Consumers turn on to digital media servers

The PC media server market is set to grow from $3.7bn in 2006 to $44.8bn by 2011

The growth in digital entertainment and content, and the maturity of media networking technologies, are fuelling the popularity of digital media servers in the home, according to a new study from ABI Research.

These trends will result in the transformation of existing products such as PCs and set-top boxes into home media servers, the research firm predicts.

Driven by Microsoft, Intel and Apple, the PC media server market is set to grow from $3.7bn in 2006 to $44.8bn by 2011 as mainstream PCs become fully functional media servers.

"With the arrival of faster in-home digital networking technologies such as MoCA, an industry-accepted framework for networked digital media distribution in DLNA, and the increase in pay-TV and internet content for in-home networks, the home media server is becoming a key beachhead in the digital home," said principal ABI Research analyst Michael Wolf.

ABI Research believes that the digital media server will evolve into four main categories: PCs, set-top boxes, gaming consoles and network attached storage hardware.

In the coming years many consumers will centralise much of their content on a Media Center PC, the research firm said.

"Success stories in the PC camp, such as the approval of OCUR CableCard support in Windows Vista, will certainly mean some adoption of pay-TV going over networks installed by consumers," said Wolf.

"But we believe that the pay-TV media server category will be dominated in the near- to medium-term by the set-top box, while the PC media server and consumer electronics categories will flourish as personal and internet content media servers."