[opendtv] Re: Flash Gone from Android
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:25:13 -0600
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> With respect hardware codec acceleration, this IS a big deal for
> mobile devices and power consumption.
Gimme a break, Craig. Flash has supported H.264 ever since Flash Player 9.
We're at version 11 now. But it is true that the older Flash codec supported
features that H.264 doesn't. So it's a simple matter of either allowing
real-world, existing and abundant content to work, and to work efficiently (via
appropriate accelerators), or getting a bug up your *ss and blocking it, for
their own corporate motives. (Did I mention that my old PC showed signs of
stress when first encountering H.264? And may I say "I told you so?" Just
because software can be updated, it does not mean that the hardware is up to
it!)
> Did you see the story about ATSC 2.0?
Actually, I did. My very first reaction was, hmmm. If I installed an ATSC tuner
card in the PC I have now dedicated to TV and radio, I could do just about
everything that ATSC 2.0 is talking about, with basically no changes at all.
For instance, I could be logged onto a local broadcaster's web site, for
anything that needs to be interactive, while at the same time watching the TV
program OTA. (Okay, so maybe I wouldn't be able to click on a URL in the OTA TV
image per se, but we're pretty close anyway.) Or one could log onto the
network's own site, if the material is from the network. Certainly, having
multiple screens up, simultaneously of OTA and Internet streams, is not a big
deal. Or I can do e-mail, Facebook, or order pizza, on part of the TV screen,
while watching TV. All readily available to me already, with no need for ATSC
2.0.
I also noticed mention of interactive ads. Been there, done that. When watching
TV, the last thing I want to do is interact with ads. My bet is, that feature
will prove unpopular. You do it a few times, then you want to tell them to go
pound sand.
As to mobile platforms, I don't see any significant difference there either.
They can pick up the ATSC-MH signal, say, and they can log onto the web sites
via their 3G/4G or WiFi access. Of course, screen real estate will be a big
limitation, no matter what.
What keeps nagging is, at what point does the separate broadcast OTA path
become unnecessary? In spite of what the FCC keeps pushing, those lower
frequency TV bands are not that good for implementing femtocells, which is
where 2-way wireless is definitely headed. So perhaps that's what will keep
one-way OTA broadcast useful. Offload high bandwidth TV streams from the 2-way
nets, using spectrum most suited for the one-way broadcast role.
> MPEG-2 TS is the most valuable "jewel" in the MPEG LA collection
> of standards.
Point being, you need something to synchronize the packets. Doesn't have to be
MPEG-2 TS, but when using HTTP for streaming media, say as opposed to RTP over
UDP, not a bad way to go.
Bert
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