Possibly changing the way we will all be watching TV?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc

5/20/2010 11:56:24 PM

nm

[Edited on May 21, 2010 at 12:13 AM. Reason : sadfasdf]

5/21/2010 12:08:36 AM

This will really depend on how good is the UI and how relevant is the search. Hopefully, with the google behind it it will be pretty relevant. As a side efffect, what I hope comes out of this effortwill video hosting companies ACROSS THE BOARD to store play content in high quality, not just the paid ones like netflix or pornflix or the sponsored ones on youtube. Of course there is PS3, Boxee, current internet-enabled TVs, and then everyone is saying "we already have a laptop and HDMI and blah blah blah", but most youtube videos look pretty shitty whenever i hook up my laptop to my 46'' TV.

5/21/2010 2:23:30 AM

I posted this earlier today in the 'Google Innovations' thread, it sounds like a really awesome idea. I just hope Google doesn't 'Google it' and fuck it all up with their lack of understanding of good UI. They're so hell bent on doing everything that they don't take the time to do any of it right except the search engine of course.

Quote :

"This will really depend on how good is the UI and how relevant is the search. Hopefully, with the google behind it it will be pretty relevant. As a side efffect, what I hope comes out of this effortwill video hosting companies ACROSS THE BOARD to store play content in high quality, not just the paid ones like netflix or pornflix or the sponsored ones on youtube. Of course there is PS3, Boxee, current internet-enabled TVs, and then everyone is saying "we already have a laptop and HDMI and blah blah blah", but most youtube videos look pretty shitty whenever i hook up my laptop to my 46'' TV."

AppleTV already does the whole HD youtube. Boxee does everything else I think. Sounds like they're combing AppleTV with Boxee.

[Edited on May 21, 2010 at 3:21 AM. Reason : .]

5/21/2010 3:20:23 AM

well here's my take on it, just my opinion.

really Google TV isn't anything like Apple TV. it's VERY clear Google is going after the TV market for ADVERTISING, it was one of their very first statistics was about how much time people spend in front of a TV and $70 billion dollars spent on advertising, yada yada, bringing relevant search is the catch that draws people in so they can sell advertising, that's Google in a nutshell. they don't really care about providing or selling content, they just want to help you find that content. open source, multiple OE partners, will have box to connect to older TV's, will be integrated into new TV's, will have third-party vendors for multiple input devices. if you saw the demo you'd realize it's not really like boxee. Google TV is an integrated UI that basically replaces your crappy cable box UI. boxee is a separate application that fetches data from other sources and doesn't actually tie into live TV either. so it's not like boxee either.

AppleTV is basically just iTunes for your TV, so you can watch HD content & music on your home entertainment setup. that's all it does. i'm not even sure you can call it a TV product because it's just a standalone content delivery box but doesn't actually do live TV. closed source, no OE partners, just content partners.

it's kinda like the age old question, do you pay for content to get rid of ads, or do you get your content for free and cope with ads? two different approaches.

http://www.google.com/tv/developer/

I kind of found this funny:

Quote :

"Google TV is capable of playing 720p and 1080p Flash videos. For best performance: Use h.264 encoding for all video content. Avoid encoding your videos in h.263 or vp6."

why h.264 instead of WebM (VP8)? hmmm.....

i also don't really see how this is different than Android as technically this is just Android on a TV

[Edited on May 21, 2010 at 11:31 AM. Reason : .]

5/21/2010 11:05:35 AM

no no no, you're doing it wrong.. android is the remote

5/21/2010 11:40:45 AM

Android is on the phone that can be used as a remote, but in the demonstration they pushed Android apps to the TV

did no one watch the demo?
http://www.youtube.com/googledevelopers#p/c/B09682344C2F233B/3/5_XJs3x3SRQ

technically Google TV is an Android device

[Edited on May 21, 2010 at 11:45 AM. Reason : .]

5/21/2010 11:41:47 AM

Android is the OS on the device, yes.

5/21/2010 5:09:50 PM

It'll be great if I can control the tv/web from my phone.

5/21/2010 7:03:29 PM

since its based on the android OS, that must mean its good to watch porn! Thx Steve Jobs!

5/21/2010 7:09:09 PM

^you can still watch porn on the iDevices thanks HTML5!

^^thats the best feature of the Remote App on the iPhone. AT&T is supposed to be releasing one for the iPhone for uverse STB soon!

