Gateway 2000 Destination Big Screen PC

[@kahunamoore]

Wow! Thanks for the video... I was the lead software architect on this project (Harman SmartTV) which was sold to Intel right about that time and we got hired on @ Intel. It was super fun to work on but the PC hardware just wasn't there yet to record video to hard drives. We could do screen grabs but not sustained video recording. The video portion worked pretty well because the video went straight from the tuner card to the graphics card bypassing the CPU entirely. Just a few short years later WebTV and TiVo ate our lunch. It just goes to show you that being too early to market isn't always the best strategy. Ironically, my boss at the time now works for TiVo. I work @ AJA Video Systems and still create video related hardware products (Ki Pro recorder, CION production camera, KUMO routers, frame syncs, etc.) Thanks for the time travel :-)

[@AshlynRoze]

+Alan Moore Not a problem. It's amazing how all this really did come to pass, just about a decade later. I suppose that's the problem with being on the leading edge... it takes a while for the rest of the market and technology to catch up. By the way, if I've made any mistakes or glaring omissions in the annotations, I'd be more than willing to alter them with any additions you could give.

[@TheAlienInterview]

+Alan Moore Hi Alan, Can you please confirm that this PC could be used to copy DV-AVI files to VHS tape via a connected VCR? I believe it may have been used to create a very important piece of history in early 1996. Thanks. Victor Nevada (Founder of The Unofficial Alien Interview Channel).

[@kahunamoore]

TheAlienInterview Sorry, can't help you. It's was too long ago and I'm not aware of anything like that. Good luck!

[@TANMAN9095]

now people just watch youtube and netflix. lol.

[@tomfoolery2964]

Alan Moore were you able to put in extra harddrives in these? Looks like there's a spot for it.

[@warlordgoblick]

I remember this thing. I lived just across the river from the gateway plant. I didnt know of anyone who actually had one other than the schools. They were all over the schools.

[@BillPytlovany]

I also worked on both versions of the Destinations and it was a blast. I don't remember it being slow but I'm sure a lot of people watching this promo don't realize how huge and heavy the monitor was because it was tube and not a flat screen like we're used to now. When my 1st system arrived I remember having to carefully roll it to my office because I didn't want to wait for help. The 2nd rev had a 36" monitor. The reason it died wasn't price or performance. As someone pointed out, everyone in the family wanted to do their own thing so the future has turned into everyone sitting around with their own laptop or phone sending messages to each other instead of talking. :) Alan, I enjoyed working with Steve and everyone on the SmartTV team. It worked better than the one from Gateway's "Over the Moon" group. I really wish that Intel followed up with their Intercast project. I remember watching the Olympics and using Intel's Intercast to look up additional information on athletes. Bill Pytlovany

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

any thoughts on Gateway being acquired by Acer in October 2007 and then phased out?

[@BillPytlovany]

An interesting question that I'm sure will vary depending on who you ask. It was actually good timing for the stakeholders in the company. Gateway became a leader because they were innovative. Buyers could pick the components they wanted and receive a fully tested, custom system on their desk in less than a week. It was like having your local computer nerd build you the perfect system except Gateway did it cheaper because they could purchase the parts in bulk. After a while everyone copied their model and the cow theme had run its course. I can't say what Acer had in mind. They probably appreciated a lot of the patents that Gateway owned but they haven't taken advantage of any of the ones I did for the company. :)

[@tHeWasTeDYouTh]

thanks for the reply

[@TJ.85]

@@BillPytlovany really cool hearing from someone like yourself and just wanted you to know that at 13 this pc inspired me to get my first pc in 1999 and I did my first upgrade to it 3 months later from there it was my first build in 2002 and now I'm a professional system builder doing fully custom watercooled rigs. Thanks for making a kids dreams come true and set him on a life long road of loving the home theater pc life! Though now instead of a 36" CRT it's a 65" OLED lol

[@Co-opSource]

Hi Bill, just saw your reply. Some day it would be fun to try to resurrect a Destination and play w it. Good to hear from others from the project. 👋

[@TheRetroMess]

I remember in 1996 seeing this for the first time in the Gateway Store in Woodbury, MN and thinking how cool the idea of combining a TV and PC was for PC users. But I'd already been there done that with my old Performa 638CD with a TV tuner of it's own in 1994-95. :) And before that there was the MacTV. Though they were nothing this advanced. The Destination looked like it was a PC/TV/Receiver all in one. Very cool. With a Mac at the time, you'd have to buy all sorts of extras like a receiver, a better remote, a SCSI based DVD drive, etc just to compete, and that's not even including the non-existent HTPC scene (with Hauppauge and others making HTPC hardware) on the Mac back then.

