ubuntu-tv team mailing list archive

[Thomas Mashos <thomas@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 7:27 AM, Bruno Girin <brunogirin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 03/01/12 14:50, Ian Santopietro wrote:
>>
>>
>> I don't think channels will play a huge bearing on TV in the future.
>> Channels simply don't make any sense anymore to anyone except cable
>> companies. People will want to subscribe to a TV show and watch only the
>> shows they want, rwather than pay for an entire channel and only four or
>> five out of all of the shows each channel offers.
>>
>
> I agree with you that TV on demand of that sort is probably the future. But
> it needs to be as easy to use as today's live TV, where the simplicity of
> switching the box on and then pressing a number on the remote is all you
> have to do. This comes back to the original comment made by Thomas Söderberg
> about his folks finding MythTV difficult to use compared to a TV. The idea
> is to minimise the time and the number of interactions between switching the
> device on and being sat in the sofa watching the show you want.
>
>
>> This sort of behaviour is already present. No one in my house watches live
>> TV anymore. Instead we have the shows we want to watch set up to record, and
>> we watch them after they get recorded. This may be a bit extreme of a case,
>> but I'm pretty sure most people with DVR equipment do this at least a little
>> bit. It makes more sense for these people to simply purchase the show they
>> want, then watch them as new episodes become available, rather than paying
>> for an entire channel.
>>
>
> I don't doubt that this behaviour is already present in a lot of households
> but as technology savvy users, we have to remember that we are by nature
> early adopters of tech so what we find simple and intuitive to use (such as
> Ubuntu) may be bewildering for others.
>
> Anyway, if supporting live TV is a show stopper in terms of complexity, then
> I agree we shouldn't pursue this. But that doesn't preclude thinking hard
> about the user interface to make sure that its interaction model is as
> simple as the live TV interaction model. For example, one aspect of Unity
> that works extremely well and that would make complete sense for a TV is the
> use of the numerical key shortcuts (Super+0-9) to launch an application. By
> re-using that concept to enable users to quickly select a show when they
> first start UbuntuTV can give you a similar interaction model as live TV.
>
>
>> As for interfacing with cable, it wouldn't be very hard to create a simple
>> DVR program and use that for recording from an input feed.
>>
>
> Possibly, I can't comment as I don't know what it would involve but my
> experience is that each time I hear the phrase "it shouldn't be too hard
> to..." in technology, it usually ends up being a major endeavour, which
> obviously doesn't prevent me from saying this on a regular basis :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Bruno
>
>
> --
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-tv
> Post to     : ubuntu-tv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-tv
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp

In response to "As for interfacing with cable, it wouldn't be very
hard to create a simple DVR program and use that for recording from an
input feed.", I disagree with this statement. It needs to be done
right, and really I think we need to use a solution that already
exists. Basic DVR functionality isn't extremely difficult, but it is
more than just recording (don't forget about scheduling, show
tracking, conflict resolution, space management, etc).

-- 
Thomas Mashos