Entertainment systems and Intel Viiv

You may have seen some of Intel’s recent adverts for Viiv, depicting happy families merrily gathered round a TV screen, watching films that they’ve downloaded from the Internet or streaming music around the house via their wireless network.

Of course, any half-decent PC can do all these things already, so these ads don’t really tell you anything particularly useful.

We recently attended a rather posh event that Intel held in London, graced by the likes of Jonathan Ross, Michael Owen and some bloke who used to be in New Order. We cornered one of Intel’s product managers to ask: ‘What exactly is Viiv?’

‘It’s a promise for the future,’ came the well-rehearsed but utterly meaningless reply.

Nonetheless, we persevered and eventually managed to pin down some sort of official definition of Viiv. In order for a PC system to carry the Viiv logo, it must be based on a dual-core Intel processor, such as the Intel Core Duo or Pentium D.

That will give you the raw horsepower to compress and decompress large video files, including high-definition TV and video.

The PC’s motherboard will be equipped with an Intel Express chipset, which will offer either 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound audio, and an ‘instant on/off’ feature, so the PC can be turned on straight away, just like an ordinary TV.

Somewhat oddly, a TV tuner isn’t required for the Viiv seal of approval. That is a strange omission, since the whole point of Viiv seems to be to produce a single device that can act as your complete entertainment system, replacing the multiple boxes currently piling up in living rooms across the world.

There’s no mention of a remote control unit either so, like the TV tuner, this is merely an optional extra.

Of course, none of these features is unique to Intel, and you probably won’t be surprised to know that Intel’s arch-rival AMD is conducting its own equally vague branding exercise, called AMD Live.

As far as we can tell, AMD Live is simply a logo that can be slapped onto any PC that has an AMD64 processor inside.

Where Intel might score over AMD is that it has been working with a number of content providers to create new services specifically designed for use with Viiv PCs.

Companies such as Sky, Napster and MTV are producing versions of their existing services that are designed to be controlled via a TV set and remote control rather than through a conventional computer monitor and keyboard.

Even so, these services will still be available to ordinary PC users as well, so you won’t be missing out just because you don’t have an official Viiv PC.

This is part of a group test on remote access software. Other articles are:
Media Center PCs introduction and Editor's Choice
Ambros Shuttle SD36G5M
Cube 247 Omega ST2
Dell Dimension 5150C
Elonex Artisan VX
Evesham Ebox V
Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo E
Hi-Grade DMS II 3200
Mesh Cubex Media TV PCW
Panrix Mantis
Sony Vaio VGX-XL 100
Entertainment systems and Viiv