For most, the title statement is probably something they would reject without a second thought. Isn’t convergence bringing PCs into more households, and making the need for a PC greater than ever before?

No, actually convergence - the movement of bringing audio and video reproduction together with basic home computing - is doing the exact opposite. People are complaining more about Microsoft Vista, an operating system which should have been the culmination of all the research and gained knowledge over 20 years, as though it comes from a new supplier, hardly aware of the computer world today. Why?

Much of the reason is spelled out in an article by Ken Fisher, stating many of the problems with Vista, and any other commercial operating system is how extensively the  AACS DRM interferes with the normal operation of the system, and how much time and effort was taken to satisfy the people behind the movement.

Mr. Fisher points out how Microsoft was required to do things, ordinarily not ever done, in order to satisfy the content providers (Hollywood). Changes, made to the operating system that are done to assure no access to the user to decrypted content, are hampering the operating system in ways not seen in previous revisions of Windows.

In another piece, another author, Ed Tittel points out that while many newer motherboards, and video cards are coming with the HDMI output, there is no way of getting the promised audio results from the hardware. Due to the many changing standards - with uncertain reasons for the changes - it is impossible to determine who is the bad guy in each case. Is it the hardware manufacturer, trying to save pennies by not making the connections, or are they being forced by a higher power to eliminate the possibility of full quality output?

Beyond any other concerns, with boogey men hiding in the shadows, convergence has tried to show, in general, that a theater-quality experience can be had with inferior hardware, both audio and video. Just another case of caveat emptor.

Tags: drm, aacs, hd video content, hdmi connections, microsoft, vista, hollywood, caveat emptor