RSSCES Countdown #8: Can smart HDTVs bypass the 'media PC' altogether?
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published December 31, 2008, 12:23 PM
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Could Tru2way be the "one way" for interactive content?
Last July, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow signaled a huge turnaround in his company's strategy, telling TWICE Magazine that a Tru2way-enabled Bravia-brand TV could effectively "get rid of the cable box and have uniformity across the country," providing interactive content including the all-important channel-changing programming guide, as well as IPTV connectivity. That's what Blu-ray players were at one time supposed to do, but Glasgow's vision now appears to have Blu-ray as one of the many components connected to the HDTV as a hub, with Tru2way as its ticket to the outside world.
Then in September, Tru2way backer Samsung's leading UK representative for CE devices Andy Griffiths told Pocket-Lint that, although demand for his company's Blu-ray consoles was comfortably high, he gave the format about five more years of viable life in the market.
While Griffith's comments were widely repeated in the press, and while many responded that five years would be a pretty good lifespan, overall -- especially if some other, higher-capacity, even-higher-resolution HD disc format were to come along -- the deeper meaning that even analysts missed was this: Blu-ray won't be the connectivity gateway for interactive, on-demand programming. CE makers want a gateway and a network today that will be around five years from now. It's a safe bet that both digital cable and the Internet, each in one form or another, will be around in five years' time.
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| Tru2way |
| Scott M. Fulton, III |
You've heard of the applications platform for Tru2way. It's called Java; and for the same reasons that content producers were attracted to Java when they adopted it for the BD-J interactivity platform in Blu-ray, CE manufacturers are attracted to Java for the interactivity layer in Tru2way for digital cable. |
The first Tru2way applications look a little basic -- the ability to vote on one's favorite news story on CNN as it happens, for example, and the obvious "killer app:" the interactive program guide. But a key element of these applications -- something that even their architects forget or fail to demonstrate -- is that they have context. For example, an app can be "bound" to the channel that delivers it. That makes sense, because "favorite news story" voting may only be specific to, and perhaps utilizable by, CNN. That context makes it possible for the delivery mechanism to effectively own the application, and if this is done right, that could make it technically non-feasible for a third-party to spoof interactive content from a bound provider. "Unbound" applications, therefore, are functions that are intrinsic not to the channel providing the content, but to the TV itself. This way, Sony can have its branded Bravia apps, Panasonic its Viera apps, and conceivably LG its Scarlet apps should it extend Tru2way functionality to that brand. Tru2way backers will be out in force throughout CES 2009, but the organization plans to make its collective statement on Saturday morning, January 10. |
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This means the CE makers' notion of the content gateway is moving from components directly to the HDTV set, bypassing Blu-ray, TiVo, Netflix...and, last and perhaps least, the media PC.
"Television screens are beginning to sprout Ethernet and USB ports, wireless connectivity, media card slots and other PC-like capabilities. It's a good start, because it reinforces that the media center of tomorrow will be based on a television and not on a PC," Carmi Levy told BetaNews. "But the market still lacks commonly accepted standards to take these new hardware capabilities and turn them into comprehensive, easily implemented solutions for average consumers."
Right now, the PC's gateway to the greater library of outside content is the Internet. That's not bad, but it's not great either. It's not yet an effective delivery mechanism for true 1080p HD content for millions of simultaneous customers that's not somehow compressed or otherwise altered, in a lossy sort of way, to fit through the IP pipeline. What's more, there's so much choice available through the Web that it's practically impossible for any one service provider or content provider to restrict or control customers' access to content. If a manufacturer opens its gateway to the entire Web, it may mean less to have exclusive content deals or "channels" with YouTube or Hulu or anyone else. Besides, how will Hulu look and work five years from now, and can it guarantee its compatibility with IPTV-supporting HDTVs produced today?
Five years, from that perspective, is a pretty short period of time.
And for a network comprised of more publicly available standards than you can safely shake a stick at, there's no one way yet to "do" IPTV. If CableLabs -- the CATV industry's research arm -- comes up with one way to do interactive programming that the CE manufacturers can appreciate, it may not even have to be all that good to be virtually universally adopted.
Next: Is no PC the best PC?