5/21/2010 7:13:23 PM

For those talking about controlling it/your TV with your phone, check out the video posted here:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/20/logitechs-google-tv-companion-box-includes-smartphone-apps-we/

Looks like (at least if you buy the Logitich branded Google TV option) it basically turns your iPhone/Android phone into a harmony remote.

----

I gotta say though, am I the only one that is still kind of in a fog as to what exactly, and I do mean exactly, the Google TV is? I get that it's not really a single device, but more of a platform. But...It's really not been made very clear what it is and more specifically, what it isn't. I just finished reading Engadget's Everything you ever wanted to know article, and I'm just as confused as ever. To the best of my understanding, it's just an overlay system for adding widgets and/or a web browser on your TV. But that's it? I assume it has to be more but it's just not very clear to me. In the demo videos I've seen the setups still require a TiVo or other DVR to be in the setup (well, I suppose require isn't the right word, but to get the full experience, I guess it does). But it doesn't really seem to integrate with the things you have recorded on the TV. For this to be the real deal, I would have expected it to have some sort of DVR capability included. I know that would require extra hardware such as tuners, but without that, I keep coming back around to what features really are offered. I see where it integrates with Netflix (what doesn't these days) and with the full flash enabled browser, you could get to hulu and all of youtube (until hulu inevitably blocks the user agent), But is that it? Does it interact with media stored on your network? Index it? Allow you to play HD content? What codecs support are we looking at? I presume the fairly beefy video decoding hardware is there for some reason, but I haven't seen mention of any specifics on that. If all this boils down to a simple way to search for youtube videos on your tv, then I'll be severely disappointed. I assume Google has a lot more in store than just that, but the details aren't exactly easy to find at this moment.

Personally, I'm still waiting for a sub-$300 all-in-one device that is basically a DVR and a popcorn hour/networked media device. Something that would fully integrate all forms of media available no matter the source. If it had a browser, that would be fine, but at this point, I don't care one bit about sitting down on my couch to watch youtube videos (nevermind the fact that I already have 4 devices that allow that to happen) I guess I should probably (and really have no choice in the matter) wait until more information is released to see what features end up making it and which ones don't. I guess I'm just disappointed that they didn't just come out of the gate with all the information (price/feature set mainly).

/stupid early morning rant. (too many things in parenthesis)

5/22/2010 5:51:40 AM

I just watched a half hour or so of the developers keynote. Judging from that, it really does look like this is just a way to get youtube to the TV.

I know, it's more than that, APIs, developers, Android apps, etc. But really, if I'm sitting there with my phone and my TV, why am I going to use my phone to tell my google TV to display my twitter feed, when I can simply check twitter directly on my phone? One of the developers kept talking about how the internet didn't need to be "dumbed down" for the TV, that we needed to have full access to it, but if that is the case then why is there need for apps? Just give us a browser and let us go. The answer is because that would be a horrible idea. Of course the web needs to be dumbed down for consumption on TV. Bottom line is, I think there are a handful of sites (youtube, hulu, abc, nbc.com etc) that will work on this thing, and everything else is just cramming content on your TV because it's possible. Not because it's useful or necessary. I really hope I'm wrong, but it looks like the two main features I'm looking for in a new device (DVR, and local networked media) aren't really what this platform is about. Which is really disappointing to me.

5/22/2010 6:25:40 AM

Yay for triple posting!

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last couple of hours (loser) and I just had a total DUH moment. The reason google hasn't released any pricing or feature information is because it's a platform, and not a product. Forgive me for stating the obvious (although it wasn't completely obvious to me just an hour ago) but I now see that it's entirely possible for there to be a device with all the features that I want, but it's not up to google to make that device. Hardware manufacturers are going to have to take the initiative to make these devices and then add the Google TV functionality. So a company like Western Digital could potentially release a device like the WDTV Live, but include Google TV inside it. Or Tivo could include Google TV in their next product.

I'm still not completely sold on the idea that my television actually needs a web browser, but at least I've thought about it more and answered the "what it is, and what it isn't" questions that I had. So basically that still leaves me hoping that some company will eventually release a cheap product that integrates a DVR with network media support. At that point, I suppose Google TV support would be an added bonus, but still, IMO, not something that would be required. I guess at this point, you might start seeing some smaller companies that don't have the money required for developing their own UI start releasing some products that take advantage of the Google TV platform.

/I really need to sleep more; see also: get out more.

