Google TV & Sage (a match made in heaven)

[Brent]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

Oh and I didn't mean to be rude by saying you were wrong. I think it is better to be wrong than to don't have opinion :-) It makes the discussion more interesting.

Don't worry - I didn't take it as rude. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole GoogleTV thing - so my mind isn't really made up yet.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by aflat

I'm not sure I get it. They are putting search on your TV. It's still not a DVR, ie you still need a back end to search. It's almost like AppleTV. It's not really a DVR it's just a front end on your TV. I think most of us know how well that took off.

aflat, I don't think you're the only one. This may be something that people have to see for themselves before the light bulb goes off. There seems to be a lot of confusion about what it really is.

GoogleTV isn't anything like Apple TV. The big thing that I think people are missing is that this is an open development platform for the TV. It's unprecedented.

* integrates seamlessly with your existing components. Take the Logitech Google TV companion box. It includes all of the universal remote goodness that Harmony users are accustomed to. So you'll be able to route your HDMI-out from your receiver to the HDMI-in of the GTV Logitech box which then outputs to your HDTV. The Logitech GTV box will then handle harmony like functions, ir-blasting to all of your equipment - controllable from an Android phone, iPhone, iPad, or the included remote over RF or wifi. The GTV experience is then an overlay of the signal sent to the TV. It provides cohesion amongst disparate experiences while only being a keystroke away no matter what media you're consuming.

* aggregates video content and makes it all searchable in one place. Whether it's the native applications shipping with the device (Netflix, Amazon VOD, Youtube), your cable/satellite service, locally stored files, or anywhere on the web. OR, from content provided by an application written for the GTV platform that you have installed. This is where SageTV, MythTV, Boxee, XMBC, Vudu, Hulu (?), etc. come in to play.

* open-source. So it will be available to any number of device manufacturers who choose to embrace the platform. TV, Blu-ray players, game consoles, media tank devices, SageTV extender (?). Wouldn't it be great if the next TV you bought had Google TV built-in and all you had to do was spend $30 in the Android marketplace for the SageTV client? Free up that extender you already own for the bathroom!

* leverages the power of the Android platform. They demoed an example where a user spoke into his Nexus One phone and GTV searched and found a matching video to watch. See something on your smartphone that you'd like to share with the family? Push it from your phone to the GTV for everyone to see. And maybe most impressive, they demoed how you can pass the closed captioning information to the Google Translate API and it would show the closed captioning in whatever language you choose. It also supports the 50,000+ apps available now in the Android marketplace.

* SageTV specific benefit - like barney said, this is going to open up a huge market for them to compete in. It will also automatically take care of many of the things people have been clamoring for native support in Sage (Netflix, etc.). If they chose to ship a version 3 extender built on the Google TV platform, it would be a huge value-add for their customers.

Anyone care to disagree? I think this is going to be bigger than the iPad and I'm surprised that more people aren't seeing the potential.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Then my taSageTV app will already run on it, so they don't have to do anything...

What if I try to use my Nexus One to control taSageTV running on Google TV to control an HD200 being fed into Google TV?

Mind blown.

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by jm9843

Wouldn't it be great if the next TV you bought had Google TV built-in and all you had to do was spend $30 in the Android marketplace for the SageTV client?

Eh, not really. Plus I think the market is small for people going to buy a tv JUST for that feature.

Originally Posted by jm9843

Anyone care to disagree? I think this is going to be bigger than the iPad and I'm surprised that more people aren't seeing the potential.

Which brings up an interesting business standpoint. If more people on a forum of fairly technically proficient people just aren't buying the hype, then how are they going to sell it to the mass public who really doesn't see a need for these things, in my opinion.

Plus I think there is a natural aversion to relying on one company for everything. People have a tendency to not want to throw all their eggs in one basket, which relying on google for everything, who you know is aggregating any piece of data they possibly can on you, would be under your proposal.

I see no good from a consumer standpoint in marrying all your technical needs to one company.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by medwynd

Eh, not really. Plus I think the market is small for people going to buy a tv JUST for that feature.

Of course no one would by a multi-thousand dollar device just for the ability to save $150 on a SageTV extender, or just for GoogleTV for that matter. The point, is that GoogleTV will be open-sourced and any TV manufacturer could include the platform as a feature essentially for free if they want to.

When I said that I thought it would become bigger than the iPad, it was a gross understatement. I see GoogleTV becoming a de facto standard on mid-range to high-end HDTV's and many Blu-ray players. It'll be a secondary feature on a device that becomes the primary one once people hook it up and experience it.

Originally Posted by medwynd

Plus I think there is a natural aversion to relying on one company for everything. People have a tendency to not want to throw all their eggs in one basket, which relying on google for everything, who you know is aggregating any piece of data they possibly can on you, would be under your proposal.

I see no good from a consumer standpoint in marrying all your technical needs to one company.

You may be right about people's aversions to saddling up to one company (with the exception of Apple fans). However, Google is really just providing the platform for everyone else to build upon. For the content providers and solutions developers. They aren't exerting any kind of Draconian control over the whole shebang. They're filling a void while expanding the web in the process. And when the web expands, it means more Google searches and add revenue. But it isn't like they are holding a gun to anyone's head. People like to Google things. Everyone wins (except Apple).

And again, GoogleTV will be open-sourced. Companies including it in their CE devices can modify it any way they see fit to suit their own needs. We've already seen this with custom UI's on Android phones (HTC Sence, Motorola Blur, Sony Ericsson Racheal, etc.), