Discussions

Alright, with all the creativity flying around this place we call WePC.com, I can’t just sit on the sidelines and echo support for everyone else’s great ideas. I need to strike out on my own here as well, with a concept that has been rolling around in my head for some time now. It’s obvious that the average, mainstream notebook or perhaps even some higher-end netbooks, are being built with ever-more capability in the multimedia end of things. With the introduction of new notebook chipset platforms with integrated graphics engines, like Intel’s GMA X4500MHD, the average notebook basically now has an on-board HD video and audio engine that frankly is limited to the small screen, if you will, rather than being allowed to stretch its legs on the "big screen” as well.

The nice thing about notebooks and netbooks is that they’re sleek, stylish and easily tucked away for the most part. With the full multimedia capabilities of the average machine, along with either Windows Media Center software or third party applications and perhaps even a remote control as some machines have, the average notebook could easily double as a Home Theater or Media Player PC as well. In fact, many recent notebook designs have HDMI out as standard equipment, so why not hook that port up and put it to good use?

I’d like to suggest a Home Theater PC docking station product. It would be very easy to build this and include lots of features for expansion that would allow the average HD capable notebook to become a mobile media center with not only room for expansion but the ability to play, stream and store a large volume of digital HD goodness. In addition to simply wiring up an HDMI connector for easy hook-up to an HDTV set, we could make use of an eSATA port on the back of the notebook for connecting to a larger storage volume that could reside in the docking station - RAID-enabled if we wanted for redundancy even.  Of course in addition to storage expansion you could also allow for a hard-wired Gigabit Ethernet link to give the notebook unfettered access to your network while in HTPC or Media PC mode. What else do we need in here? Perhaps wireless blue tooth links for an external keyboard and mouse, just in case you don’t feel like getting up from the couch to grab the notebook and go mobile with it. This also reminds us of the now nearly lifeless UWB standard for wireless connectivity of various consumer electronic devices. It would be sweet if we could make this a wireless dock, wouldn’t it?  Let's ruminate here...