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CES 2011: Google TV Sees Delays
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by that reasoning, you would never buy a DVD player, CD player, Playstation, XBox, etc. etc. They are all platforms that allow you to play media that you must purchase. And didn't you already pay for hardware (TV) that you now must purchase content (FiOS) for?
$100 bucks is nothing. It pays for the technology that allow you to accomplish a goal.
TV is a "bag of hurt" for Google
I think Google will keep hammering away at Google TV in an attempt to keep it from failing. Wave was Google's answer to a technology question that nobody asked. Google TV is Google's answer to Apple TV and to internet TV in general. And that magic word, "internet," is why Google thinks they need to succeed with Google TV. Tough sledding.
The three problems that I see with internet TV for Google are:
1) Browsing and other "internet" activities pile unnecessary complexity onto TV viewing.
2) Internet use is mostly private and individual, but big-screen TV viewing is mostly shared and communal.
3) The internet, as a delivery mechanism for TV, is not a marketing feature.
As for #1, if internet complexity plus TV simplicity were a match made in heaven, WebTV would have taken over the world. They didn't, they eventually got bought by Microsoft, then they finally died.
An example of #2 is the family viewing of Wall-E. For the 98 minute runtime, nobody will be allowed to browse, send emails, or tweet on their Google TV. Because Google TV is attached to the biggest, most public screen in the home, there will be contention over its internet activities, contention over the huge keyboard-remote, and family members will fall back to their trusty iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches to do their internet-based activities anyway.
And the "internet" in "internet TV" isn't going to cause a stampede of early, middle, or late adopters. The internet has become just another utility, like power or water. You never see modern suburban homes for sale with "running hot and cold water" and "AC electrical power" listed as features. Consumers don't care whether their shows and movies are delivered over the air, through coaxial cable, or through their internet pipe.
(As an aside, this is why "cloud computing" isn't anything new. Any time you see a story about "cloud computing," just substitute "internet" for "cloud." Boom. Now it makes more sense, and you have a story that could have been written in 1998. But I digress.)
I think Google will keep hammering away at Google TV in an attempt to keep it from failing. Wave was Google's answer to a technology question that nobody asked. Google TV is Google's answer to Apple TV and to internet TV in general. And that magic word, "internet," is why Google thinks they need to succeed with Google TV. Tough sledding.
The three problems that I see with internet TV for Google are:
1) Browsing and other "internet" activities pile unnecessary complexity onto TV viewing.
2) Internet use is mostly private and individual, but big-screen TV viewing is mostly shared and communal.
3) The internet, as a delivery mechanism for TV, is not a marketing feature.
As for #1, if internet complexity plus TV simplicity were a match made in heaven, WebTV would have taken over the world. They didn't, they eventually got bought by Microsoft, then they finally died.
An example of #2 is the family viewing of Wall-E. For the 98 minute runtime, nobody will be allowed to browse, send emails, or tweet on their Google TV. Because Google TV is attached to the biggest, most public screen in the home, there will be contention over its internet activities, contention over the huge keyboard-remote, and family members will fall back to their trusty iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches to do their internet-based activities anyway.
And the "internet" in "internet TV" isn't going to cause a stampede of early, middle, or late adopters. The internet has become just another utility, like power or water. You never see modern suburban homes for sale with "running hot and cold water" and "AC electrical power" listed as features. Consumers don't care whether their shows and movies are delivered over the air, through coaxial cable, or through their internet pipe.
(As an aside, this is why "cloud computing" isn't anything new. Any time you see a story about "cloud computing," just substitute "internet" for "cloud." Boom. Now it makes more sense, and you have a story that could have been written in 1998. But I digress.)
That's why I chose a Mac Mini. The fact is, all this content comes from different places. There isn't a single standard for encoding or transferring video (even broadcast sources are different between OTA, DirecTV, etc, and they are all constrained by a single set of rules: ATSC), so playing it back also is messy.
And that's not even getting into much about DRM and distribution rights.
I'd try the Boxee software. It's free, and it's pretty easy to use. If you like it enough, get the hardware version.
To me, the strongest point of the AppleTV is the cheap on-device TV rentals. That USP isn't on offer in the UK.
C.
Being able to play Internet video on my TV is what makes GoogleTV so "special"? I could do that on my Wii years ago. I could connect a computer to my TV. That's not going to save GoogleTV. If that's their killer app, this ain't going anywhere.
