We didn't need Apple's CEO-for-life Steve Jobs' boasting last week about his red-hot iTunes Music Store turning his company into the world's largest record store to know that computers are becoming the hi-fi systems of America.

But if Apple wants to convert the masses to downloaded digital music, Jobs and the other MP3 missionaries need to listen to an outfit called X10 Wireless Technologies in Kent, Wash.

Here is X10's message in a nutshell: The problem is that you can't "see" your music when you step away from the monitor. People don't want to sit in front of their computers to listen to their digital music, yet they can't see what to play from the sofa.

It's laughable to watch people proudly showing off the tunes they downloaded only to have to squint at the tiny computer screen to get anything to play. And then it plays most often in those substandard speaker systems attached to the computer.

The proper music players are kept elsewhere in the house, almost always out of reach of the computer room.

Media gurus call this the "18-inch problem" because stuff that works great on the computer can't easily be shared. The 18-inch problem emerges as possibly the biggest barrier slowing the transition from limited analog audio and video to far more powerful and enjoyable digital entertainment.

When Microsoft and its top computer allies Gateway and Hewlett-Packard produced the slick new Windows Media Center PCs, they made the reluctant decision to focus on the 18-inch universe.

What a shame. Here you have an amazing tool for automating video recording, pausing live broadcasts and playing tunes on the superb music software but can't seem to escape its 18-inch prison.

Even though the Media Center PCs come with a video-out port to connect to a proper home audio/video entertainment system, the reality is that people do not generally keep their computers within reach of their TVs and stereos.

Enter X10, an outfit infamous in Internet circles as the first major marketing company to pollute the Web with those contemptible pop-up ads.

It was X10's interminable pop-ups--selling those tiny peeping-Tom's wireless video surveillance cameras--that showed the hypertext hucksters the power of shameless computer advertising.

Most people got angry at these pushy pitches, but a few took the bait.

X10's engineers didn't confine themselves to video gear for stalkers. They were smart enough to realize that the same technologies that let Johnny videotape the unsuspecting can be expanded to work all sorts of home entertainment miracles, including solving the 18-inch problem.

And thus was born Lola, the company's Internet-enabled, home computer video-broadcast system that connects to your computer. The system broadcasts the PC's screen display--with very large text and giant icons--onto the TVs and high-end music systems of the living room.

The Windows-only Lola comes in several configurations. The one I reviewed works by connecting a transmitting box, complete with rotating antenna, to both the VGA monitor cable of a PC and the USB port. The VGA connection is a pass-through, so that the regular computer display shows on the monitor but also is broadcast to a companion Lola receiver connected to any TV and/or stereo within 100 feet.

Setup of the $99 unit took maybe 10 minutes, and another 10 minutes went into downloading and installing the big-screen display software from X10's Web site (www.x10.com).

There also is a $69 system for computers with video out like the Media Center PCs and many laptops.

A $49 unit is built to connect directly to the television set with the computer placed nearby.

Lola's software allows the TV to display a superbly simple and readably large set of music-playing commands.

An included Infrared and RF (radio) remote control operates the command screen, allowing a user to enjoy all of the digital music treats such as instant access to thousands of tunes and personally customized play lists.

The system even displays hot link icon photos of the album covers for your music.

As a side benefit, Lola also lets a user minimize the big icon music player display on the TV so one can do other computing tasks. Photo slide shows and downloaded movies played nicely for me, for instance.

What I need now is a radio-controlled keyboard and mouse so I can work the PC in my home office in our living quarters.

The only downside is that the digital 2.4-gigahertz signals used by Lola can encounter occasional static from some portable phones, microwaves and other sources.

Static or no static, the Lola lesson is loud and clear: If digital music doesn't go 6 feet out, it could wind up 6 feet under.

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Binary beat readers can participate in the column at chicagotribune.com/askjim or e-mail jcoates1@aol.com. Snail-mail him in Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60611