[opendtv] Re: News: Cable providers, manufacturers see set-top boxes as next media frontier
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV (E-mail)" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 5 May 2005 10:56:53 -0400
------------------------------------
Cable providers, manufacturers see set-top boxes as next
media frontier
May 4, 2005 12:00am
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 3--The lowly set-top box, that unassuming plastic
block that connects your television to your cable company,
is about to become much, much more.
...
Also, Barrett added, consumers typically would rather
get their technology and entertainment from a single source
than to cobble together different technologies themselves.
"If they're going to do it, they're going to call a
service provider ... who for $100 a month can give them
Internet access, telephony, games, movies, DVRs, home
security and this and that," Barrett said. "And if it
doesn't work, there's one provider they can call" to fix
it.
--------------------------------------
Some of the problem with this article might just be in
the presentation. It sounds as if they want to cram this
big, powerful, central box down every household's throat.
That may not be what they truly intend.
As written, this article is full of legacy thinking. It
harkens back to the '50s and '60s sci fi movies, in which
"high tech" meant being tied to the big central mainframe.
Like "Hal" in "2001, A Space Odyssey."
Better go with "a la carte" cable interface boxes, giving
each host device as much freedom as possible to perform
its own function as the designer intended. For that
matter, allowing each household setup to be as simple as
that household's needs permit. Not as complicated as the
worst-case household might require.
Bert
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