Official GOOGLE TV Thread

Google just bitch slapped TiVo and Syabas.

Have to see if they will ever open up enough to allow playback of a users own content.

That's what I want to know. Can I play my own content ??

I don't see this, at least in the case of Syabas. I highly doubt that GoogleTV will allow for the type of local content playback that most of us are looking for. Online content is a great feature. Browsing the web from your tv is overrated (have you ever tried to browse the web on your tv, it is a horrible experience unless you sit smack up against the tv). Access to online content is nice, but for me just secondary to local content playback (being able to play back all my content with full hd audio, snappy UI, etc...). When comparing that to GoogleTV all I can do is yawn...

The fact that the Logitech device has 2 USB ports AND built-in Wireless N leads me to believe that adding a hard drive could be a possibility. Unless they're specifically for the add-on peripherals (which would suck!)

probably not at first, but once the SDK gets released(2011?) things will be interesting. I wouldn't mind having an "Android" type of OS in a TV box. Tons of awesome apps plus use of my own content=

I agree there is that possibility, I just don't see Google bringing a product to the marketplace that will give us all the playback capabilities that PopcornHour, Dune, etc... give us. For now just seems like another box to have attached to our tv

More info here including a press release.

I think Roku should probably be worried, if this thing will play Netflix (per the press release). Devices like the Popbox or Boxee Box (assuming they ever get released) will still have a market for hobbyists who want to watch their own local content. But it sounds like this has the potential to wipe Roku
right off the map.

I agree with Damian, if it doesn't have the ability to play our local content (via USB drive or network) then I don't see many of us here being into it. But let's wait and see!

Actually it just comes down to the hardware they use. If the hardware can do it and they have some kind of app store then it's entirely possible that something can be created that can present a YAMJ/XBMC type front-end to a users home video collection.

If Google allows this it will be the watershed moment and we will start to see more widespread adoption of this technology by regular users.

But it is just more then the front end for me. You can have a great front end but if you can't play a majority of the formats (i.e Blu Ray Rips, mkvs, etc...) with the ability to bitstream HD audio then for me it is just another box. I see no reason why Google partnering with Sony, etc.. would even go this far and expect that if you can play back local content it will be very limited. All assumptions on my side though so maybe they will surprise me.

One thing I've thought about is a web page creating tool that essentially performs the function of scraper for films and TV shows that you've copied or recorded, with the web page populated with the movie or TV show info and the cover picture creating a link to the video. You could browse your internal web pages just like you do the WWW, and play the videos from within the browser. This might make it easy to use something like Google TV or any computer to integrate the web with your own stuff. Perhaps browser plug-ins could be developed for the audio and video decoders, as they are now for popular web-based formats, or the browser could launch an external player.

I have a bad feeling that unless Google shows some loving to the networks, Hulu is going to block the Google TV user agent just like they do with the PS3. So if Hulu blocks the Google TV user agent, what other major content providers does that leave the Google with? Youtube? (Yawn)

I want to like this box but I have a PCH (or Oppo) for local content and an ATV for "HD" content that I can't get from DTV. I have no interest in browsing the web on my TV and less interest in watching ad-supported low-res content on a large screen.

I'm with dbone on this. I really would like one set-top that allows me to:

1. Play media existing on my own LAN.

2. Access streaming "cinema" content from providers like Netflix, Vudu, etc.

3. Access streaming "web TV" content from Hulu, ABC/NBC/CBS, etc. (i.e. supports Adobe Flash).

4. View everything in up to HD (720p, 1080i, 1080p).

5. Does not require a PC-based DLNA/UPnP server (NAS is OK).


So far, the only real practical single-point solution has been an HTPC.

I really do not want to buy multiple set-top boxes (one for Hulu, one for my own media, etc.).

What would be great is if Google TV were ported onto other platforms besides Android ... specifically I'm thinking about Linux. That would allow a lot of the existing set-tops to adopt Google TV and foster more competition.

But I'm unsure if this is in Google's business model. An agnostic platform model might also open up a can of worms with Hulu.

In fact, what does Hulu think about all this? We know they want us to only watch Hulu on a PC. That may be driven by their next move to adopt a pay subscription model (trials are supposed to be running soon). Perhaps Google TV, Boxee, etc. will eventually need to license rights from Hulu? Rupert Murdoch is a greedy capitalist, he ain't in it to give us web TV for free!

Anyways, Google TV is promising. But there's potential for more market segmentation in the near future.

This is the Intel CE4100 chipset specification: http://download.intel.com/design/cel...brf/322572.pdf

From that it appears the graphics chip used is a 'POWERVR* SGX535', otherwise known as an Intel GMA 500. Am I right in thinking that this chip is towards the very low end of what is HD capable? It runs at 200Mhz.!

