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China's OnePlus is Going To Start Making TVs (theverge.com)
Chinese electronics company OnePlus, known for making inexpensive but high-end smartphones, is entering a new line of business: making TVs. From a report: Best known for its phones, China's OnePlus also has a small catalog of really good accessories like wireless earphones and surprisingly awesome backpacks, though nothing as complex or expensive as a television set. In announcing the news on the OnePlus online forums, company chief Pete Lau describes it as "the first step in building a connected human experience." [...] OnePlus has decided to make its entry point into this market the TV itself, which has always been at the center of home entertainment, though often with the help of other connected devices. Reading Lau's teaser announcement, the OnePlus TV -- which so far only has a project name, no timeline or specs have been revealed -- will serve as the connectivity hub for OnePlus' future vision of the smart home.
The TV will ditch the HDMI port in favor of Miracast only and every year it will get a little more expensive.
The TV will report what you watch,how often you watch, and probably has a camera in it with facial recognition and records who is watching, and reports it all back to the government.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I can't wait for the TVs to come without HDMI ports.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
”Best known for its phones, China's OnePlus also has a small catalog of really good accessories like wireless earphones and surprisingly awesome backpacks, though nothing as complex or expensive as a television set.”
A smartphone is arguably far more complex than a television set.
#DeleteChrome
Will buying this improve your social score in China?
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
The TV business has been in a race towards the bottom as far as margins go for more than a decade. Costs are literally down to fractions of pennies in TVs except at the very high end. Even there, costs are a big consideration given retail margins, customer support and future product development.
Given OnePlus' positioning, this isn't a smart move. They can't possibly compete on cost, and other companies are much better at differentiating their offerings.
TCL has made big waves in the US TV market in recent years, so it's not surprising that another company would see an opportunity to move into the market as well. This has been made possible in large part by Amazon, as an electronics company doesn't have to deal with hundreds of electronics chains or dozens of distributors to get their product out. Now they just have to deal with one company.
has a camera in it with facial recognition
Necessitating a notch
One Plus, owned by Oppo (which makes smartphones), owned by BBK Electronics (which makes TV sets), can easily enter this new market?
Do you say that BBK wants to enter the Western TV market using a well-known brand? Incredible for sure
Some features that would cost little to nothing to add, but would get some people to actively seek them out:
* Explicit, native support for BOTH 1080p50 and 1080p59.94 (AFAIK, *all* 60fps is REALLY 59.94fps for the sake of backwards-compatibility with NTSC). Seriously, it's 2018. Why the FUCK do we still have TVs sold in America that reject 720p50 and 1080p50 over HDMI, EVEN THOUGH the EXACT SAME GODDAMN HARDWARE (with slightly-tweaked firmware) can do both framerates on TVs sold elsewhere?
* By extension, explicit native support for both 25fps & 30fps "4k" modes (and ideally, 48, 50, 60, 72, 96, 100, 120, and/or 144, bandwidth permitting). Even if it requires sacrificing color depth (due to HDMI-imposed constraints, and/or PWM-imposed constraints).
* Ability to natively be driven at 1080p100 and 1080p120 via HDMI2.x. Or better yet, support for AMD FreeSync or NVidia G-sync. I mean, hell... if a TV is "internally" 100/120hz ANYWAY, why the FUCK arbitrarily limit it to 50/60fps HDMI framerate? Expose it directly as supported display modes, and advertise it as a competitive feature nobody else offers. Call competitors' "100/120hz" modes "fake" in your adds, and promote yours as the only REAL "100/120hz"
* Give us an "instant on" option. Making us wait 5+ seconds for picture & sound after pressing the power button is BULLSHIT. To make HDCP-handshaking happy, keep the link "hot" even when the display is "off" (ie, turn off the LED backlight & LCD itself, but keep the interface powered up & making the HDMI source THINK the TV is "on").
In other words, the display has four power states:
1. HDMI on, Display lit up & active
2. HDMI on, display dark (but HDMI source doesn't know that)
3. HDMI off, display dark. What most LCD TVs now call "off"
4. No power. Physically switched off or unplugged.
I'll pay for the extra quarter-watt of power, dammit. Just don't make me stare at a blank/blue screen for 5 seconds due to HDCP handshaking just to make the eco-freaks happy.
You think Samsung smart TVs spied on you? Just wait until TVs brought to you courtesy of the Communist Chinese government get here! Even more spying.
DO NOT WANT!
I don't know what they're going to do, but suppose they came out with an offering very similar to TCL, but allowed users to decide whether they wanted a FireTV, Roku, or non-smart interface? Wouldn't that be cool? I doubt that's where they're going. I would guess that TCL is the model they're going to try to emulate. TCL has Roku, so they'll go with something else.
I wish them luck, as I want to see more competition in the TV market. I hope they find some combination of features that are missing right now and push other makers to improve their offerings.