[@jonathanbuscha5401]

Wow!!! Man does this bring back memories for me. I worked at Solectron in Austin, Tx. We manufactured motherboards and video cards for Gateway 2000. I was a production technician on the line. We built all kinds of motherboards for them and one of them was for the Destination.

[@keithcox1768]

I had one of these - but about 2 years later - mine had the DVD player. So ahead of it's time - there were only a couple of places in Fresno California that rented DVD's at the time - and buying a DVD was just as hard. So. my internet shopping began! I believe I had a 36" monitor - and needed a crane to move the darn thing. I remember double checking the dimensions of the monitor - then shopping for an entertainment center it would fit on - and had it assembled when my "Home Theater" PC arrived. I still use a setup where I 'compute from across the room' - now via a 40" Sharp TV... Wowed many folks with the DVD. Just recently replaced the Harman Kardon receiver (with a current model HK - e.g.: HDMI equipped :) - but thru a Boston Acoustics 5.1 speaker system...

[@TJ.85]

This pc was the first one I wanted as a 13 year old in 1999. I got the money from a settlement from a car wreck and had to ask Judge for money to get a pc for school (some of it rest when I was 18). I ended up not getting it because I couldn't see forking over almost 5k when I could have a computer for much less and then a whole bunch of other stuff. Like video games stereo TV trampoline a bunch more stuff as a 13 year old I wanted but can't remember but it sent me down the path now 20 years later I'm still in love with them and build and support them for my own business. It's funny I ended up with a much better pc (minus the giant monitor) and only spent like 1350. It was from a company called NuTrend which I only recently learned was actually another name for Newegg back in the day lol. So they've been taking my money from the very beginning! Also I too have chased this setup from the day I saw this pc in computer shopper and have had many variations of it over the years. Currently have my custom built watercooled gaming pc /htpc connected to a 65" lg oled. Not much a difference from this lol.

[@rd946]

I have a 36". And the keyboard. And the remote, still. The tower is long gone. I have a 3dfx Voodoo 5500 and 200MMX retro PC's connected to this through a VGA switch. Dreamcast and OG Xbox with a converter on anything other than this thing is also a no-go, for me. Definite unicorns to find in the wild out there, now.

[@lexavaritia7596]

I really like these commercials who doesnt treat their users as brainless consumer sheeps. They actually educate people what, how and what is that you getting

[@miaugato93]

the features might be common today, and the performance painfully slow, but that thing looks lavish even today. Just. Wow.

[@djmhyde]

painfully slow? this was in 1995 dude......this was a pretty robust hardware at he time...

[@hanrinch]

i just pre ordered it!!

[@albear972]

Funny to look back at this cutting edge technology. High Resolution 640x480 resolution, and playing Space Cadet pinball. I love that game, I found it and installed it on my W7 PC. Back then around when this demo was made, 96' my rig was a Macintosh LC II with 40MB hard drive and 2 MB of ram with a blazing fast 14K modem. I had Compuserve and it was expensive as heck. LOL at the grandpas checking out 4Chan :P

[@HeadsetGuy]

Take a shot every time they say "Destination Big Screen PC". WARNING: Liver damage may occur. Also, man, this thing had so much potential, but it was so ahead of its time...

[@alexkuhn5078]

6:04 nah... nah... nah...

[@DrMurdercock]

haha

[@MrXminus1]

I wanted one of these so bad. Pricing prevented me from getting one, so built my own piece by piece, with a ATI All In Wonder PC tuner computer card. I named it “Radical PCTV”.

[@MsBananasmel]

I drunk half a bottle of vodka every time they said Destination Big Screen PC and now....I'm dead and a ghost.

[@SlapbassTV]

I used to have two of the monitors that would've shipped with this. They were fuckin' MASSIVE things.

[@randall-king]

I lusted after these for a while and thought it was the future of home computing. It’s interesting to see where cell phones and tablets have taken things in terms of how people consume content, and how that plays into living room consumption with AirPlay, Chromecast, etc. I think Apple is right about the future of TV being apps, but it just hasn’t all played out yet.

[@mubd1234]

The annotations made me laugh out loud.

[@1980sGamer]

I'd love to find one of these. Too bad it would probably be almost impossible to find one.

