[opendtv] Re: The New Apple TV Invigorates the Set-Top Box
- From: Craig Birkmaier <brewmastercraig@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2015 12:34:43 -0400
On Oct 30, 2015, at 11:16 AM, Mike Tsinberg <Mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It does looks very nice. In addition it integrates all your iOS and OX
devices at home for smooth airplay.
Yes, it is clearly an important component of the iOS ecosystem; I expect it to
be a major enabler of IOT devices for the home as well.
Interestingly it does not support 4KUHD, HDMI 2.0 and HDCP2.2 yet. That is
probably reflection of general aim of Apple toward reliability and quality
and also that Internet bandwidth for 4KUHD is not there yet.
Apple has become very pragmatic about working with markets and technologies it
does not (or cannot) control. The company has been a pioneer for many
technologies related to computers - CD-ROM, FireWire, WiFi, Thunderbolt, etc. -
but has not tried to get ahead of consumer electronics markets that are in the
throws of change.
After the failed attempt at 3D, It looks like 4KUHD, will be the next
evolutionary step for the CE vendors who still build TVs. I guess this is to be
expected, as there is no money left in building 2K TVs and higher density
displays are taking over in the IT space. But Mike is correct, the era of 4K TV
content is still out a few years for multiple reasons...
OTA broadcasters are still stuck with MPEG-2 and interlaced 2K;
Licensing for the HVEC codec is still a mess, with a second licensing body
trying to tap into content revenue streams (although it looks like they may be
reconsidering);
As Mike points out, bandwidth is still an issue;
For the popular content where it can make the greatest difference - live sports
- the infrastructure is heavily invested in the legacy broadcast standards. To
be fair, it would be relatively easy for the industry to move to 1080@60P with
H.264, but such an interim step may not be worth the trouble with 4K on the
horizon.
Apple is on a well orchestrated development path with the A series processors
used throughout the iOS hardware ecosystem. And they still rely on third party
GPUs, which handle both video decoding and pumping pixels to the displays. I
would expect 4K support in about two years when the required chips become more
commoditized.
Also absence of HDCP2.2 probably does not hurt them as far as content. HDCP
2.2 is not backwards compatible to HDCP 1.X so it will take very LONG time to
be actually used. Apple also took some time (couple of years) to add 1080p to
the old Apple TV devices. Apple also took away the Optical Digital Audio
output. That was useful before with non HDMI switching capable AV receivers.
Now that most of AV Receivers have HDMI switching and audio de-embedding this
is probably redundant.
Yup. It has become incredibly easy to connect "intelligence and content" to
modern flat panel TV displays. HDMI provides an excellent case study in how the
TV industry came to grips with "being digital." It is the poster child for our
guidance to the industry back in the early '90s...
Interoperable, Scalable and Extensible...
Regards
Craig
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