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Ubuntu TV: Coming Soon To a Living Room Near You (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the forget-the-world-we'll-dominate-your-TV-instead dept.

Apple TV is a little device you hook to your television. Ubuntu TV (motto: "TV for human beings") is going to be inside your TV, says Peter Goodall, Canonical's Product Manage for Ubuntu TV. At CES, he described Ubuntu TV to Timothy Lord in detail. Join them via Slashdot Video to see what's up with this Ubuntu venture, which has lots of competition; "Smart TV" was a major CES catchphrase this year.

8 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Smart boxes not TVs by Monoman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I personally would rather see the TV makers stick to making the displays and let other companies like Roku, Boxee, Tivo, etc handle the "smart" parts.

    We have a Samsung smart TV too. We use Hulu quite a bit but have found that the Hulu app appears to suffer from lag sometimes. However, on our older TV (not smart) we have a Roku we use for Hulu and it never experiences the problem. If the TV lags bad I just pause the show on the smart tv and then go resume it on the Roku.

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    1. Re:Smart boxes not TVs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Exactly. There is no money to be made on it after the sale of the TV for the manufacturer, and therefore no incentive to maintain / upgrade the service; or even fix it if it's broken. This is not a good business model for the consumer.

    2. Re:Smart boxes not TVs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In retrospect, I would prefer to have a separate box so I'm not stuck to vendor lock-in.

      Or, you know, don't buy a Sony... ever.

    3. Re:Smart boxes not TVs by rickb928 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you have an HDTV, the standard interface is marked HDMI.

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  2. A solution looking for a problem by grimmjeeper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just don't see the big consumer demand for these smart TVs. Even among my gadget loving friends, the interest in smart TVs can be described as lukewarm at best. Sure, the integrated capability to stream content from providers other than the cable/satellite company does appeal to some. But I just don't see people banging down doors to get this integrated into the TV. If anything, I see more people using their TVs as big monitors for their PCs and game consoles.

    Perhaps it's just the cynic in me but I see this more as a push by the advertisers as a means to get more of their content delivered. All of the providers will relish the opportunity to embed ads, either in their UI or in their content. Yet another business model being pushed on people who don't really want it, if they care at all.

  3. Same here by nurb432 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But id like it for a different reason. I just want a simple pane of glass that displays video. I don't want or need all the extra stuff.

    Doing this just makes them more expensive, more prone to break and repair even worse. Oh, and more controllable by other parties upstream

    Like having an integrated DVD player break on a 2000 TV and you are hosed with a huge bill.. when all you really needed was a 25 dollar one attached to the back of it.

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  4. Smart idiot box by sakdoctor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Beware anything the marketing department label as smart.

    Only general purpose computers are "smart". Everything else is a gadget or toy.

  5. Fix the damn interface already. by ponos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about a decent interface for a desktop Linux-based OS instead of a horrible interface for netbooks, laptops, 24", tablets and TVs? How about they get that right for a start...