[@adamkatt]

eye querumba

[@Maverick401]

My First Computer

[@downpp2255]

Sitting here alone in the dark with my UltraWide 34'' screen watching this.. :(

[@pentiummmx2294]

I bet this PC is as rare as the Macintosh TV

[@reactorme]

If anyone has one and would be interested in selling it, please reach out to me. I drooled over this system and its functionality as a kid, but my family could not afford one. Now that I am older and arguably very nostalgic, I would love to buy one. Unfortunately, they are rare!

[@manner1983]

Can someone confirm that this PC has a STB Video Rage 2 graphics card inside? (brooktree BT2164 chip) i got this card and want to get direct 3d acceleration to work…

[@tomfoolery2964]

Could you put an extra hard drive in these things?

[@kingcrimson234]

This thing was a good idea, but the resolution sucked and the timing of the product was bad. People didn't really consider PCs to be full home entertainment devices yet. Now people set up HTPCs all the time. Plus it cost way too fucking much. I remember seeing one of these set up in CompUSA and using it in 1996.

[@rd946]

Actually, at the time, the resolution was pretty respectable for a screen of that size. Any finer of a dot pitch would have pushed the cost up even higher. Besides, the best games of the time used 3dfx Voodoo cards, and their max res was generally only 800x600, or 1024x768 if you ran 2x Voodoo2 in SLI, so the 800x600 on this was pretty dope.

[@djmhyde]

the problem with this is the lack of utility, in 95 there wasn't video streaming or DVD content, so, what is the reason to hook up the pc on a big screen tv in your living room? the only use i can see is to play games, but this pc do not look like it was capable of run the games of the era (otherwise they would have disclaimed in the commercial) and satellite TV, VCR and similar stuff i can do without the PC in the process but sure is pretty cool and the 5-y/o me want this thing so bad!!!

[@rickpiet6569]

I have the xtv-450 model.

[@DirtyReaper]

i have actually enjoy'ed this video thanks very cool and interesting to watch. please make more... I sub'ed

[@beeto45]

the moment i saw this baby (my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets) i just had to have it. for the small 60 dlls price; all i said was. "shut up and take my money!"

[@SuperFrodo95]

Interesting...

[@grazzitdvram]

that field mouse remote wasn't ideal but it was quite nice for what it was. the left click was on the bottom kind of like a trigger, so you could be laying in bed or hung over laying on the couch and mousing away. I never ran into any issues with range However it would not penetrate walls for shit... but who cares really? also the system could multi task with the tv and what not because the tv function was running off an ati all-in-wonder card so running it took up basically no resources. I got a 97 or 98 revision with the 36" monitor that did 800x600 and it cost more than my car =P

[@pentiummmx2294]

the PC itself looks like a black version of the GW2K P5-133

[@pswitch9553]

2:47 That resolution, ugh...

[@kz1000ps]

640x480 or bust baby!

[@DNFINST]

the integration with tv guide is ridiculous for 1995.

[@Hosey1984]

Too expensive, too far ahead of its time. They sould have just provided the appropriate cables to connect the PC to an already existing living room tv instead of including the huge expensive monitor.

[@jaminandsharamills320]

A TV at the time ran at about 320 by 240 resolution and was fuzzy to boot. You couldn't read text and see details.

[@randall-king]

Many TVs (such as the one my parents had at the time) wouldn’t have had the appropriate input ports for the connections.

[@m9078jk3]

@@randall-king Some computer graphics cards (ATI was one manufacturer) of that era had composite TV out ports. Later on even 3dfx had one in 1999 with their Voodoo 3 3500 TV with a composite in and out port pod.

[@randall-king]

m9078jk3 The TVs I’m talking about were manufactured in the late 1970s or early 1980s and had no concept of input or output ports. The way I recall it, they had a power cable and a place for an antenna connection-that’s it.

[@m9078jk3]

@@randall-king Oh yes those televisions are old however there were also adapter boxes for composite in though through the antenna jacks. Many of the televisions manufactured in the 1990's had composite jacks

[@ethancanin]

I had two generations of this system. It was great. I have tried to reproduce this today with a laptop hooked up via hdmi to my huge flatscreen, wireless keyboard. But the integration Gateway provided still outdoes what I end up with. I'm back to just using laptops individually. Too bad. Does anyone know how to duplicate this same functionality today. I've tried and failed.

[@TJ.85]

I have almost all of this functionality with my htpc and a wireless keyboard plus a harmony remote. I dare say my setup is better.

[@555yrty]

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