Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Television Needs To Be Reinvented, Says Apple SVP (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the fixing-tv dept.

Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Service at Apple, isn't happy with the current state of how people watch TV. He said we currently live with a "glorified VCR," the interface of our current TV is the problem and we need to reinvent it. Cue pointed out a number of other issues he has with today's TV:"It's really hard to use [a cable box or satellite TV]. Setting something to record, if you didn't watch something last night, if you didn't set it to record, it's hard to find, it may not be available. There may be some rights issues," Cue said. "It's great to be able to tell your device, 'I wanna watch the Duke basketball game, I don't care what channel it's on.' I just want to watch the Duke basketball game. Today you got to bring in the TV, go through the guide, find which sports programs or whatever -- it's just hard to do."

10 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder... by slapout · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...if Apple has a new product to help with that

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    1. Re:I wonder... by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Unless they're buying out TiVo, they're already second to market... I haven't cared in a LONG time what channel or time my show is coming on, I just use the TiVo app on my phone to search for what I want and magically it appears on my screen. Want to watch a series? Not a problem! My TiVo will assemble all the episodes of that series on the DVR from any source it can get it from including recording it from air, netflix, amazon prime, hulu, etc. Full disclaimer: I have no affiliation with TiVo in the slightest... except I own one and it obviates the problem described above.

      --
      Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
    2. Re:I wonder... by praxis · · Score: 4, Funny

      Unless they're buying out TiVo, they're already second to market...

      You're right, Apple being second to market has always left them as a loser in that market. iPod: "Less space than a nomad. Lame."

    3. Re:I wonder... by amxcoder · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The problem with I see with how they described it is a big one... "I don't care what channel it's on, I just want to watch xyz". However, over the years, whether I had DirecTV, UVerse, or cable, is that the same show is duplicated on a variety of channels, some of which are in the "Guide" but that a user might not get. For instance, with DirecTV, if you wanted to watch Big Bang Theory as an example, the show would be populated on half a dozen channels in the Guide and different times.

      For instance, it would show up on West Coast local channel (which I would get) standard definition, it would also show up on Central Local channel (which I don't get due to regional restrictions), and same for East Coast Local channel... Then all 3 of those same channels are duplicated as HD channels in the Guide as well. All 6 of these would be the current latest episode, and all 6 were at different local times due to time zone differences, however only 2 of those are a channel I get, and I prefer recording in HD when avail, so only 1 is the 'correct' channel/time. If the DVR recorded the wrong one, I would be greeted with a blank recording. That's why I think most DVR systems make you select the show and channel you want to watch, and it will stick with that.

      Another issue, is when you add in the complexity of syndication for shows that have current episodes on major networks, and older syndicated episodes on various other extended channels (sometimes playing more than one episode per day for those syndicated episodes), and what you would end up is the DVR trying to 'guess' which is the correct version of the show you want to record out of a possible 6-12 different possibilities on various channels, time-slots, resolutions, and new episode/re-run episodes.

      The cable companies don't make it easy, and neither do the channel networks. Depending on the DVR/Set-Top-Box you use, sometimes the guide is customizable to eliminate channels, but this takes hours to go through and setup on each receiver. Some, like ATT UVerse, won't let your customized list be used as the default, so it takes like 3-6 button presses to get to your customized guide list instead of the "All channels we serve from all packages" monolithic channel guide, which is horrible. Why cable companies still serve you SD channels when you subscribe to HD package is something I've never been able to figure out, other than it makes it LOOK like you are getting twice as many channels as you really do. All of this is frustrating from a human perspective, DVR's can only make it so easy before they start guessing at what you want.

      Maybe the example given is easy to do, when you are talking about live sports games (all though, those get blacked out locally many times as well) that don't get reruns, are usually broadcast on single channels who have the contracts... But I don't think a DVR can know what you're intentions are by just saying, "I want you to record Big Bang Theory" are, just as another person wouldn't understand your intentions either without a bit more specific information, like SD/HD, what is your current channel package, new episode or rerun, it's playing in an hour, but you have another recording already scheduled, which show is more important to you? etc...

  2. This is dumb by HBI · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The rights holders are the problem and will never allow this.

    The fragmentation of media into smaller entities is a good thing and while the complexity goes up, the result is a buffet of entertainment for any mildly skilled geek due to the broken technologies that resulted from this lack of coordination. Apple can talk and talk about fixing the brokenness but nothing is going to happen. Mainly because no one can figure out how to make money off of it except Apple.

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    1. Re:This is dumb by bluegutang · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The rights holders are the problem and will never allow this.

      That's what they said about iTunes, and Apple found a way. So I wouldn't count them out here...

    2. Re:This is dumb by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The recording industry has had a broad royalty scheme for a long time where any radio station can pay fees into the system and then play pretty much any recording ever made. The TV and Movie industries need to adopt a similar scheme to enable the next giant leap in home entertainment. You pay a fee to an aggregator and then freely choose from any entertainment product ever recorded.

  3. already been reinvented by ecorona · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Netflix already reinvented it, at least for many of us. You're not going to pull another iphone success story this time around.

  4. It's not about needing to re-invent, its 'control' by mozkill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't buy the theory that TV needs to re-invented and that it is the reason for driving change. The powers that be wan't people to believe that though. I think its probably more about being the first to introduce new technology and whoever does that (as seen by Google and Facebook) will 'control' the new distribution model. That is what its really about.

    --

    -- Betting on the survival of the media industry is a serious risk. I advise investing elsewhere.
  5. Clueless Apple SVP by JustNiz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    >> "It's great to be able to tell your device, 'I wanna watch the Duke basketball game, I don't care what channel it's on.' ...which is exactly what I've already been doing for years (and for $0.00 give or take a few watts) with my Linux-based media PC that is running MythTV and plugged into an OTA antenna.