[opendtv] Re: TV Technology: Verance, Fincons Group Announce Partnership Focused on Next-Gen TV
- From: "Craig Birkmaier" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "brewmastercraig" for DMARC)
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2019 06:58:10 -0500
On Jan 22, 2019, at 11:52 PM, Manfredi (US), Albert E
<albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But, here's the thing. Given that most people watching TV online are using
those limited little boxes, or built-in Roku in the TV set, I can see how
there's fertile ground for innovation. How to allow Roku users to get truly
interactive? Okay, that's a challenge.
Or, you can use a much more flexible PC for streaming to the TV set. And
then, innovative applications can begin anytime, and in fact, have done so.
Always odd, how people assume everything has to be primitive, when talking
about TV.
People are watching TV on a variety or devices in many locations. Today, the
big screen TV in the family room is primarily focused on entertainment, while
viewing video on phones, tablets, and yes, PCs may involve entertainment as
well as education, e-commerce, social media, and news.
There have been MANY attempts to develop interactive capabilities for the big
screen. To date they have all crashed and burned. The major reason is simple:
interactive story telling is a “lean forward” experience that requires effort.
Entertainment is a “lean back” experience.
There is a huge community of interactive story tellers/players, and yes Bert,
the vast majority of them use PCs. It’s called gaming, including role playing
games.
And there is a huge community of people now using phones, tablets, and PCs for
education, e-commerce, social media, and other interactive applications.
As screen resolutions and quality image rendition (HDR and ECG) improve on the
big screen, we MAY see more use of this screen for the tasks now routinely done
on phones, tablets, and PCs. But interacting with the big screen is much re
likely to be enabled through the use of one of the other devices for the user
interface. I do this routinely now with apps on my tablet while “watching” TV.
Connected TV devices, whether integrated with the TV or stand alone, rely on
very simple remotes designed for the lean back experience. As Bert points out,
these UIs are not appropriate for interactivity.
But Bert continues to believe that PCs are appropriate for the front end to a
big screen TV, despite the fact that he is one of the last holdouts for this
approach, which has proven to be unworkable after years of effort by PC
manufacturers to sell them as “home entertainment centers.”
Meanwhile, using technologies like Apple’s AirPlay and Google’s Chromecast,
millions of people are using the big screen to share a variety of content.
Despite all of this, as this article relates, companies continue to pour money
down the black hole that is broadcasting has become. Adding interactivity to
broadcasts is a non starter - the world has moved on...
Regards
Craig
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