In comp.lang.java.advocacy, Roedy Green
<see_website@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote
on Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:24:58 GMT
<9ebfb31t4sj5ighjjk0gn8enelfphh8bu7@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
> This is a general question about digital TV and HDTV.
> Is there any overlap between computer protocols
> and TV protocols?
A modern HD-capable TV is in fact a computer (a rather
limited one, of course), and therefore there is some
overlap. I do not know the details of the HD protocols,
though.
> Will the two appliances merge?
Not sure if they'll merge; however, they will smear.
A large projection unit will still be desirable, with the
traditional remote; however, the desktop will also be used
to view one's favorite shows as one is working on other
things such as office issues, and the mobile handset could
be used as a TV show repository as well.
> What sorts of interfaces does a TV
> offer to accept an input signal or to control the TV?
Some extremely old sets used ultrasound; most modern
sets use infrared for remoting. There is a standard for
infrared, but I do not know the details.
> I was wondering about how you might use Java to make
> a truly convenient TV, one that recorded shows for
> you, filtered out junk, let you channel surf
> categorising shows by priority, and noting shows for
> future consideration or exclusion. Java was originally
> designed for a TV set top box.
Java would not be unreasonable for a GUI/control structure
related to TV shows. Of course, "recording shows" may be
a bit of a misnomer nowadays; the relevant issue is more
along the lines of data transfer of a 30-minute [*] movie.
As for "junk", some of that junk may not be filterable
(commercials, after all, are what advertisers pay the
TV broadcaster to have you watch them [+] !), and others
may differ as to exactly what "junk TV" is (I like pr0n,
you like sci-fi, he likes game shows, she likes emotional
"weepys", they like action flicks). Prioritized channel
surfing would be nice, though again if the system is
set up for information transfer as opposed to timeslot
broadcasting, the problem may devolve to a search engine
("GoogleTV"?).
As for "noting shows" ... that's a filtration/memory issue.
I want, say, _Star Trek_, that gets into my inclusion
filter set, or perhaps is positively scored in a scorefile
(much like Usenet). If I hate _Hi, Honey I'm Home_
[!], that goes into an exclusion set or gets a negative
scoring. There might be some issues as to whether one will
get entries such as the original voyages with Shatner's
Captain Kirk, or Star Trek: Voyager, with Kate Mulgrew as
Captain Janway. But both contain the word "Star Trek".
Of course one might envision additional qualifiers to
filter one or the other, depending on whether one likes
a Horatio Hornblower-type male character as a captain of
a star****p, or a strong, attractive woman thrust into a
situation where her spacecraft is very far from home.
A more comprehensive metadata (a la IMDB) system would
allow for taping of all shows including William Shatner,
which will include Airplane 2 and the T. J. Hooker series
-- and, perhaps, Priceline commercials, depending on how
weird one wants this to get.
Youtube (now Google Video) is also possible -- one might
characterize this as "Open Cam Night" -- as a TV source.
There's a few others out there as well attempting to
fill this nich, but I'd have to, erm, Google for them.
Traditional TV (as in three networks and rabbit ears)
is dying, and I'm not entirely sure what it's going to be
replaced with yet; we live in interesting times.
[*] commercials will cut the actual content to 20-23 minutes.
[+] The Austrians, at one point, had an interesting solution
to the problem: place all the commercials at the end, instead
of sprinkling them throughout the content.
[!] Actually, I rather liked the show, but it didn't last long --
although it did last longer than "Quark", which had a more
erudite humor.
--
#191, ewill3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
memory has to be one of the most UNconventional
architectures I've seen in a computer system.
--
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