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Japanese Makers To Forge An Internet TV Standard
An anonymous reader writes "Five Japanese TV manufacturers will form a working group to hammer out technical specifications by October for
digital TVs with Internet access. They will develop a consumer electronics version of Linux to provide functions and performance required for digital products. The resulting source code will be made available through the General Public License procedure."
The resulting source code will be made available through the General Public License procedure
What procedure is that? The one where someone swipes some GPL code, tries to pass it off as proprietary, and has to be badgered and humiliated until they release the source or pull the product?
Yeah, because the Japanese have a lot of experience making clean, logical interfaces and menu systems for electronics.
So, they're going to forge this standard? Isn't there some kind of law against that? ;-)
Finally, you'd have an OS/interface that would be the same for most TV's worldwide, and wouldn't need loads of effort and reprogramming to localize for different markets. And that's not mentioning the possiblity of a widely available set-top that could conceivably run a very decent browser (mozilla/phoenix). Maybe it's not what we geeky Americans drool over, but the business/marketing sense in it is obvious.
True science means that when you re-evaluate the evidence, you re-evaluate your faith.
If they could just code a vending machine and toilet into that thing I'd NEVER have to leave my chair.
Someone will provide a licensed DVD player for the evil (tm. MPAA) os :-)
Region codes here I come (not)
Would this be like HTML forged standards?
Or more like Dell's forged printer cartridge chip standard?
Enquiring minds want to know!
-1 Overrated (Too many big words for me to comprehend)
In France, we have a important internet provider (free.fr) which released in December a settop-box running Linux providing 2mbs internet access , digital TV and 2 phone lines for 30/mo.
pictures and technicals details (in french) on http://free.box.free.fr/ (it's an unofficial site)
"To form or shape out in any way; to produce;"
from "Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)"
...the General Public License procedure ...not to be confused with the Generic Public License, or the Public GUN License.
This is a pretty cool idea, especially if it means I can set up real time television streaming a la shoutcast. We've got a ways to go on bandwidth is most places to make this ubiquitous, though. It'd suck if it just turned into an alternate closed delivery scheme for digital cable.
$ cat Farscape_4x22.mpg | vidcast -v -dtv dig_tv &
Woo.
This could never have happened in Capitalist America (troll, yeah, I know), where companies are too retarded to realize that you need to cooperate with others if you want to make *standards*.
Next step is to gather a bunch of corporations to form new standards for TV shows, in order to improve the shows too.
A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.
Forgive me, this kind of stuff just really excites me a lot :-)
Regards,
JohnFalling You - beautiful
8mbps ADSL connections over in Japan are extremely common with 12mbps starting to be introduced.
Hell, you can get free 64K ISDN through one of the many ISDN ISPs over there.
They have the infrastructure to support it. If you were using multicast or something like that, Internet TV could be very usable even at high bitrates.
Remembers Bill gates "Vision" of a pc in every home running his software.. Visions of Windows enabled electronics Spread through the huse as well.. It sure seems that MS is not working the way he invisioned the future.. Linux is breaking more ground and seems to be the "OS" that will be powering all the electronics in the home.
Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
I thought it was just the Chinese that were good at forging.
afaik, Standard digital cable is a mpeg stream anyway. It'd be real nice if TV's and cable boxes all have some sort of standard, and this may open up the way for decent streaming TV or VoD streams.
Right now, companies like AT&T are using the same cable to bring you CableTV, Broadband internet access, and Phone service (trying to break back into the local telco market). It's the same copper infrastructure, but the technology for all of these services on both sides on the wire are all different.
If a standard like this really catches on, and VOIP takes hold, we may see providers like AT&T doing it all over IP, which could really help everyone out, as well as push broadband speeds up a notch.
Please tell me that you meant that ironically.
The United States government has announced in a press conference that this action is considered a terrorist act toward Microsoft. "Our allies would use Microsoft software for this task", said George W. Bush. "They are not with us, so they must be against us." Bombing of Japan begins tomorrow.
If you're not lucky enough to be eligible for DSL or Cable its satellite for you.
Welcome to the world of high latency "broadband".
Thankfully my exchange was upgraded to DSL and now I'm sitting pretty on a 512K connection.
As soon as someone figures out how to get these digital TVs to send shows from one TV to another (and from one home to another), Hollywood will do to this what it did to ReplayTV and SonicBlue... crush them with legal fees.
TiVo Upgrades
To get around Sony's patents on Beta, JVC with a few other companies created the VHS standard and made it free to everyone to implement. This is a potential nightmare scenario for Microsoft if the companies quickly reach an agreement and stick to it.
The only threats to this commoditization are the companies involved falling out with each other and Microsoft quickly poisoning the market for this commodity TV/Internet box. I wonder if Microsoft can handle this many threats to its business model (the Office monopoly cracking, the licensing schemes being rejected by its customers, etc.) at the same time?
The other home entertainment companies don't have much to worry about because they make their money from hardware, so they can just adopt this if it ever comes together. The other group to crap its collective pants is the cable industry. They fear the PVR already, and this gives the Baby Bells an easy road in for pay-per-view and other previously cable-only franchises.
If these Japanese companies can get it to market and adopted in Japan, this could be the beginning of something interesting.
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
I have seen the article in Japanese Newspaper reporting same announcement like, http://www.asahi.com/money/topics/TKY200303290203. html(sorry Japanese only).
Linux is on topic, but in the same time TRON-OS is also mentioned as a candidate of standard. There is another article that API of TRON OS could be merged into Monta Vista's Linux.
