Taken a peek round the back of your latest consumer electronics purchase? There's a chance that in among the Scarts and the audio connections you'll notice a new socket lurking. For a growing number of products now sport an Ethernet socket to enable them to connect to a home network.
Manufacturers of consumer electronics and PCs share a vision of the future wherein all the devices in a home are linked together in one, almost certainly wireless, system. The arrival of the Ethernet socket in the consumer electronics world is the first tentative step towards that goal. It enables hi-fis, DVD players and games consoles not only to access information from other devices in the system, but also to harness broadband internet connections. Some devices use the net for garnering information - others to enable the user to contact other people.
By far the highest profile non-computer product to launch with Ethernet sockets has been the games console the X-Box. By running a connection from the Ethernet socket to a broadband router users can access the innovative X-Box live service. Using this system, which requires an outlay of around £35 for an upgrade kit, gamers can play multiplayer games on the internet and, via the X-Box communicator, chat to their rivals while they play.
Another high profile product that sports an Ethernet connection is a Philips hi-fi system, the Streamium. This connects to a router to offer streaming of internet radio stations as well as allowing the user to access MP3 and other music files stored on their PCs. Rival products such as Turtle Beach's AudioTron also sport Ethernet connections.
Yet the place where Ethernet connection could potentially be of most benefit to the consumer is on a DVD player. Earlier this year the Danish company KISS Technology debuted the DP-500, a DVD player with an Ethernet connection. Once users had negotiated the slightly tricky set-up procedure they could use the DVD unit to hear MP3 music files and see jpeg image files via their TV. Even more usefully, the system could stream mpeg4 files, the most popular type of compressed video format, to the DVD player and on to a screen. This enabled users not only to watch camcorder footage they edited on their PC but also to see video files they had downloaded using peer-to-peer software such as KaZaa. Philips has a similar video-streaming product due out later in the year, while in the US Gateway has unveiled an Ethernet-enabled DVD player that retails for less than £150.
The fundamental problem facing all these devices concerns where Britons place their PCs or broadband internet routers. Chances are they are kept in the study many metres away from other devices in the living room, and running a cable between the two devices can be problematic.
The obvious solution is to integrate the device within a wireless system. Presuming a person has already installed a router and wireless access point, the key device they need to buy is a wireless Ethernet bridge. In theory this small device (a little bigger than a matchbox and sporting an aerial) connects to the DVD, hi-fi or games console and then without any further tweaking adds the secondary device to the network.
Well, that's the theory. I got myself a Netgear ME101 bridge, hooked it up to my Philips Streamium and rather cynically expected it not to work the first time. Unbelievably the £60 device proved to be completely plug-and-play. I was expecting at least to have to install a CD-Rom, key in an IP address or delve into configuration menus. Yet instantaneously I was able to tune into my favourite radio stations via my 802.11b wireless network. The antenna seems fairly sensitive and it performs at higher levels than say an 802,11b PC card in a laptop. If you have an X-Box, or even a Streamium, the ME101, or a device like it, really is a very worthwhile investment.
Of course the rather paltry data transfer speed of 802.11b - quoted as 11mbps, but in reality more like 2mbps - is not fast enough to stream video, so the Kiss player does not yet work wirelessly. As the new 802.11g standard, which offers 54mbps data transfer rate and will work with video, establishes itself we should see more and more of these intelligent DVD player devices. Both Netgear and its rival Linksys have announced wireless Ethernet bridges for 802.11g systems and these are now arriving in the UK.
Philips also has several products due to launch in the autumn that will wirelessly stream video over an 802.11g network. The time when those video files on your PC are accessible on your TV over a network really isn't that far way.
