a dedicated apparatus for playing unmodified software , housed in a home entertainment system chassis , for playing in a home entertainment environment the existing body of interactive multimedia software that has been formatted and published for compatibility with standard personal computer platforms . video and audio output signals are generated in response to the processing of the multimedia software program , which are fed to the home entertainment system for presentation to an audience . a further aspect is the provision of a drop & amp ; play feature which automatically initiates playing of multimedia software in a sequence that appears to be similar to playing on a videogame console , i . e ., without requiring any further action from a user after inserting the media or selecting play . this feature is in part provided by a table containing installation information for each of numerous multimedia software titles ; entries in this table are preferably indexed by an identifier that can be uniquely derived from a given cd - rom / dvd or other portable media . the multimedia software may alternatively be provided via a network , such as the internet .