TV's, VCR's, DVD's, Blu-ray, Cable Boxes.... WHAT A MESS!!!!

These are some of the most horribly engineered devices known to man and we fight with them on a daily basis. This area is really ripe for someone to come in and clean things up. How about a TV that can sense it's inputs and switch to them automatically so I can turn on my DVD player and my TV automatically turn itself on and switches to the DVD input. Wouldn't that be great? Something as simple as that would make using these devices so much simpler.

<rant>
I own the current Apple TV product (which is not a TV but rather a streaming media box) and I can simply select it on my iPad, iPhone, or MacBook Pro and it turns itself on and streams the signal to a dumb TV that is turned off and not even using the correct input when I turn it on. Why doesn't my TV turn itself on when I start streaming to it over HDMI port #2 and switch to that input? If my TV was as smart as my Apply TV that woulds be awesome. ;-) If Apple makes a smart TV I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
</rant>

~jr

Better yet how about the politicians stop accepting money from the enormously powerful cable TV lobby group and break that monopoly.

Then broadcasters could simply offer internet streaming subscriptions to their channels. And a la cart pricing for cable packages by the channel.

Imagine just subscribing to the 4 or 5 channels you actually watch and doing it by internet and HTPC.

Those who underestimate Apple do so at their own peril. To most consumers they mean products that work well, and elegantly albeit at a higher price than their competition. They are the benchmark by which everyone in the computer industry is now measured. While I have my beefs with Apple, over bugs, no support that is deep, abandonment of FCP which many people invested thousands of hours and dollars to master and equip, all water under the bridge.

We who do production and editing, need to be able to exploit whatever new technology Apple brings out. Sony needs to help us by making the tools to deliver content to any end device out there, and do so without crashes. Otherwise, if they are only producing consumer software they ought to find a buyer for the high end video tools. To be clear, Adobe leaves no doubt they want our business and are spending vast resources to get it. I love what Vegas Pro can do, and with minimal fuss. But we have to see money put into a more stable product, or at least a commitment to communications that helps us solve these things. With much kudos to John Rolfano and the VASST team that help out daily.

I suppose that they are now going to claim to have invented streamed-TV-on-demand.

geoff

JR: "How about a TV that can sense it's inputs and switch to them automatically so I can turn on my DVD player and my TV automatically turn itself on and switches to the DVD input. Wouldn't that be great?"

My TV does that, and I'm a late-adopter, low-end-purchaser kind of guy. $800 Vizio TV and a $150 Panasonic BluRay player. If the TV and BluRay player are off, and I turn the BR on or open the disc tray, etc., the TV automatically turns on and switches to the BR player input, which comes in on one of the HDMI's. It might be the BR player doing this (turning the TV on) using the CEC (Consumer Electronics Control protocol) over the HDMI cable -- not really sure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI#CEC

All the mfr's have their own nicknames for CEC -- Panasonic calls it Viera Link. However, I've never tested the auto-turn-on thing with any other HDMI input (like a game console) to see if it's the TV doing this by itself when it sees a new signal become active...

"I suppose that they are now going to claim to have invented streamed-TV-on-demand."

Nope. Algore did that.

The internet is a series of tubes.

Meanwhile, putting a disc on my PS3 turns on my TV, changes the input, and starts without me having to do anything more than decide how much salt I want on my popcorn. Yay SONY! (-:

I always wanted a "live in knob adjuster".
JJK

lol @ Geoff, I'm witcha, I posted about this elsewhere awhile ago: As for Apple's history Jobs didn't do it alone, Apple would have never been what it was without Steve Wozniak and essentially they just copied Xerox "PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface,"(pun not intended) with the backing of Mike Markkula.

Apple didn't come up with iTunes, they bought/stole it from SoundJam. Apple ripped off the iPod from Kane Kramer. Based on the iPod "The first concept for an iPhone type device came about in 2000 when Apple worker John Casey sent some concept art around via internal email, he called it the Telipod". Tablet PC's were around long before the iPad. Lastly Jonathan Ive gets all the credit for all the aforementioned products designs. Innovator, pioneer, visionary, poppycock.

