Slashdot Mirror
Television Next In Line For Industry-Wide Shakeup?
New submitter pjlehtim writes "In a recent interview. Samsung's AV product manager, Chris Moseley, said, 'TVs are ultimately about picture quality. ... and there is no way that anyone, new or old, can come along this year or next year and beat us on picture quality.' Sounds familiar? There must be a change in the perceived role of television in the entertainment ecosystem before the general public starts to care about the smart TVs manufacturers are trying to push. That change is likely to come from outside the traditional home entertainment industry. It's not about technology; it is about user experience, again."
The article is right about a couple things: TV UIs suck and remotes suck even more.
My mom can't operate a modern TV. I mean like not AT ALL. If it's anything more challenging than volume up or down, it's too much. She doesn't get it.
There's a bunch of stuff we plug in and want to use now - DLNA clients, DVRs, Home Theater receivers, cable boxes, game machines - and it all works differently and needs some stupid or weird different control, both on-screen and in terms of the control device. The revolution will be the people who make some kind of master overlay and master remote (I love my Harmony but it doesn't go far enough) that handles everything.
Maybe that means a mic or a kinect that lets us talk or gesture. Maybe it means having a little display on a tablet. I don't know. I just know that what we have now is a huge mess.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
... than being charged for 200+ channels I will never watch.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
"You said you would like to watch the latest episode of penis brothers. Season 5 episode 3 starting now. According to your preferences, your choice has automatically been posted on Facebook."
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
"..yeah, no thanks. All I want or need is something that displays a 1080p signal well,"
Why? If all you watch are the most recent Movies on BluRay, then I can understand that. but ALL cableTV and ALL satellite TV is 720P heavy compressed. I dont care what your settings on the receiver are, the signal is 720p and will stay that way for a very long time.
Everyone pines for 1080p but very few have seen 1080p content that is crisp and at a viewing distance where they can actually tell the difference.
If you know your source material, and you sit close enough to see it, Awesome for you! I also chased the 1080p dragon for my theater and succeeded. You will not find ANYTHING that will be a decent quality 1080p from a streaming service within the next 5 years. You just dont have the bandwidth.
I instead made my own. XBMC with a server in the basement that has 5 1tb drives in it. I rip the bluray discs to the server and use XBMC to play them back. XBMC will do a AC3 passthrough as well as HD audio passthrough toslink to the receiver that will recreate the audio perfectly. My theater with VOD system I have in my media center was in total $12,500 excluding the walls, sound control and seating.
If you want really good 1080p you are going to not only pay for it, but do it all yourself.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
My mom can't operate a modern TV. [..] The revolution will be the people who make some kind of master overlay and master remote
The television will not be revolutionised, brother.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
It's not usability, it's all about DRM. The content providers are desperate to keep people from copying or modifying content. It everything is in one box, then you have no where to connect a recording device. Your cable box will be implemented in software instead of a separate piece of hardware that has to be maintained. Providers can change their encryption any time they want by pushing out a new patch, and keeping the "hackers" at bay. You want to record and watch later? There's an extra charge for that, and only on their terms.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.