FOLLOW THE COUNTDOWN:
- #13: Can automotive electronics maintain forward momentum? by Angela Gunn
- #12: Has streaming media already rendered discs obsolete? by Tim Conneally
- #11: Are the desktop PC's days waning? by Scott Fulton
- #10: Can technology keep television relevant in the digital era? by Tim Conneally
- #9: Will the smartphone become the 'new PC?' by Jacqueline Emigh
TV manufacturer's are still missing the "Killer App" for their HDTV products. Media PC's haven't taken off for one simple reason: We already spend enough time in front of our computers. We don't need or want another excuse or reason to spend even more time there. However, we do enjoy our time on the couch, in front of the TV immensely as that is where we go to RELAX. So, if TV manufacturers would just put a Wi-Fi antenna on their TV's and embed a nice (standard) web browser, or even multiple ones so customers could pick which one they wanted to use, and then bundle their TV's with a good quality wireless keyboard with an integrated touch pad, you would be amazed at how fast TV sales would take off.
People don't need to do much more than watch TV from their TV's, but they do need to be able to surf the web wirelessly from their couch using a wireless keyboard. The first company to really integrate this tightly, simply and cost effectively will be WAY out in front of the crowd and will see their sales absolutely explode overnight. These TV companies need to stop thinking about adding "features" and start thinking about creating "solutions".
Look at the way Panasonic integrates the SD card slot into all of their Plasma and LCD HDTV's for JPEG photo playback. A perfect example of what I am talking about here. A simple solution that adds real value and boosts the overall value proposition of the entire product line.
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|What are you talking about
Maybe it is your HDTV....
My Comcast HD always looks crisp!
even with a lot of action.....
52 inch sony HDTV with DVD-O
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|It is not my television, I have enough tech background to understand what compression artifacts are.
Comcast tech has even acknowledged that they are still "fine-tuning" in the area where I live.
And the issue is not something that I am overstating. Even my 67 year old father sees an issue next door on his 42" plasma.
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|A "smart HDTV".....IS.....a 'media PC'. What really gets me is that if we were to actually be honest about all this....EVERY computer is a 'media PC'.
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|Comcast's HD on Demand was fine. No moviephile is watching cable movies anyway - if you want crisp, perfect quality then you're going to buy Blu-Ray. HD is for the rest of us who just want to watch what we want to watch on our 60 inch LCD HDTVs, edge to edge. And movies on Comcasts HD aren't that horrible. While there ARE blocks when the movements are super fast, or the action gets really busy, it doesn't exactly have a lego effect. Maybe just a few squares in some places...
I don't think that shdtvs will really replace media center pcs, mainly because of the same reason that laptops can't just replace pcs. Media PCs have a deeper, richer feature list than the shdtv....you're not just talking about streaming content from hulu or netflix here. You're talking about being able to store music, downloaded movies (movies from blu-ray discs too), stream whatever from the internet, surf and view web pages, etc. Then you have the fact that you're keeping your components separated so that if an aspect of one fails, the other will function fine. Now I'm not talking about the media center pc that you use replacing your cable box, etc. I'm talking about a companion to all of that, like your dvd player is a companion to your cable/satellite, etc. A small, separate entity that is used to take your entertainment to the next level, digital and online.
The only way I can see smart hdtvs stamping out the media pc, is if tv makers included actual media pcs separately which worked somewhat independently of the tv OR if they were as close to failsafe as Tivos are, but offered everything the media pc could do for the price of a typical TV (that's never going to happen).
In essence, as long as there's some kind of market for media pcs, ie: people who want to basically run a low powered, highly functional PC attached to their TVs - that market will remain unless SHDTVs do more than stream content from the internet. Media PCs will pick up more when PC makers realize that there's no longer a real market for people looking to turn their actual mainstream PCs into DVRs or Media Centers (ie: sell them with a remote control and tv card, 2 dvd burners, etc.).
Market something small, like say, the EEE Box for example, with decent video, hdmi out, a big hard drive and a small universal remote/keyboard (like that small logitech keyboard) for an entertainment device price, something like 200 or 300 or so and voila...the 'media PC' will sell.
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|"Last year, Comcast -- a company that's not a manufacturer in any respect whatsoever -- made the biggest splash at CES by publicly staking its claim to what CE makers and PC manufacturers perceive as the "grand prize:" on-demand access to a huge library of thousands of films through a subscription model, along with leases for the equipment with which viewers can control access to it."
At compression rates that make your eyes bleed from pain...
On Demand fare such as Speed Racer offer high speed visuals that are comparable to seeing the image built out of Lego building blocks when the action becomes fast.
I love the idea of Comcast's "HD On Demand", I just hope that Comcast gets the image quality up to par with the concept. So far, where I live anyhow, watching action flicks via HD On Demand leaves much to be desired.
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