All I want is a box that will play my video_ts library from my NAS and have a decent GUI that is wife-friendly, something that doesn't require an advanced degree to configure and maintain. The closest I have come is a Mac Mini running Plex, but that is insanely expensive for such a limited function, and it still requires a lot of setup knowhow.Well said. You have to compromise with all the current media players.
That's a good point and it will probably be lost on most technology geeks.
Keep in mind, though, that Google is not selling these boxes. I saw a kiosk at Best Buy last week that had 4 google TV devices set up and I don't remember seeing google TV branding anywhere, just big Sony branding. So I'm not sure if the average consumer even knows Google is involved until after they take it home and use it.
I don't know about Sony but Logitech prominently displays "With Google TV" on the front of their box, which could be more than a little confusing to an average shopper I would think.
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i think google tv's "content issue" highlights why media companies love flash so much and why online tv episodes/movies will remain in flash for a long time to come despite what apple may try to push with html5 video. flash allows fox, nbc, abc and cbs to block google tv and similar devices using the flash id. simple as that.
Next Google TV will be like the Apple TV
I think Google has taking another page from Apple and decided the all-in-one pricey, super box isn't where the market is headed. I totally expect to see at the next revision to be scaled down to offer similar capabilities to AppleTV and Boxee. No one is really asking for the Internet on their TV. I've got a PS3 with a browser. I don't use it. Unless you have a keyboard and mouse it's difficult to navigate. Plus the big white background in a dark room makes it painful on my eyes.
Does anyone remember what the 1.0 android phones even looked like? They were designed like blackberries. They were announced at CES and manufacturers were all ready then Apple dropped the iPhone on the public and all of a sudden keypads were out, replaced with touchscreens.
This is what I expect to happen. Version 2 Google TV will be $99 and have youtube as a backend, with netflix and possibly hulu. There will be no local storage, some GoogleTV apps (who needs location service on a STB?) and maybe LAN streaming with metadata reading. The remote will be simplified and it will probably have voice control. You'll rent movies through youtube, watch the free stuff on youtube.
The $300 wonderbox is dead. The only people paying that type of money have Tivo and they aren't giving up just yet.
Also, if you have MKVs then reconsider the AppleTV. I had a lot, but using mkvtools and subler I was able to extract the tracks and place them into a proper container. No transcoding. All the DVDs I had were already ripped in m4v format so it was as simple as dropping them into itunes. I like the interface. I'm coming from a WMC that had one too many updates and PS3. The XMB looks dated compared to this. I was really hoping that Sony would position the PS3 as a STB, but they neglected it for so long that I really can't stand to use it. It's a good game device and blu ray player, but I grew tired of "corrupted data" on most of the videos I tried to play.
I think Google has taking another page from Apple and decided the all-in-one pricey, super box isn't where the market is headed. I totally expect to see at the next revision to be scaled down to offer similar capabilities to AppleTV and Boxee. No one is really asking for the Internet on their TV. I've got a PS3 with a browser. I don't use it. Unless you have a keyboard and mouse it's difficult to navigate. Plus the big white background in a dark room makes it painful on my eyes.
Does anyone remember what the 1.0 android phones even looked like? They were designed like blackberries. They were announced at CES and manufacturers were all ready then Apple dropped the iPhone on the public and all of a sudden keypads were out, replaced with touchscreens.
This is what I expect to happen. Version 2 Google TV will be $99 and have youtube as a backend, with netflix and possibly hulu. There will be no local storage, some GoogleTV apps (who needs location service on a STB?) and maybe LAN streaming with metadata reading. The remote will be simplified and it will probably have voice control. You'll rent movies through youtube, watch the free stuff on youtube.
The $300 wonderbox is dead. The only people paying that type of money have Tivo and they aren't giving up just yet.
Also, if you have MKVs then reconsider the AppleTV. I had a lot, but using mkvtools and subler I was able to extract the tracks and place them into a proper container. No transcoding. All the DVDs I had were already ripped in m4v format so it was as simple as dropping them into itunes. I like the interface. I'm coming from a WMC that had one too many updates and PS3. The XMB looks dated compared to this. I was really hoping that Sony would position the PS3 as a STB, but they neglected it for so long that I really can't stand to use it. It's a good game device and blu ray player, but I grew tired of "corrupted data" on most of the videos I tried to play.
Yes, because Gmail, Reader, Docs, Calendar, and Maps (although I guess that could be considered search) are such huge failures.