The well-heeled, technically savvy among us are blazing the trail. Many high-end homes come with "structured wiring" that provides the electronic framework for entertainment networking. Parks Associates says 48 percent of new homes will include structured wiring by the end of 2004.

But home entertainment networking remains a limited phenomenon. Parks Associates surveyed 10,500 U.S. households about networking habits and found that just 11.8 percent of households surveyed have home stereos connected to home networks. Just 10.7 percent have networked TVs.

Home entertainment networks also suffer from a lack of network-capable devices. Kurt Scherf, vice president of research for Parks Associates, said makers are reluctant to embed network capabilities into products because it makes them too expensive.

From the article "True home entertainment networks still several years off," by David Hoye.

Next: Networking the home may become less daunting

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