Apple home theatre: PLEASE!!!

There are a number of spoof and joking rumors running around the internet about Apple’s plans in home entertainment: plasma displays, or all-in-one HDTV, etc., etc..

Well, it may just be a spoof right now, but Steve, we NEED Apple to make home theatre systems.

I recently bought a Harmon Kardon AVR 240 for home stereo, primarily. It’s for upstairs. But downstairs, our “home-theatre-in-a-box,” which is a JVC XV-THA5, is currently giving up the ghost. Or, not giving it up.

It simultaneously refuses to read DVDs and refuses to eject them until it’s read them. The result is predictable … and, for a unit that’s both the receiver and the DVD player, not good. Not good at all.

So I’m wondering if we need a new mini home theatre system as well.

But getting into that market again is horrific. The acronyms! The wires! The connections! The protocols! It seems almost impossible to put together a simple system. Interfacing the TV, the VCR, DVD player, satellite box, receiver, and the 6 or 7 speakers is a nightmare.

Apple could do amazing things with this market.

For instance, why are there 15 different types of connections? Optical connections, coaxial, speaker wire (15 different types right here), component cables, you name it. In fact, why on earth does a DVD player have to have separate cables for left audio, right audio, and video? I mean, what earthly reason, besides “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” is there?

Give me one kind of cable to connect everything. Make it smart, so it knows when stuff is connected – or when a piece is missing. Give me one device which is a PVR, digital cable (or satellite) receiver, HDTV tuner, DVD player, and possibly VCR (for legacy use) all in one.

Let me connect it to my TV with one cable. And let me connect my speakers to it with one cable, or wirelessly.

Make sure it tunes itself. It should know where its speakers are (just like Bose solutions) and adjust volume between the channels automatically. Give me one power button for the whole set-up.

Stick an Apple logo on it, and watch it fly off shelves.

This is interesting … Apple-branded HDTVs?.