[mythtv-users] Ubuntu TV

[Mike Perkins]

On 11/01/12 12:19, Ryan Patterson wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:39 PM, Ronald Frazier<ron at ronfrazier.net>  wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 5:22 PM, Brian J. Murrell<brian at interlinx.bc.ca>  wrote:
>>> Ahhh.  So don't call it a TV then.
>>
>> Well, then it's a good thing that in his entire post, he didn't ONCE
>> use the word TV, except in the names "Ubuntu TV" and "ReplayTV". You
>> did notice that, right?
>
> But he did respond in a thread that is explicitly discussing "Ubuntu
> TV", which is designed to run on. . . TV's.  Also very important, HTPC
> means "Home Theater Personal Computer".  That implies that the visual
> interface for the HTPC is a large theater like screen.  Maybe even a
> TV that you usually sit ten+ feet away from.  The counter-top device
> that sits in the kitchen that he later described is not a HTPC.
>
> I have to agree, touchscreen functionality for a home theater TV user
> interface is a horrible idea.  A tablet or counter-top user interface
> that can access content served from mythbackend/ubuntuTV-server on the
> other hand, those could work with a touchscreen interface very well.
>
You obviously didn't see the news item on the BBC News last night... where they 
demonstrated, at some tech fair (I can't remember which one or where) an 
Internet-connected TV from one of the big far-east manufacturers. This was shown 
being operated at the proverbial ten foot distance by a demonstrator holding 
a... tablet remote control.

It looks like remote controls are all going to converge into a single device 
which can control everything in your living/other room, also performing the 
search/selection functions along the way. That way you'd have the schedule 
information at your fingertips rather than a great distance away.

Ideally, of course, these manufacturers want to converge all your entertainment 
on one display device (theirs), with 'content' accessable only from their own 
portals over the Internet. Do we wonder why Apple and Google (amongst others) 
are looking closely at this market?

-- 

Mike Perkins