What is the Dreamer 2000?

The dream of convergence between the artistic mediums of interactivity and convenience has sparked an outgrowth in creating hybrid solutions. Today, we don't stop to think twice about the duality of an integrated telephone and answering machine, or a clock-radio, or even sporks. However, the marriage between PCs and television has never occurred. DVD will change that.

DVD has brought high-resolution movies to our home theaters and desktop workstations. A movie can fit on a single DVD, with room to spare for also additional footage and features. Those learning new languages have found the multi-language subtitles and additional audio tracks on DVD to be very useful. The enhanced movie experience provided by DVD, combined with the advancements in computer technology makes it possible to decode DVD cheaply on a standard PC, and has provided a new hope for PC-TV convergence.

This challenge of convergence has been taken up by a small company in California called Winbest. Their new computing system, dubbed "Dreamer 2000" integrates a full-featured DVD player into a standard home computer. Surfing the Internet, watching DVD's, typing up term papers, and watching TV can be done on the same machine. Watching TV? This computer is designed to be connected to your television and home theater system. Gateway tried to do this in 1996 with their Destination 2000 system, as did Compaq with their PC Theater 9000. Both machines were never as successful as each company had hoped, and both first-generation units quietly went away, as DVD was not an option in those machines, not justifying the cost of the machine to potential customers. Today, Gateway has the nre Destination XTC, this time with DVD support and All-In-Wonder powered video. Even then, the high-performance D-XTV is still $1,000 more than the value-oriented Dreamer 2000.