer users record TV programs onto hard drives... similar to Tivo and ReplayTV boxes... .and Hauppaugue is now selling a device it calls the MediaMVP... for streaming recorded shows ... along with music or photos... onto a TV in another room through a home network...
"And the best part of it is, it will be 99 dollars. It's an Ethernet based product and for 99 dollars you can connect this up to pretty much any TV set in the house and be playing media that's stored on your computer."
Hauppaugue opted to stick to a wired networking device for now and not wireless. It will be adding a box that includes wireless 802.11G networking in the months to come. Hauppauge, which faces competition from Sony, Hewlett Packard and others... is using the Linux operating system in the device to keep the price down. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.