A True Family Room or Home Theater PC System

129 points posted to Sales Strategies, Desktops and Laptops by tonyman262 02/20/07

Michael Dell please consider this:
Some say that Apple is the only PC maker that has style. I say bunk. Your XPS M2010 is gorgeous. I also say it is time that Dell offered not just a machine or PC but rather a solution.
Dell already sells great TV's, monitors, speakers, and of course PCs. Why not sell the bundle?
These bundles would allow a customer to pick and choose among your displays, speakers, and computers. Customers could then add his/her own receiver and DVD/CD player to complete the solution.


The missing pieces:
Dell XPS Class Computer in a Table-Top Format.
This computer would have a user selectable faceplate. The face plates could be all black, brushed aluminum, with or without rack mount ears. The key here is the styling. I don't want a kludge in my living room or family room. Skip right over any design styling clues from Apple and go right to something from your own XPS M2010 and Bang & Olufsen for looks and design cues.

Throw away the idea that this machine has to be tiny. Look at the size and weight of many high-end A/V receivers and CD carousels. My Denon AVR-5700 receiver and Sony CDP-CX450 CD Player are both nearly 7 ½H x 17D x 17W. And the receiver weighs more than most computers. You can put full size (and full performance) ATX motherboards, video, and sound cards with adequate cooling in that much space.
We all know that Dell can engineer and build a great performing computer when considering number crunching and gaming. But now let's do the other part of consumer computers like LOOKS and A/V connectivity. The color of any front panel displays should be selectable like my XPS M170 but with more pizzazz like the XPS M1710.

Dell XPS Class Remote Controller.
It should complement the computer and Dell’s line of TVs in styling. Again look to your own XPS M2010 and B&O for design cues. For performance it should outclass Sony's RM-xxxx controllers. This RC should be weighted, look nice on the coffee table, be rechargeable, preferably via a laptop type battery pack or via USB.

There should be a touch screen and very easy to get control codes for other devices into the RC. A user should be able to cruise to Dell’s website download codes for his/her own non-Dell equipment using the above computer and via some connection transfer the info to the RC. This could be done by Bluetooth, wireless or LAN but not IR. Dell could maintain a database on its website or work with other manufacturers for current and older codes. If there is not a standard format for these RC codes than Dell could create one. If Dell creates a standard teach the standard to the Dell User Group so other Dell users can contribute to the database. Does it need to be mentioned that this controller should come out of the box able to control EVERY function on Dell’s own products. What ever you do please don’t let it look cheesy.

Cable Kits
Invest a little time and website space providing pictures and a short glossary or index on the typical jacks, connections, and cables for high-end A/V Receivers and DVD/CD/VHS players, plus your own TVs, computers, and speakers. Pictures-Pictures-Pictures.
Make it so easy for customers to get from Dell, solutions like playing music, videos, and pictures located on their hard drives to play on their home entertainment systems.
By displaying pictures of typical a/v jacks, connectors, and cables on your website the customers and Dell technicians could both start at common ground. The Dell tech could lead customers through part selection and purchase.
Dell normally supplies a connection diagram with most or all of its PCs and laptops. Post some potential connection diagrams on your web site complete with or at lest crossed referenced to your parts list. Speaking of parts, why are your replacement parts so expensive?

Home Server Completes the Dream
Microsoft is rumored to have a Home Server in the works. Dell should be the absolute first vendor to offer this product. This should be a no brainer on a silver platter for Dell.
This product could be offered in 1 of 2 formats:
1). Use the chassis from the above mentioned table-top with its good looks.
2). Use one of your small servers that allows for plenty of hard drives and optical drives.

While a lot of processor power and video is not needed, fast Ethernet ports like 100/1000 Ethernet and large hard drives would be needed. Also include an internal media card reader. The key here is to make it very easy for users to get their content (music, pictures, and video) onto and off of the server, through the PC and onto the display and into the speakers.

Don't reinvent the wheel. There is no need to create a new front-end. Windows Media Center is great. Use and make the most of what is already built-in. Using your website show users how to stream video, store and serve music and pictures, how to record and play back television shows and add TIVO like functionality completes the value add. All of these things can be done now using Windows Media Center. The Home Server will give us a centralized place to store this content and a way to selectively give or deny access to it.