Google TV: Finally a device that recognizes that TV is just a way of consuming content
The Read/Write Web story on why Google TV might be a game changer (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_tv_will_change_the_way_people_live_their_li.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29&utm_content=Google+Reader)
does a nice job of explaining the many advantages of a television device that lets you display all of the content you have permission to display on one device. It has been an amazingly slow path to get here: producers of television content are on the one hand doing deals to get their content onto the Internet, while on the other hand working to prevent people from displaying that Internet content on their televisions! This is a crazy world! We should be focused on creating fair ways to compensate the people who create content, and then working on making the consumption of that content as free as possible. There are thousands of ways to consume a television show -- most of them not invented yet -- only one of which starts with the show coming over the air, down and antenna, and being displayed on a television device in real-time. I, for one, am very excited to see the Google TV, and to see how much it opens the television platform.
John
Comments
One Device, All Content
John,
I'm with you. Currently, I run MythTV behind my three TVs (or, more correctly, large displays). Content is recorded off two terrestrial antennas and one fibre cable feed, downloaded from BitTorrent, pulled from RSS feeds and captured from Internet live feeds. All is stored on disk and presented in the current recordings list where it is viewed either in chronological order or by title.
The recorded content is augmented by a video server that holds approximately 7000 titles (movies and shows) which presents on a separate list, organized in a tree structure.
Any user of any TV can watch any program at any time. There is no distinction made as to how it is or was delivered.
Have just purchased a so-called SmartTV and am now looking into programming it to tap into this content. So far, we haven't looked at any of the subscription services (e.g. Netflix) but they are supposedly available transparently from the SmartTV's UI. It has a connection to the Internet for this purpose.
I can imagine that the commercial interests will do their best to put a crimp in this viewing freedom but, so far, I have been blissfully unaware of their efforts and can say that it works quite well. My viewing tastes are eclectic and this arrangement provides the best environment for them that I have ever seen.
Trainboy