Every Media That Rises Must Converge

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which I did not have the pleasure of attending this year (and yes, I am bitter) was all about the convergence of all media between personal computers and televisions.

It's a tricky nut to crack. On the input side folks can acquire media from cable, which typically goes to your TV, or the Internet, which goes to your computer. Now apparently we want to store this media and view it in all kinds of output formats - so that endlessly hilarious YouTube clip of the youngster falling off a trampoline and getting a spinal cord injury can be viewed not only on the family PC, but also on the TV in the living room and on your cell phone while weaving through traffic. Devices like the new Apple's iTV will allow you to store and stream Internet content in this manner, getting it from the PC to the living room - but only for stuff purchased through iTunes, of course.

Going in the other direction, there's a constellation of devices to store cable TV content, and either play it back later on the television itself (Tivo, MythTV), or send it over the Internet or a home network to a computer somewhere (Slingbox) or parcel out the media to handheld devices like iPods, PSPs, and cell phones.

The right architecture, in a perfect world, would be agnostic to how the content arrived - via cable TV, satellite dish, or Internet. Nor would the playback method be restricted - any TV in the home, any computer you own, or any device with a screen and the right codec. And somewhere every family would have a server (in the basement next to the furnace), with big SATA hard drives, songs, home movies, free content, and media that has been acquired via legal purchase.

But the technology is not so seamlessly interchangeable, and a Roman legion of lawyers have been deployed to challenge any "bridge" of formats that might cause their corporate overlords to lose a sale. Already own that DVD of Spiderman 2? Well, the lawyers are here to make sure you are going to pay for it again if you want to watch it on your iPhone, and they are posed to sue anyone who attempts to help you transfer the media. And be prepared to pay a third time when you upgrade to Blu-Ray.

The promise of convergence is still not there yet. It's a big tangle of spaghetti, both in terms of the technology and the legality.

And, c'mon folks. Let's stop and think here about the real value of what we are being sold. How much of our life do we want to spend staring at screens? We already work all day in front of these damn computers. Now were going to be watching movies in the elevator? Let's try interrupting the relentless media consumption by looking at other live human beings - our families - or going for a walk in the park, or fishing off the end of a dock. Ask yourself, at a more fundamental level what do we really need?

(Yes, I know I'm conflicted.)

Tags: CES, Convergence