Pc-TV Product Unveiled Television Marries Computer

Most people don’t associate living rooms with floppy disks and hard drives. But that hasn’t stopped leading makers of computers and TVs from merging the pastimes in new machines for couch potatoes.

Compaq Computer Corp. and Thomson Consumer Electronics Co. on Monday unveiled a combination “PC Theatre” that looks like a large-screen TV with a big difference. In addition to a 36-inch monitor with Thomson’s RCA brand, it includes a separate Compaq box that doubles as a computer, enabling people to browse the Internet, play video games and send electronic mail.

At $5,000, the product is not for everyone. But with the cost comparable to other “home theatre” systems featuring big screens and big sounds, Compaq hopes to get its brand out in front of the next wave of all-in-one digital technology.

By the year 2006, consumers will have to replace or convert their existing analog TV sets to receive signals from broadcasters sending cinema-quality digital television. Since digital TVs can operate as computers, PC makers see the shift as an opportunity to spread into the living room.

Compaq and RCA “are setting the stage, creating some brand identification for themselves, making a statement. They are testing the waters,” said Richard Zwetchkenbaum, an industry analyst with International Data Corp.

And they are not alone.

International Business Machines Corp. is working on its own version. Instead of full-fledged computers in each room, IBM is developing a home system built around a central computer that feeds TV, Internet access and computer functions to monitors scattered throughout a house. IBM expects to announce a product by the end of the year.

Princeton Graphic Systems, based in Santa Ana, Calif., is slowly rolling out its Arcadia home monitor, starting at $800, which plugs directly into an existing PC for both computer and TV viewing.