A shift is happening in the way young Americans prefer to experience their TV, movies and music. According to a recent survey undertaken by Dolby, approximately 60 percent of college students in the United States are now powering up their PCs, and not their televisions, for their entertainment fix. The majority of students also believe PCs deliver the best overall entertainment experience, with 70% using their PCs to watch video, and for 64% this was communal, shared with other viewers, versus 44% in the general population.
The findings from Dolby's online survey of 300 college students and 301 members of the gen-pop (for comparison) should come as good news to Microsoft. Then again, it might not be news at all, as the software behemoth has been including Windows Media Player 12 as an exclusive component of their Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise PC operating systems since their collective launch. (Previous versions of WMP had been available as a free download.) Some version of Windows 7 is now the de facto standard OS on new PCs, and consumers can also upgrade to Win7 from older operating systems.
Turns out that this twelfth and most sophisticated version of Windows Media Player is a sort of goldmine of free entertainment--free is good, especially for undergrads--with a single comprehensive guide to find TV shows, either over broadband internet or over the air. Yes, with the addition of an inexpensive ATSC TV tuner and an antenna, a Windows 7 PC can become a fully-featured HD DVR to watch/record/pause/replay live broadcast TV directly on the PC, with no service charge for OTA digital television. Windows Media Center now natively supports several different global broadcast TV standards, and optional third-party add-ons can provide even greater compatibility. Netflix streaming is now available within Windows Media Center, too for those students able to part with $8.99/month for the Netflix subscription.
For Dolby, the news justifies their continued foray into computer sound, including Dolby Home Theater V3, and Dolby Advanced Sound-- two ways that Dolby is attempting to help squeeze every last drop of performance out of your PC's built-in speakers or any attached set of powered speakers or headphones. If we can't convince these kids today to invest in a decent sound system, then why not make the most of what they have?
For those with a hankering for larger screens, Windows 7 makes connecting to an HDTV that much easier--and an increasing number of PCs now offer HDMI output-- with the bonus of the HomeGroup feature which also rounds up digital media from all home-networked Win7 PCs. Or we can use the Xbox 360 as a Windows Media Center Extender, a bridge between the computer's content and the TV. For load-and-go usage, we can sync our recordings to a Zune digital media player or a Windows-based phone. And with Remote Media Streaming, we can log in with a Windows Live ID and stream video, music and photos anywhere we have a compatible internet-connected device.
If your TV lacks those media friendly features and digital inputs, you might consider an upgrade, or perhaps replacement with an aquarium...? And if your PC is still running one of those media-unfriendly operating systems, perhaps now is the time to upgrade to Windows 7?
More than half of those college students surveyed are also expecting the majority of entertainment to be PC-based in the future. Windows 7 might be giving us a window onto that day.
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