5/22/2010 7:29:44 AM

Google TV = Android for TV Set top boxes. It's not an "APP", its a platform.

I get the impression they are intentionally being fuzzy about it, because it really isn't anything in and of itself. It seems to be the same approach of Android -> "Hey Developers and hardware manufacturers, here's a common platform you can all work off of together, and oh yeah we are gonna put in a few ads and track all the information going through it in exchange for the free part".

5/22/2010 1:30:50 PM

Im curious what are some of the possible Apps that would truly make Google TV revolutionary

- Skype would be cool
- Automatically give me additional information based on what I am watching would be fun
- The ability to instantly throw pictures and video from my phone up onto the big screen would be useful

5/22/2010 1:55:22 PM

isnt it a bit premature for GoogleTV to be on the front page of bestbuy.com?

http://www.bestbuy.com
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Electronics+Promotions/Google+TV/pcmcat212200050006.c?id=pcmcat212200050006

5/23/2010 12:40:36 AM

Quote :

"Im curious what are some of the possible Apps that would truly make Google TV revolutionary "

AdBlock?

5/23/2010 8:15:38 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS0la9SmqWA

6/15/2010 8:28:32 PM

Reviews at engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/29/google-tv-review/

Their conclusions:

Quote :

"Although setting up each Google TV device is slightly different, the basic process is the same... Although it's not difficult, it's not simple -- setting up the Logitech Revue involved connecting five wires and stepping through 12-15 menus that took about 30 minutes to complete, including a delightful four-step overscan adjustment. "

Quote :

"At the time of writing, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Hulu have all blocked Google TV from accessing their shows on the web, with Fox reportedly considering a block as well. For better or worse, the first thing people think of when they see a browser on TV is streaming shows from Hulu and the networks for free, and having them blocked turns the entire value proposition of Google TV upside down"

Quote :

"Performance-wise, the browser is serviceable, although it's definitely quite laggy -- don't expect any smooth scrolling here...Google TV feels like an incomplete jumble of good ideas only half-realized, an unoptimized box of possibility that suffers under the weight of its own ambition and seemingly rushed holiday deadline... An integrated DVR, a real program guide, a movable PIP window that opens quickly -- all these things must happen for Google TV to be successful."

Quote :

"Unfortunately, the platform's current drawbacks and the television's middling display specs make it a tough one to recommend even to early adopters... the problem with buying on potential is that it leaves precious little wow factor for you rely on right away. "

10/31/2010 1:09:40 PM

How is this different enough from WebTV to last in the market? I am all for embracing new technology, and trying it out, but this one here has me scratching my head. Maybe they got some things in store to reveal at a later date?

10/31/2010 1:19:42 PM

just like android it will probably take a slow start, but once it gets momentum will be a force to be reckoned with.

10/31/2010 9:25:30 PM

Its rough right now, but it will get a lot of rapid polishing straightaway. This is the future.

10/31/2010 10:03:56 PM

Quote :

"just like android it will probably take a slow start, but once it gets momentum will be a force to be reckoned with."

Actually Android was a solid, market ready phone platform from Day1. Probably because Google BOUGHT Android rather than developing it. It had a healthy content marketplace, and a core set of working functionality that made it usable as a daily use smartphone.

As opposed to the mostly unusable platform that seems to be the Google TV.

11/1/2010 12:33:53 AM

We get it, man

11/1/2010 12:36:06 AM

I hit the pause button from my phone. The picture on the television freezes, and an information pane rises from the bottom. I'm watching "House" on FOX. It's the episode about the Ren Faire dude and his unrequited love. The information pane tells me the episode title is "Knight Fall." Didn't know that!

"There," my friend says, pointing at one of the actors. "That guy right there."

I load up an app called something like What's He Been In?. It runs a facial recognition routine, drawing boxes around each actor's head. I swipe through them, each border highlighted on the screen.

"Him! What's he been in?"

It's the patient, William. I click the box on my phone, and the app thinks. A moment later, the picture tightens onto William's face, and a new pane slides in from the side. It's the IMDb profile of Noah Segan, whose face the app has matched between the frozen frame and the episode's cast list. His filmography is listed.

"Oh, right," I say. "He was the crazy guy in Deadgirl."

"He was the crazy drug addict in Brick, too," says another friend.

We all agree that Google TV is pretty awesome.