I obviously can't argue with his success but I can argue about his getting/taking credit for things undeservedly.

- Ray
Underground Planet

Steve Wozniak

"Post Apple... Wozniak founded a new venture called CL 9, which developed and brought the first programmable universal remote control to market in 1987.."

...Jerry

The mouse was invented by NASA in 1968. The GUI and Networking by the XEROX think tank which then combined all three. Jobs cut the deal with Xerox for all of the stuff which Xerox figured was a three year waste of money.
JJK

First concept for iPad musthave been in 2001. The movie, not the year !

geoff

I remember buying a mouse for my Apple //e back in 1984. It was huge, required a serial port add-in card (included), and i think it was on sale for $119.99 (from $139.99). The total GUI software available was Apple Mouse Paint, which they threw in for free with the mouse.

I upgraded to an Apple //gs with GSOS before Apple could be bothered to release any other GUI software for AppleDOS.

Apocryphally, an IBM executive was interviewed at an Apple booth at a trade show while looking over the new Apple //gs and was reported to say, "Man, if Apple ever markets this thing, we're sunk!"

Geoff, i agree with you there. The idea for thin, pad-style computers has been around for many decades. There were some early attempts too; i can remember Compaq putting out tablet computers in the early 90's that were moderately successful, though they were all 8.5x11-ish size.

It's not so much that Apple innovated the pad, but that they hit the market at the right time when the technology let them build a "wow" device in that format.

I agree with the article that cable bills are getting out of hand. I barely watch any television, myself. Sports has always bored me, and I can get far more accurate news online.

For those few series I watch (perhaps a half dozen per season, give or take), it's far cheaper to simply buy them on Blu-Ray or DVD (preferably the former) when they're released than to carry on paying a monthly cable bill year after year for what amounts to a few hours of viewing a week. It's cheaper, more convenient, more reliable, features no commercials, and superior audio & video quality. It's even faster in that I don't need to wait weeks between episodes, or space my viewing of a full season out over a period of 6-8 months. And I can go back and watch them again whenever I please, rather than being at the mercy of network scheduling and reruns.

Cable isn't so much providing access to TV shows anymore as it is allowing cable companies the privilege of streaming commercials directly into your home, with an occasional TV series break. I'll have no more of it, and I'd welcome some viable alternative.

But Apple is a viable alternative to nothing, IMO. They do indeed "just work"... exactly at what Apple wants them to; and never one iota more. While I suppose it wouldn't matter as much with a TV service (after all, what more is a TV service about than being able to watch something as it first airs?), but their long-standing philosophy of absolute control over what their computer hardware can do, interface with, and what software is available for it, has irked me for so long that I no longer want anything to do with their products.

Anyway, judging from the iTunes Store in Canada, Apple TV will never be anything but a joke up here. They've never seen fit to acquire the online distribution rights for much of the content that's made available in the US Store, and while you can get around that by buying US iTunes gift cards (no credit card billing address requirement with those), I couldn't be bothered with the hassle. And then there's the fact their content isn't 1080p. For me, 720p has never been HD, whatever the standard might say.

The CRTC adds yet another layer of BS to the mix with regards to online distribution in this country; the whole affair is nothing more than a joke.

Apple has always been more of a marketing company than a technology company. But the difference between them and MSFT is that they actually took serious risks in their 'modifications' of existing ideas. I remember seeing the Xerox word processor in early 80s and thinking, "wow". But they never got it off the ground. Then came the Mac. Apple spun it as an invention, and yes, they did seriously refine the technology. And don't get me started on how the iPod used cheap end of life hard drives and won because their software, from end to end, just worked!

Jump to the idea of Apple TV. Let's be clear, they have been trying for years now. It's time they get the interface right, and the technology to work seamlessly, like their other products do. I'd likely end up buying one! But all the ideas to date don't work as well as they should, except maybe Sony's PS????