Digital Home Thoughts: C|Net: AMD: Vista Only a Tiny Step to Convergence

"Windows Vista is a step in the right direction, but major obstacles remain before PC technology can make it big in the living room, a senior Advanced Micro Devices researcher said Tuesday. Advances in Windows Vista, such as increased support for high-definition video and new DVD standards, help PC technology in its battle for consumer living rooms, Rod Fleck, a fellow with AMD said in a presentation at Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here. But a new operating system doesn't solve the broader industry issues. "What I would love is fewer standards and more people that adopt the few that we take," he said. Windows Vista is the successor to Windows XP, slated to be broadly available in January. Certain editions of the new Microsoft operating system will include an update to capabilities found in today's Windows XP Media Center Edition. The PC industry, with players such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Intel and AMD, has tried to move into the living room for years, without much success. A new operating system alone won't solve the challenges, Fleck said, apologizing if he was upsetting Microsoft with his stance."

I totally agree. While Vista may be the best OS to come out of Redmond ever, it's still just an operating system. Hardware, programs and other logistical factors must apply as well. In addition to fewer standards, AMD says unreliable networking (read: Wi-Fi) technology, bloated programs and machines that are too noisy and run too hot are at the core of the problem. Not to mention they're expensive. I agree the all-in-one solution may be a ways away, but the technology certainly exists to build your own more stable, less noisy and hot PC (albeit expensively). Personally I think if they just made DVRs connect and stream from a PC the problem would be solved. Kind of like an XBox with a DVR built-in.