Regular readers will have picked up the first clues when we started writing about BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer file transfer program that allowed us to download programs from the US and the UK, and view them within a day or so of their appearance in New York or London. We had become multimedia citizens of the global village.

The only problem was that we needed a Windows PC or a Mac to download those programs, and they were in the home office, or the Bleeding Edge cave at the Abbotsford Convent, rather than in the lounge room with the television set. We’d discovered a regular routine for accelerating the heart rate.

At the same time, we had been accumulating a vast library of MP3 music files, which were also on our computers. The 2nd generation iPod made it relatively portable. As the collection expanded, we bought a 3rd generation and then a 4th generation iPod. At the same time we became hooked on podcasts – mostly from ABC Radio National and the BBC – and we used the SanDisk Sansa to manage them.

What we noticed, however, was that whenever we wanted to play the iPod or Sansa through the lounge room Hi-Fi, we’d have to first trek around the house, playing hide and seek. Had we used it in the bedroom last night? Or was it in the car? The office? A bag?

Last week, when the first gorgeous Bleeding Edge granddaughter – “Hello Indigo” – suddenly appeared on the scene, we realised things were about to get completely out of hand. Grandchildren generate vast amounts of still and video images – who knows, possibly even podcasts? - and we’d already experienced missing slideshow syndrome, where the images you want to screen on the TV aren’t where you need them to be, right now, before your prospective audience gets bored and starts making excuses to leave.

This brings us to something of a crisis point. Frankly there are more interesting ways of maintaining fitness, so we’re going to have to replace the Topfield with something that gives us the ability to tap our central stores of video, audio and images, without domestic excursions.

We thought briefly about the recently-released high-definition version of the Topfield, the TF7000HT, but the Korean manufacturers have not only overlooked the first requirement of an up-to-date PVR – wireless or Ethernet capability – they’ve also apparently lost touch with reality. They’ve concentrated all their efforts on high-definition resolution, and overlooked the fact that the “upgrade” eliminates the features that made their products so popular. The TF7000HT costs $1100, but it doesn’t accommodate TAPs, and more critically, can’t handle the Ice TV electronic program guide ($90 per annum from icetv.com.au) that we in the fitness centre regard as essential for the prevention of exercise-related stress. While an upgraded firmware is expected to restore the EPG capability, there’s no indication yet that it will work with TAPs.

A couple of weeks ago, however, the local distributors released a competing device, the Beyonwiz DP-S1, which has dual high-definition tuners, meaning you can record two channels, and watch a pre-recorded show, a DVD player, and a 200GB hard drive. We’d have liked to see a 400GB drive, given the size of HD files, and the $1500 price tag, but the fact that it has wireless and Ethernet networking makes on-board storage less critical. We can hook it up remotely to our computer content stores – fortunately, a few years ago we laid an Ethernet cable to our lounge room.

The Beyonwiz has codecs to handle all the popular compressed video and audio formats, and while it doesn’t yet have the programming interface to deliver the functionality of TAPs, it’s based on Linux, and could gain them.
You can plug in external USB 2.0 storage devices, and still or video cameras. You can even slide in a Compact Flash, SD or MMC card into slots in the front panel and play your content from there.

The question it raises is one that a lot of multimedia work-out fanatics will be asking themselves: is a device like this a better or worse investment than an HTPC – the Windows Media Centre or the Mac mini for example.
Although you can do more with a computer, do you really need to have another one in your lounge room? The Beyonwiz is likely to have a much faster start-up time, and will be much simpler to operate and fit out than a computer. And it’s not likely to suffer from the irritating bug that has infected some – but not all - Windows Vista Media Centre installations in Australia: the sudden regular disappearance of Channel 7 and SBS and the IceTV program guide.

Over the next month or so, we hope to answer some of those questions. Once we recover from the muscle cramps.