11/1/2010 9:01:30 AM

the what's he been in thing is neat, but that's just all it is imo. sort of like oooh look what i can do! but it's not actually that useful/won't be needed much. my info button on my remote will tell me what the episode title is & the pause button will pause it for me. as of right now it doesn't seem worth it to me.

11/1/2010 10:01:43 AM

I happen to be watching an episode of "30 Rock." It's a good show! I should check it out.

I go to add it to my DVR list. As I press the button, Android raises some kind of ADD_DVR intent. My Netflix app is running as a service, sees the intent, and checks whether the show is available on Netflix.

The service grabs hold of the intent and pops up on the display. It lets me know that previous seasons of "30 Rock" are available on disc to add to my Netflix queue, and it's also available to watch right now via Instant Play if I want. There is also an option to add it to my Instant Play queue so I can watch later.

Google TV has just let me know that I don't have to wait around to DVR more episodes of the show I'm currently watching. Life is good.

[Edited on November 1, 2010 at 10:52 AM. Reason : ...]

11/1/2010 10:52:05 AM

^^^, ^

Is this stuff it does today, or is this fictional writing on things you hope it will do?

I can't find much info when searching about how google tv links to your phone or anything like that.

11/1/2010 10:56:45 AM

I'm projecting what will be available within a year.

11/1/2010 11:44:08 AM

Cool, its pretty difficult to actually find a list of things google tv will do, so I wasn't sure.

I hope they do put out stuff like that, it would make it infinitely more attractive. I was thinking about picking up the Sony box, but saw "IR Blaster" and all the major stations blocking it from thier sites and am holding off for now.

I've used an IR Blaster in the past with other setups (Tivo, Myth, etc...) and fuckin hated the lag time and difficulties using it.

I have Dish network's DVR, and the google TV site claims integration with it, but they don't go into any detail of it being over the network, or via an IR blaster, or via the Dish servers. I can't seem to find much detailed information on it other than "Integrates to your dish DVR".

11/1/2010 12:19:20 PM

I happen to be watching an episode of "30 Rock." It's a good show! I should check it out.

I go to add it to my DVR list. As I press the button, Android raises some kind of ADD_DVR intent. My Netflix app is running as a service, sees the intent, and checks whether the show is available on Netflix.

The service is oblivious to the fact that I own each previous season on DVD. God dammit. It's wasting precious ms doing something I don't want it to do, and this is evident because my DVR hasn't started spinning up yet. Cocksuckers. It further annoys me by popping up a Netflix dialog I don't care about right now. Jesus Christ. Oh good, I hit the wrong button and instead of cancelling the operation, now it's in my queue. Fuck. I hope I don't forget to fix that later. Shitballs.

Google TV has just caused me to think harder than a reasonable man should about throwing a $150 remote control at a $1500 television.

11/1/2010 12:28:47 PM

oh shit my narrow use case has been defeated by reductive logic

if only android applications supported things like preferences

if only a software platform could perform more than a single task

11/1/2010 12:40:55 PM

Not defeated, just a different scenario, and for some reason the first thing I thought of.

Just because it has preferences doesn't make it any better. 90% of the time I might want the behavior you describe, but that might not stop me from raging during the 10% of the time it gets it wrong. There's a lot of stuff like that though, and how I feel about it generally comes down to which side of the 90/10 split I fall on at the time. Not that I can think of a better way to handle situations like that...

11/1/2010 1:00:05 PM

By the time it's a mature product, there should be a method for cataloging your collection, regardless of whether it's downloaded or on physical media. Presumably, a mature application could poll this collection data and avoid supplying Netflix recommendations for things the system knows you own.

11/1/2010 1:02:16 PM

Yeah I agree that it's doable. Seems like your most outrageous prediction is being able to watch NBC on it.

11/1/2010 1:06:47 PM

HEYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

11/1/2010 1:11:43 PM

I'll just throw out there that you'll be able to do the exact scenario Frosh has described on another platform in about two weeks.

Just sayin'

11/1/2010 1:15:39 PM

How is it going to talk to my DVR though. Or is the XBox getting DVR capabilities. Or what. Just sayin'.

11/1/2010 1:34:54 PM

also since when is xbox live supporting third-party application development outside of

you know

video games

with a free sdk

[Edited on November 1, 2010 at 1:37 PM. Reason : ///]

11/1/2010 1:37:17 PM

will the TV know when I watch Big Bootylicious Babes part 3 and pop up reminders or Netflix recommendations then, too?

that is, uh, if i watched that...

