It’s not too far away.  Technically it’s already here, but soon the integration of televisions with computers will be a built in feature.

I’ve been toying with getting a Mac Mini for my 42″ LCD TV at home for a while now.  Today, I simply plug in my parallel port on my laptop to the television when I want to stream something like Netflix or NBA TV.  The truth of the matter is that it’s a hassle; not a big hassle, but a hassle none the less.  Entertainment is not a huge part of my life right now; I’m simply too busy with school and other things.  But after graduation, trying to configure a nicer entertainment set up will be important to me.

My current situation at home consists of three computing machines:  a 24″ iMac, a 15″ Lenovo (school email and Office) and a 10″ Asus EEE for travel and random stuff.  Getting another low power (2GB) low memory machine just to put on my television is pretty dumb, but putting a good laptop for stationary use is too.

Things are changing quickly though.  This article has a quote saying that 65% of televisions will be interactive compatible by 2013.  After all, televisions today are really just big, dumb computer monitors with a few other features tied in.  And monitors offer nothing other than a palette for the real horsepower of the cloud.  I’m thinking that I’ll just run my ramshackle rig for another few years before buying a television with a built in computing structure.  It won’t be long until PC gaming, local news and streamed movies are all available on demand in your living room.