iTV Standard v1.1 Released

mbstone writes "The iTV Standards Initiative this week announced the release of version 1.1 of its proposed iTV Production Standards, an open XML-schema-based scheme for interactive TV. In other words your set-top box or PC TV card would use the proposed standard to let you click on something displayed on your TV screen, for example, to answer a poll or buy the product featured in a commercial."

Comments

It will fail.

[Spazntwich]

Notice how easy it is to just change the channel when commercials come on? Now notice how few people actually change the channel when commercials come on.

People watch TV to be totally passive. They don't WANT to interact with the news channel. They just want to sit there and absorb information.

Bring on the Lawyers!

[TechyImmigrant]

So how long until ITV (The TV channel) in the UK decides to let their lawyers loose?

iTV...

[euxneks]

Interacting with things by clicking on it, voting in polls, isn't that called slashdot?

Of all the "comming in 2 years" vapor

[sammyo]

Interactive Television is the granddaddy of vapor. It has been in the works in one form or another since long before the internet. Before computers probably. It just is never going to happen.

Are you kidding? Soon enough

[djupedal]

There is a primetime war right around the corner and you can't think of anything to tune in to? These folks are working hard to bring us sound bites and live flaming footage and streaming laser-guided-bomb nose camera content and fluctuation infantry biometrics during night raids and collateral damage spreadsheets and body count projections and you're not excited?

Click on the little landmine at the bottom of your screen to see the 'Explosion of the Week [TM]! Direct from the battlefield. A CNN exclusive!!

is it just me...?

[pizza_milkshake]

or is interactive TV something like videophones that although we've seen it in sci-fi forever, would really not be that useful? it's one of those things we're *supposed* to want, and while it sounds cool, it doesn't really sound useful.

if you want to do surfing-type stuff, the web is much better (there's more content out there, pc monitors have much higher resolution, etc.), if you want sports highlights then watch ESPN, and if you want to learn something either go to the library, use the web or watch The Discovery Channel :)

it seems that many parties are pushing for interactive TV, but that the closest thing that seems to be successful is TiVo.

i just don't think people want to *think* and watch tv at the same time, that's kind of the point.

Re:Who'll be running this thing?

[stratjakt]

>> Do people dress/think/act more similarly in large cities than in smaller ones?

I'd say its just the opposite. You go out to the small rural towns and everyone knows each other, looks and acts the same, and for the most part still shun ousiders to a degree.

In an urban setting you have more of a clash of all different cultures and whatnot, and a general aura of diversity that lets people feel more comfortable doing what they want.

The 'freak' with the goofy clothes, piercings, crazy music or whathaveyou looks out of place in the tiny towns, but noone bats an eye to see him in New York.

I think the smaller towns are more under the thumbs of the big media corps. I couldnt name the characters on "friends" or know who sings the mallcore ballad to the latest comic book turned into a feature film. But I bet everyone in this suburban neighbourhood I live in can.

Where's the demand for this?

[mbrubeck]

Why are they wasting time and money on this? Are customers lining up to tell them, "We want interactive TV"? Maybe it's just me, but I don't see any real desire being addressed. I feel like I'm suddenly back in 1993, when technologists could throw around buzzwords like "interactive" and convince businesses to push new technology on their customers for no good reason.

Why doesn't the TV industry spend more effort figuring out what people actually like, instead of trying to convince us we want something that we really don't?

The television industry SUCKS.

[rice_burners_suck]

Hey, I have a better idea... How about we have to plug our brains into the TV, like they have to do in the Matrix to go into the Matrix, you know? So we'll all be plugged into our television sets, and whenever a commercial comes on, the thing will read our minds. If it senses that we might even remotely be somewhat interested in owning the product being advertised, the amount of its price, plus shipping and handling (and plus a nominal clerical service charge--equaling the rest of your bank account--for reading your mind) will automatically and immediately be billed to your bank account or taken out of your next paycheck if you don't have enough in the bank, and the aforementioned product will be shipped within 6 to 8 years, for your convenience. If it senses that you're not interested in the product, it will charge you anyway, but it won't get sent to you, because you didn't want it. Now, the televisions will be set up electronically so that you can't watch unless you're jacked in. But a bunch of evil hackers, who will want to perform the worse-than-murder, worse-than-genocide act of watching television without paying extortion to advertisers, will figure out ways to bypass this technology, so that they can watch television without being billed for every product advertised. Of course, the television industry will gang up, buy everyone in Congress, and get innovative new legislation passed which makes it illegal to infringe on huge global multinational corporations' God-given right to perpetually increasing profits (the 11th commandment, which was so important that it was placed on a third tablet all by itself, said, "Thou shalt bend over before the holiness of the huge corporation and let it fuck you in the ass."). Oh, and the punishment for this crime? At least 50 years in maximum security prison without the possibility of parole, and you'll be beaten every day and given one slice of moldy bread once a week, along with a shotglass of dirty water once a month to live on. Oh yeah, and they'll throw your entire family and all your friends in jail too, even if they didn't know that you were committing this horrible, outrageous crime against humanity, just to be safe. They'll call this bill the "Ethical Television Broadcast Consumer Convenience Bill," or ETBCC. Just wait, I know it's going to happen sooner or later.

They call this shit Marketing?! They claim this creates value for the consumer?! Fuck that. Those lying theiving sons of bitches, those marketing people.

Use ethernet

[Anonymous Coward]

Why bother with USB, etc.? Just connect them all with ethernet cable. You wouldn't need RCA jacks, or that snarl of cables anymore. Just plug everything into a hub. Each component should be configurable via an internal web page. Just like my turtle beach audiotron, a component maker that actually gets it.