11/1/2010 2:14:25 PM

It's cool, just wait

11/1/2010 4:01:59 PM

*speculation*
integration with windows phone 7. you've seen the precursor to this with the espn integration on xbox live that just launched and already know the xbox live integration they keep touting for WP7. as awful as espn3 is now, network peering and bad network architecture will kill this from being worthwhile for internet content of any real quality since you don't have the benefit of passing it through a grid a few times for compression optimization

11/2/2010 3:24:52 PM

OK, now I am confused.

This article says that one of the Google TV boxes has already received a software update that fixes some of it's bugs and added some features.

But the way Noen is talking, it seems that the product that was released last week would never be changed at all. But this article seems to imply that things can change, and quite likely for the better.

I'm confused, because Noen is the smartest person on the internet, and knows all about every subject that there is to know about. Now I don't know what to believe.

Maybe I'll just go buy another Xbox 360 and try not to think about things too much.

11/2/2010 8:35:51 PM

^I never said anything of the sort.

All I said was that, in comparison to Android, GoogleTV was OBVIOUSLY rushed to market. Which is 100% true. It's an incomplete product any way you look at it. That's it.

I posted the summary of the findings from the review, and made a 100% true statement in response to wwwebsurfer's inaccurate comparison to Android. Android was an existing company that Google purchased and then packaged.

Quit fucking trolling and derailing threads.

11/2/2010 10:14:23 PM

Quote :

"integration with windows phone 7. you've seen the precursor to this with the espn integration on xbox live that just launched and already know the xbox live integration they keep touting for WP7. as awful as espn3 is now, network peering and bad network architecture will kill this from being worthwhile for internet content of any real quality since you don't have the benefit of passing it through a grid a few times for compression optimization"

Uh... ESPN3 is pretty good, and the new ESPN Networks stuff on TWC is excellent.

11/2/2010 10:35:52 PM

espn 3 has no nfl and really weak ncaa football games. it also buffers EVERYWHERE I try to connect including at work on a 300mbps line. havent seen the new espn stuff on twc, i refuse to purchase anything from them until they recognize their competition

11/2/2010 10:59:10 PM

^uh, wat? If you don't have a supported ISP, there's basically nothing on ESPN3/xbox. Yeah there's no NFL. But NCAA? Really? Almost every single top 25 game is aired weekly.

I watch it every weekend and the only buffering is maybe 2 seconds when first starting a stream. After that, its flawless and usually switches to full HD streaming within the first 10-15 seconds.

But back to GoogleTV here. Anyone bought one yet?

11/3/2010 12:32:57 AM

Im still seriously considering one for the holidays, but have yet to convince myself.

I was planning to buy a blu-ray player already, and this is only a couple hundred more. I have an app I wrote on my phone that lets me control my home automation stuff, and I think it would be cool to put it on the google tv device and run it from there.

I should also mention that I called both Sony and Dish Network to get some of my questions answered. The integration between the Dish DVR and the sony google tv box is via the network, not the IR blaster, and apparently its pretty polished. You dont get the double menus, etc.. that you do with Myth+CableBox+IRBlaster. Its also pretty snappy from what I can tell from the video reviews I am watching.

I havent found a store locally with it set up connected to a dish network box, so I havent been able to play with it in person yet, though I did play with the one at best buy that is just hooked up to the internet and thier TWC cable source.

Was pretty nice interface, and was only disappointed in the speed a couple of times. The controller took some getting used to, but I started to like it after using it for 5-10 minutes.

I was disappointed in the number of shows/episodes it was able to pull down though (I know its limited by what is available to it on the web currently).

I tried searching for Sopranos, True Blood, and The Event. I got about a dozen episodes of sopranos available, no episodes of True Blood, and no episodes of The Event. All of this was expected since HBO is a pay cable station, and the event is being blocked by NBC at the moment. A ton of youtube videos and search results got added to the results list, which was really cool though.



[Edited on November 3, 2010 at 7:33 AM. Reason : .]

11/3/2010 7:24:27 AM

Quote :

"But back to GoogleTV here. Anyone bought one yet?"

I'm buying something around the beginning of the year.

Google TV does more than I really care about at this point & I'd rather wait until its more polished.

I just want something that works quickly & easily for local streaming so its boxee or apple tv for me pending jailbreak.

11/3/2010 9:30:48 PM