[opendtv] How set-tops got stuck in a TV transition
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2010 15:23:41 -0500
I think Rich Merritt misses the point that, with very few exceptions, all of
these new web-based schemes, with their own STBs, are merely trying to create
their own walled-in medium. But he correctly (IMO) groups together the congloms
and the MVPDs as being those who currently control the content.
The one exception I had in mind was the Sony Vaio I saw some time ago. That
allowed access to the entire web, to OTA, to BluRay discs, allowed recording on
its hard drive. An unsually unwalled design.
This one comment from a reader is right on the money:
------------------
9/3/2010 4:05 PM EDT
The problem with DVR boxes is that they are built to restrict access, not to
enable it. It is only very recently that they have added whole-house
functionality and search capability, something that my Windows Media Center box
has done for years. The DVR is a box that is under the complete control of the
cable company, so why should I pay for it?
CableCARD was supposed to break this monopoly, but the cablecos dragged their
feet on it and forced so many restrictions that it was unusable. The interest
generated by the recently-released Ceton InfiniTV card is an indication of the
frustration of technically-capable users with this situation.
Larry M.
------------------
Of course, he does assume that a DVR must be under the control of a MVPD. Then
again, in this country, that is very close to the truth.
Bert
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http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4207341/How-set-tops-got-stuck-in-TV-transition
How set-tops got stuck in a TV transition
Rick Merritt
9/3/2010 9:52 AM EDT
SAN JOSE, Calif. - When Steve Jobs held aloft his new $99 AppleTV box this
week, most people applauded it as a dirt cheap deal. But Ira Bahr got excited
because he thought it was relatively expensive.
"Apple gives me hope someone will actually pay $99 for a set-top box," said the
chief marketing officer for Dish Network who has been locked in a price war
with other satellite, cable and telco TV providers.
Indeed, the set-top box has become the Rodney Dangerfield of the consumer
electronics industry. "I have customers calling in that want a digital video
recorder or an upgrade to high definition but are outraged if they have to pay
for a set top," said Bahr in a keynote address to about 200 people at Set-Top
Box 2010 in San Jose.
"Today we are no more interesting [to consumers] than an electric or gas
company-it's just not exciting anymore," said Bahr, noting Comcast now gives
away Apple iPods to entice new users to take its service and set-top.
Service providers like Dish are doing all they can to add pizzazz to their
little black pizza boxes.
Dish is a partner in the GoogleTV initiative, aiming to deliver an Intel
Atom-based set-top this fall that plugs users into a new service more closely
linked to the Web and Web-like search. And Dish's set-top maker Echostar
acquired Sling Media to provide video to PCs and handsets as well as TVs-the
three-screen nirvana the industry is now seeking.
Sounds like all the right moves. But the trouble is the days of cable and
satellite TV networks are numbered. Something new is slowly being born.
David Grubb, chief technology officer for Motorola Home was right to dub this
the Internet era in his conference keynote. Television will become one
application for TVs that increasingly will be multifunction devices, he said.
This shift is bound to happen, but today's cable, satellite and telco TV
providers and their vendors cannot truly embrace it. They are locked into
Clayton Christensen's dilemma of trying to serve their existing networks and
customers.
Plenty of so-called over-the-top boxes have emerged in the last few years
trying to ride the new paradigm, but they have lacked clout and content. Roku's
Anthony Wood claims he invented the field two years ago with his $99 Netflix
player that now comes in a standard definition version for as little as $59.
These so-called buddy boxes are stuck in secondary roles as long as the
majority of premium content is still locked into release windows on broadcast
TV. Even Steve Jobs with all his Hollywood clout from Pixar had to content
himself with an AppleTV box that would deliver only some select programs from a
handful of content owners the day after their broadcast release.
The fact is today's cable, satellite and telco TV networks still own the
mainstream pipes to the consumer. Someday Joe Six-Pack will only need a good
broadband connection and a TV-centric browser-likely with some new kind of
remote control and search engine-to access any new or archived video you might
imagine.
But 2010 sits in an awkward spot when the old networks still have plenty of
life and the new Internet set-tops still have plenty of problems.
Many have tried and failed to make Web pages optimized for 640x480 pixel
screens look good on a 1080-processive flat-panel TV. Junk drawers are full of
novel keyboards and remotes for easily navigating the Net from the couch. And
no one has yet delivered the browser-centric program guide for the Web TV era.
For its part, Hollywood is still clutching its content libraries and release
windows in fear of a free-Internet future. It's high time Hollywood and set-top
box makers stop flirting and get married. The Internet TV era is theirs for the
taking if they can let go of their old attachments to yesterday's cable and
satellite networks.
I suspect Apple has not delivered an iTV, in part because these technical and
business problems are so difficult. It also has its hands full with other quite
successful businesses.
There's lots of work to be done enabling Web-a-vision. This transition could
take a decade. So for awhile, the old set-top is stuck with its sad sack status
of being the box that doesn't get any respect.
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