In the past two years we’ve witnessed the convergence of IT products and consumer electronics. PCs are no longer used just for editing documents—we can now see DVD movies on laptop computers, or burn our choice of movies and music on CDs and DVDs. Lately we have seen certain PC peripherals, particularly printers, detach themselves from PCs to become standalone devices. Ads for such devices carry the line, ‘No PC required.’ I’ll write about some examples and then let you decide if you still need a PC for things like digital photography.

Direct printers
The first examples of direct printers were perhaps Sony’s digital photo printers for its digital cameras. Now almost every major digital camera manufacturer is considering direct printing. With such printers you can directly hook up a digital camera to the printer. Alternatively, images can be transferred to the printer via memory card. Some printers have a small LCD screen for previewing photos. Some (like the HP Photosmart 1315 printer) let you edit and enhance photos before printing. But the editing features are limited.

Portable printers like Canon’s CP-100 are in vogue. The CP-100 is about the size of a cigar box and can print 4R size (4-inches x 6-inches) or ID photo prints at a resolution of 300 x 300 dpi. Photos can be downloaded from a digital camera such as the Canon Digital Ixus V2 or Canon Powershot S40.

External sound cards
The choice between internal and external modems may not matter any more, as internal modems are almost standard on new PCs. But the sound card has jumped right out of the PC and can also act as a standalone device. More specifically, I’m referring to the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy product.

The Extigy is, in effect, an external sound card. But it can also act as a standalone device or hub for various audio/video equipment-like an A/V receiver. Digital music enthusiasts should not miss out on Extigy for it offers a variety of inputs and outputs for connecting devices like DVD players, MiniDisc players, home theatre systems, multi-speaker systems, drum machines, synthesizers, microphones, analog tap decks, CD players, microphones etc. Extigy connects to the PC via USB port and overrides the PC’s sound card.

External video processor
If Creative Labs is giving us external sound cards, ViewSonic is doing the same for graphics cards and TV tuner cards. Its VB50HRTV external video processor (dubbed MediaStation) offers the convenience of watching TV on both a CRT and LCD monitor, sans PC. You can also plug in a DVD player, camcorder or gaming console and watch high resolution 1024 x 768 video in 24-bit colour. The unit looks like an external modem and comes with a remote control. ViewSonic says its MediaCenter saves space on the desktop when used without a PC.

Direct-to-disk
Used to be a time when had to transfer digital photos and videos from camera to PC and then use the PC’s CD-writer/DVD writer to transfer to disk. Not anymore.

Hitachi sells a camcorder which has a built-in DVD writer. With the Hitachi DZ-MV238E camcorder (dubbed DVD-Cam) you can record still images or videos directly on DVD RAM (recordable) or DVD-R (record once), both 8cm disks.

I first heard about direct-to-disk cameras when Sony introduced this feature in its CD-Mavica digital camera some months ago.

Is the PC still required?
If PC peripherals are metamorphosing into standalone consumer electronics devices, will you still need a PC for tasks like digital photography in the future?

Consumer electronics devices will get smarter each year and offer more functionality. But there’s something only a PC can give you: flexibility. The PC gives you the ability to store, organise, duplicate and redistribute, and edit multimedia content. For instance, you can download content from the Net (such as MP3 files) before transferring these to a device (like a portable MP3 player).

Although you can apply effects like dissolves and wipes to your home made movie on certain camcorders, the PC and movie editing software give you the ability to do much more.

So it really boils down to what you’re trying to do with the multimedia content.