[opendtv] Re: One more thought for the mix Re: Smart TVs - No One Uses Smart TV Internet
- From: "Tom McMahon" <tlm@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "OpenDTV" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:45:11 +0000
I may be living a weird or uncommon space, but I have a rich interconnection
between the mobile, the home office, my EMail system (and it's 7+ GBytes of
Calendar, Contacts, and EMail folders), my Internet Favorites, and so on. I
would dearly love to bridge gap between my office upstairs, my mobile, and the
flat screen and STB/PVR/TV stuff happening in my L.R.. I cannot do without all
of my workstation Calendar and Contacts transparently synchronized to my
mobile, so why shouldn't that be N-directionally true with the L.R. As well?
I would never expect my mobile device to handle the load, nor would I expect a
smart TV to replace my "real" computer upstairs where I do printing Word Excel
etc. The STB/PVR is, well, a STB/PVR (appliance). But if could do something
so simple as to leverage my Outlook Calendar to Schedule PVR events it would be
really cool. Doing EMail from my TV via wireless QWERTY using my workstation's
databases sometimes would be great. Maybe just having remote access to my
upstairs workstation screen from my smart TV downstairs over my WLAN? (Hey,
didn't we invent that with Telnet in 1969?)
No, I am not going to dispose of my workstation or the UPS running everything
upstairs, nor am I going to disconnect my cable box nor am I going to buy a PC
and separate UPS for my L.R.. I just want to have an effortless foursome
between my PC, mobile, STB/PVR and my flat screen.
Bring it on.
----
Tom McMahon
Del Rey
+1-310-717-7208 Mobile
TLM@xxxxxxxxxx
WWW.LinkedIn.Com/in/McMahonTV
-----Original Message-----
From: "Tom McMahon" <tlm@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2012 23:50:05
To: OpenDTV<opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: tlm@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Tom<TLM@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [opendtv] Re: Smart TVs - No One Uses Smart TV Internet
So (looking my cable remote while I am lying here on my couch with my
BlackBerry doing EMail) I guess I could have a typical (or perhaps CE-company
branded) wireless QWERTY keyboard, I could poke the Spacebar or Return to wake
up my smart TV (and also my STB if separate), I could use the numeric keypad
(or Shift numbers keys) to enter channels, I could use the Up/Down and
Left/Right arrow keys to navigate the channel guide(s), tap the L/R arrow keys
2 or 3 or 4 times for PVR FFwd and FRewind, use QWERTY to search for "House" or
"2012 Sandy Concert" or "CSI", maybe "." or CTL-P for pause, maybe CTL-R for
record and CTL-I for info on the current program and CTL-G for guide and CTL-M
for menu and CTL-W for Web, ... and then pop into full Internet mode and/or for
OTT and/or Outlook for checking OpenDTV EMail when I like?
I'd still like my mobile device for telephone and when not in potato mode of
course but it would seem to be trivial to use a wireless QWERTY instead of the
cable remote when in the L.R. (and much easier to type when I wanna do things
like this in horizontal mode).
I guess having my PVR do it's backup in the cloud while I am sleeping wouldn't
be too much of a leap. I presume the same might hold for the smart CE
platform's OS and anti-virus updates as well.
Back to my cellulose-based crime novel until after dinner....
----
Tom McMahon
Del Rey
+1-310-717-7208 Mobile
TLM@xxxxxxxxxx
WWW.LinkedIn.Com/in/McMahonTV
-----Original Message-----
From: Albert Manfredi <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2012 17:45:24
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [opendtv] Re: Smart TVs - No One Uses Smart TV Internet
Tom posted:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/12/internet-tv-sucks/
There's no excuse for the reasons printed in the article.
The user interfaces aren't similar and are too confusing? Why? Aren't people by
now totally familiar with web browsers? Why can't smart TVs use regular web
browsers, a regular remote keyboard (as necessary, which might be quite
infrequent), and regular remote mouse?
Typing while sitting 10'-15' away from the screen, I agree, isn't he easiest
thing to do. But of course, you wouldn't typically do those activities from a
TV. But browsing the web for videos, movies, TV programs, travel brochures, is
fine. And you can set the size of the type, if the default size is too small. I
have no problem reading text on the TV, set to its default setting. Because the
TV resolution is 1366 X 768, so text is relatively large, even 14' or so
distant, when it's on a 42" set. But again, that's adjustable. And reading text
is not the primary reason to connect a TV to the Internet.
Most of the typing, for most people, would probably be to set up their
"favorites." Once favorites are set up, the mouse is all you use.
I didn't see the most obvious reason listed, though. Which is, these connected
TVs can't browse the web properly. My personal experience is, a very small
minority of what I watch online is available on one of those handicapped sets.
I do watch some YouTube stuff, and I occasionally use regular Hulu. That's
about it. Everything else is either going to be international networks, the TV
networks' own web sites, or searching for movies online, at strange and
probably sketchy sites. (Yes, for that, I might type the name of the movie on
my search engine. Big deal.)
What a waste of technology when you have the Internet at your disposal, and CE
companies inexplicably wall it all off. Certainly takes all the fun out of it.
Bert
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