Editor's View: New Products, New Terminology

by Matthew York
Summer/Fall 2003

We're excited to report an explosion of new selective and interactive products; many in categories that did not exist a year ago. Unfortunately, the companies developing these products use their own terms to describe them. The reality is, as consumers, we're lacking standard terms to define this new technology.

We have the unique opportunity to contribute to the developing of terminology that describes these products and their functions. Consider what follows as our contribution to the language you'll need to know to understand these new products.

In January, nearly 10 companies announced products that play media files remotely. We call these products media clients. A media client has no speakers or screen, it simply allows a TV or stereo to play music, video or digital photos from a computer. Some of these devices only utilize audio files. We call these audio clients. We call those devices that handle both audio and video A/V clients.

The consumer electronics world consists of individual devices that work together in the same room (e.g. a TV and a VCR). The concept of devices working together from different locations in the home presents a new way of thinking. These devices need to connect via an Ethernet connection so they can share files, and one of the devices must hold and serve the data. We call the connections between devices (wires, hubs, gateways, NICs) home networking gear. We call the combination of the devices and the home networking gear a home entertainment network. A gateway is a device that connects the home entertainment network to the Internet.

At the center of the home entertainment network lies the media server, a device that stores media files (MP3, digital photos and video). This can be a personal computer, a digital video recorder (DVR) or a similar device with a hard drive.

When using a VCR to record something, most people use the word "tape." In the case of a recording to a hard drive, I've heard the phrases "DVRed" and "snagged". The jury is still out on this one. The device that does the recording could be called a Personal Media Recorder (PMR). This phrase is superior to Personal Video Recorder (PVR) because TiVo and Windows XP Media Center Edition record both video and audio. TiVo and ReplayTV are both using the phrase Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Some may say that "personal" is also obvious, but I disagree. Personal means that the user controls what is being recorded. It is possible for a cable or satellite company to dictate what is recorded on the device. I would personally lead the revolution against such a device should one show up.