Re:Demo of Google TV (Skip to 32:00) [video]
by ZeroGravitas on Wednesday September 08, 2010 @06:52AM
(#1671507)
Seems to be getting a tough reception here. Seemed pretty good to me, basically delivering various things that I geeked up myself with an Acer Revo running Ubuntu and XBMC, but with vastly easier setup, a better interface, and better integration with US cable TV and DVRs.
The key elements they've got right as I see it is that it's based on HDMI passthrough, so you're not switching between HDMI (or other) inputs and back again which is a major stumbling block for my family, particularly as we control the cable with a remote that can change the TV volume but nothing else. With Google the picture slideshows, last.fm etc. just appear on top of the standard video signal and they appear to have IR blasters to pass through all kinds of controls to other devices, which is hacky but necessary unless you want to buy the entire ecosystem from your cable provider.
They're also building it into TVs and Blu-Ray players, which means one less control (and box) to worry about. Integration with iPhones/Android is something that geeks already do to various degrees (e.g. setting recordings while out and about, flicking through or searching your video library on your phone) but it's good to have it built in from the start, particularly with voice activation for finding that rarely used channel.
On the other hand searching the web while watching a program is something I do right now with my iPhone or netbook, so I don't really see the benefit of that, but then it kind of comes for free so why not?
The key elements they've got right as I see it is that it's based on HDMI passthrough, so you're not switching between HDMI (or other) inputs and back again which is a major stumbling block for my family, particularly as we control the cable with a remote that can change the TV volume but nothing else. With Google the picture slideshows, last.fm etc. just appear on top of the standard video signal and they appear to have IR blasters to pass through all kinds of controls to other devices, which is hacky but necessary unless you want to buy the entire ecosystem from your cable provider.
They're also building it into TVs and Blu-Ray players, which means one less control (and box) to worry about. Integration with iPhones/Android is something that geeks already do to various degrees (e.g. setting recordings while out and about, flicking through or searching your video library on your phone) but it's good to have it built in from the start, particularly with voice activation for finding that rarely used channel.
On the other hand searching the web while watching a program is something I do right now with my iPhone or netbook, so I don't really see the benefit of that, but then it kind of comes for free so why not?