The problem with your hardware list is how you define the purpose of this device. For me (and Apple) it is for streaming, and perhaps in the future (hopefully!) other apps will run on it, but the content from them will be streamed, a la this big migration of everything to the cloud.
That's the Koolaid. People don't buy in volume because some guy(s) somewhere decides to define the purpose of a device. They buy devices that let's them do what they want. Ford could say that a given car's purpose is for driving up steep hillsides on dirt roads, but that significantly reduces the appeal of that car except to people who want a car locked into that specific utility.
I appreciate the concept that the current
TV is "an ipod for your TV", and thus the purpose of the device comes with all the use limitations therein. BUT- and this is key- we've had that for 4 years now. It's not selling that well. More of the same probably won't sell that well either.
Companies either give the market what it wants or they try to make the market want it they way they want to give it. Individuals are not the market. So you appreciating the purpose of the device such that other features that don't interest you personally is not the market for a next-gen
TV unless everyone else feels exactly as you do.
The idea of a next-gen
TV I put forth (including the hardware concepts) gives you exactly what you seem to want, as well as giving lots of other people an easily-accessible way to get what they want too. That sells the next-gen
TV to many more people than just that feel as you do about the hardware limitations approximating "as is".
This device isn't for recording. The item you watched is already recorded and stored somewhere else (perhaps your desktop), so the DVR functionality will never be there, and shouldn't be.
Same with blu-ray - optical media has an end of life hopefully soon. In the new digital age, physical (mobile) media makes no sense. It's just a next generation floppy, and with proper bandwidth and connections it's completely unnecessary - it's really a way for enforce DRM, which is all about profit protection.
I understand (both) quite well. But there are an awful lot of people that want those features- even if you and I don't want them. Give them to those people and maybe they'll choose to buy an
TV and a DVR or BD add-on instead of buying a DVR or BD player and NOT buying an
TV.
As to the merits of BD being dead soon, dead-end technology, etc, sales of BDs- especially sales of BDs vs sales of the same content via iTunes doesn't seem to show that everyone feels that way. At some point, we'll have holodecks instead of TVs, but I don't want the option of TVs to go away until it's replacement is completely ready to "wow" in the present.
Believe me, I don't love the idea of re-buying my movies again in BD-format. But I don't love the idea of re-buying them in iTunes media either. In general, I'm noticing though that I can buy/rent the BD format for less than it cost to buy/rent the same movie via iTunes. And the BD format is 1080p "wow", while the iTunes format is handicapped 720p or less.
Also consider that the market for this box is a global one. On the global stage, there are many potential buyers who can't rent/buy a single movie or TV show from iTunes. So, if the next-gen can only play iTunes content, a lot of those buyers can't find much utility for it. Give them add-on options though, and they too might choose to buy it plus their own desired add-on options, instead of a BD player, DVR, etc. (and NOT buying Apple's box). Again, my feedback is about building something that can really sell well.
I look forward to that future when we can all enjoy "wow" streamed from the cloud. But there is this time between now and then when I would like as much "wow" as possible. IMO, Apple's (TV) way so far is too closed (hardware & software) to be the better way forward. However, it's easy enough to fix in a next-gen device that borrows some old ideas from what makes Mac's so appealing (user flexibility through add-on hardware and software to give their own Mac the functionality they desire for themselves... without forcing individual desires on every other Mac owner).
I love your software ideas, and I would support all of them. I have a question about running iOS which seems to be the popular prediction for the device's OS - how would you control it? I don't really understand the interface paradigm. I understand a remote to control it, but how is it going to know when you touch to click versus touch to select - it needs a modified pointer or something, right? Which goes against the touch interface.
That part is a mess. Those that don't think such things through will say things like "I'll control it with my iPhone/Touch/iPad", but that won't work well for mainstream use. For example, in a family setting, you couldn't take the "good remote" with you when you leave the home; else, you render the
TV useless. And Touch is not really touch-controlled, as you must look at the screen to see what you are touching. Etc.
Thus, a next-gen
TV probably has dedicated Apps with controls that are more passive (like "play this video") vs. active (like click joystick controls 20 times a minute to control a character in a game). The former would still yield enormous added functionality from third parties. The latter probably would have you spending the vast majority of the time looking at the little screen on the iDevice rather than the big screen.
The controller is also probably NOT an existing iDevice, as that seems to only work for single people living alone (so taking it with you has no effect on no one left behind). So while iDevices could still have apps to act as a controller for the next-gen
TV, it probably has to come with its own dedicated controller too that makes no sense to take along when anyone leaves the house.
Still, dedicated apps created by third parties would make the next-gen
TV capable of fulfilling many- if not most- of the software wishes of potential buyers, much like open hardware (even if it was just a few standard USB ports) could offer the options for third parties to fulfill individual hardware wishes).
Bottom line: nothing you as an individual gets forced on you with the open hardware or software ideas, but they (everyone else) would at least have ways to make
their TV cover whatever wants
they want covered. Win: Win.
Anything else is trying to force "they" to like it like Apple wants to serve it, and/or like "you"(/I) like it for our own purposes. End result: a product that sells at less volume than its fullest potential.