Not to get too off topic, but I'm curious how capable the video out pipeline needs to be in a set-top? Given that display performance in a TV is fairly fixed (resolution & frame rate) once the video pipe can support HD 1080p, is that not good enough?

In PC video gaming, the constraints are different because the FPS gamers are looking for the highest frame rates they can get.

And to clarify, I'm not including decoding tasks as part of the video out pipe. Most of these media processor SOC's seem to include a separate decoder block.

Perhaps there are user-variable performance parameters I've overlooked (e.g. related to BD playback)?

p.s. Really like your website. Keep up the good work!

I think of Google TV being a really advance form of the Electronic Program Guide.

From the conference it looks like it has a standard EPG but the Search feature unlike the regular "Search" function say in a Program Guide, it searches not only your regular TV but also sites that show video.

I don't think Wiki pages or any of that stuff will come up (when you search), however I do see some advance content maybe like up to date stats on say NFL, NBA, MLB games/players. I do think some text driven sites like IMDB will come up however...

The Setup boxes, once setup it will work like an HTPC sans the internal drives. I would say your external connectivity will be available from day one, I don't see why not.

The interesting thing will be the Android Marketplace which will be available from day one and people that develop apps for it will have some interesting stuff available. I can already see Pandora, Shazam, etc type programs being available just rescaled for a larger screen.

Hopefully this will lite a fire under eHome, they could use Bing inside the Media Center EPG and do much of the same thing.

Interesting... What I don't seem to see from the leaked FCC certification is the tuner or cablecard. So how does it handle live TV?

Is the speculation that they will use the Tivo subscription model?

This post explains what it does and doesn't do... more or less a front-end interface.

http://www.slashgear.com/google-tv-g...icial-2086415/

Doesn't sound to me like you can put this thing in the player category at all. Not what I'm looking for.

CD

I see no reason why apps, perhaps web-based, couldn't be developed to serve up media stored on our LANs as well.

Heck, they could even index the metadata for our stored Movies and TV shows to include in the search results on the homepage.

The existing GoogleTV hardware and OS could easily handle it.

One can dream, right?

Dream it could access files from your server that has an external IP address?

I'm starting to warm to the idea of Google TV (although in truth I've read very little about how they plan to make it actually work.)

I don't think it will be this magical do-it-all-in-one box that everyone around here seems to keep looking for in vein. However, it may become something that is worthy of setting next to another box or two in the cabinet.

A year ago, I never thought I would bother getting programs for a cell phone, now that I've had a smartphone for a time, I am impressed with how many little programs I have become grateful for. Google TV could do this, just as they have done with Android. The big question is how useful this will be when the screen is now bolted to the wall, instead of always by your side in your pants pocket.

As suggested before, the limits will really be based on the hardware capabilities of the box, but also the amount of muscle Google puts behind getting content owners to play nice, and the flexibility of the APIs that Google makes available.

Yeah a HTPC can probably still do all the things that GoogleTV will be able to do, but 1) the framework can be more consistent if all apps are developed/compiled specifically for one piece of hardware; 2) a lot of people out there are not going to set up their own HTPC, but would be interested in GoogleTV.

Being able to load a Netflix app that not only gives you full 10UI to On Demand stuff, but also gives you access to manage your disc queue that would be good. A Hulu app that gives you full 10 UI to your hulu + subscription (assuming you want to pay hulu $10 a month) that would be good too. Full BR support w/ bitstreaming of all audio formats, highly doubtful, but probably not the intended market anyway.

-Suntan

this will bring lots of content all together
for most people this is enough
web+tv

but i don't think it will allow streaming from video files (NAS, local)
Sony is a main supporter of hardware & they need HDCP _everything_

when firmware is open summer'11 -maybe. Till then let's see what happens =)

Is this what the Google TV is about? I heard Google partnered with Logitech... so the Logitech is making the hardware and Google is providing service? Logitech Revue - could anyone find any specs on it?
At least the box looks sexy...
Check it out:

http://blog.logitech.com/2010/06/16/...ith-google-tv/

All the devices that are meant to bring tv and internet together will fail unless they provide a true replacement for cable/satellite, namely, a full line-up of programs found on live tv channels. Google TV doesn't look like it will do that. Running on top of existing cable service is not good enough. Cable/satellite should be eliminated altogether for the additional box to work.

The box doesn't even have to stream everything live; it could just send a file with a show with a several-minute delay to prevent buffering. That would be acceptable. Call it "IPTV-DVR". It should be a hulu-like model but with all the regular news, sports and entertainment shows that hulu doesn't provide. I would buy such a box in a second and so would millions of other people who are stuck with cable/satellite service.