Is wait for Amazon to pantent it,
and then wait for microsoft to adopt it, change the standard, and then take away the patent from Amazon and sue any japanese businesses using it
...isnt there enough crap on TV already? Last thing i want is seeing spam while im watchin tv.
How is this different than the existing host of streaming protocols? The only thing to be determined is how the set-top box will find the available "channels", and a a billing system for PPV / subscription channels. I'm sure all the components are available and already in use - a massive amount of commerce already occurs over the internet, and every news site of worth provides streaming video.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Why do people never give up on that idea of internet on the TV? Why would anybody want to surf on a eye straining device that is usually placed in a position inconvenient for work. WHy don't they focus their energies on phasing out TV for good, replacing it by something internet based... Oh well, one company I wouldn't invest my money in.
and not BSD licsense :)
-------
Starwars Galaxies
Whenever I change the threshold the comments listing is produced without "Reply" links.
This is lame.
Try yourself, change the threshold or select "flat" and click "Change": the "Reply" box will vanish...
It's still possible to reply to the level-1 initial page, though, as you can see I've done.
Lame!
Here's what my copy says:
1. To commit forgery.
2. (Naut.) To move heavily and slowly, as a ship after the sails are furled; to work one's way, as one ship in outsailing another; -- used especially in the phrase to forge ahead. --Totten.
And off she [a ship] forged without a shock. --De Quincey.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
free as in fries?
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Imagine sitting down to watch Six Feet Under only to have the screen scramble and a message start scrolling across the bottom of the screen saying: "1 0wnZ U - W4tch my H4x0red F33D N0w L0s3r!" and having to watch some pimply faced geek's idea of programming. Just great.
Actually Japanese have achieved commercial 100mps through fiberoptic lines, there is a service offered from NTT that gives you that speed for less than what most DSL or cable costs in the US. But the real world figures of the 100mps is in reality around 10mps in most areas and only in highly developed areas can atain anywhere close to 100mbs.
But recently I heard an ad for 12mbs DSL in Japan for 2000yen (around $18).
OTOH, this could be the beginning of the hardware makers providing a digital signal beginning with the the content providers all the way to the "analog" TV display. This is a wet dream for content providers to eliminate all those pesky recording devices mucking with their copyrighted "signal".
The hunt is on.
Before Linux has a more aesthetically pleasing desktop with everyone going nuts on it. KDE 3.0.3 on my Mandrake 9.0 is pretty cool, but XP is just pimpish looking. XP is like a pimp with a feather hat, in a yellow suit, with 12 inch platform shoes with goldfish swimming around in them.
.avi playback) in XFree86-4 and divx codecs and glx/dri for 3dgames like quake3 (I play the shit out of q3 in linux and it plays better than in windows! [voodoo3]).
It's time KDE gets (Dr. Evil quotation gesture) "jiggy" with it.
Why doesn't AOL make an AOL distribution of Linux specifically for email and internet browsing. What a bunch of dumb bastards. Especially now that Linux has wicked multimedia capabilities with xv extensions (fullscreen
Few more companies need to pull their head out of their ass and pay a few geeks to make some distro to suit their needs.
IBM were prosecuted by their own government for exploiting their own people and helped the Nazis find the Jews
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Will this be like the Internet phones I've got? They were such a smashing success when they cost nearly $1000 each! I know so because I saw the press release. Some people I know decided to get in this great business and ordered some of these things. They sold so well I've got nearly 200 left sitting in the warehouse and I would be happy to let them go $100 each. I think the initial order was for about 210 of the things :-)
You obviously haven't had the utopian vision of a society that shares its code for the common good, unlike other evil entities that exploit, control and enslave its users with a monopoly that can, and apparantly does have the money to pay off the corrupt politicians.
Thats swell. But you still have to eat.
I think somewhere in there is some truth, but the GPL was started by people who were trying to STOP you from making money off it, but to entice you to add to the pool of useful code, at least thats the impossible dream I had when I read it.
I don't believe for a minute that the GPL was designed to STOP you from making money. Not for a second. It was designed to keep IMPROVEMENTS basically in the public domain. My company and your company may compete, but one wont have an advantage only because of software. Of course, this is not true either, since I can take ANY GPL software and make tons of changes, and NEVER release my source code. Legally. As long as I don't distribute the binaries, I don't have to release the the source. The main limiting factor of the GPL is to the DISTRIBUTORS. Not users. It keeps RedHat from changing Apache in a way that will only work with their brand of linux, without releasing the code. It helps prevent forks in the code.
But the GPL was not invented to STOP you from making money. I wonder how many people actually have READ the damn GPL instead of just talk shit about it?
Quoting from the GPL...
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price....
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
GPL is free as in speech, NOT always free as in beer. I can make all the profit off of GPL I want, it was designed so I COULD, so everyone could. It insures I can't stop YOU from making money with it. I can't distribute it modified without sharing the modified source. This point seems to get missed all too often.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
MSX anyone?
-uso.
Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
I for one cannot protest the recent M.T.A. fare hike and the
accompanying promises that this would in no way improve service. For
the transit system, as it now operates, has hidden advantages that
can't be measured in monetary terms.
Personally, I feel that it is well worth 75 cents or even $1 to
have that unimpeachable excuse whenever I am late to anything: "I came
by subway." Those four words have such magic in them that if Godot
should someday show up and mumble them, any audience would instantly
understand his long delay.
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