Imagine singing along to music in the bathroom while your mother watches a movie in the bedroom and your father catches some soccer action in the living room. All through a single system ? and simultaneously.
Add pausing and recording live television, viewing photo albums and playing your favourite video games to the features-list and Korean giant LG?s MyHomNet promises to be the single entertainment device you?ve craved at home.
At the heart of MyHomNet is Microsoft?s much-touted Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Operating System, which allows integration of home entertainment experiences, from photos to music, television to games and more.
While LG is one of the few PC manufacturers selling Media Center-enabled desktop PCs, the company claims it is the only one to truly harness it as a home entertainment device. ?We have taken it a step further and created MyHomNet,? said R. Manikandan, general manager (sales & marketing) of PC & Peripherals for LG Electronics India.
In MyHomNet, a single ?hub? (a processing unit with a TV-tuner card and Windows XP Media Center) can connect to multiple output devices like desktop monitors, plasmas and projection TVs. Images, video, music and other data are stored in this central device. This can be connected to displays in various parts of the house through wires or wirelessly, with the help of ?extenders?.
MyHomNet allows a great way to relive your personal moments. Store all your photographs in an online library and watch them in slide shows on the big screen. Ditto for home videos. The music library can also be controlled and played from one of the displays. As far as gamers go, they can play their favourite titles on the large displays as well as battle opponents online.
Much like the TiVo in the West, this device can change the way television is watched here. For instance, you can watch a movie while your favourite television programme is being recorded for viewing later. You can also pause live television and skip through commercials, in real time.
The Media Center has been around for a while now, but it?s only with the latest edition that Microsoft has actively started promoting it and licensed original equipment manufacturers like LG to use it for extending their entertainment offerings.
LG has just soft-launched the product in the city, with plans to promote it through CyberShoppes, the first of which is slated to come up ?in a month?, according to Manikandan. Available currently at select stores, the MyHomNet models start around Rs 60,000.
(Picture above) Star striker Ronaldo watches Argentine forward Hernan Crespo celebrate one of his goals against Brazil during the World Cup qualifier, at his house in Rio de Janeiro. (AFP)
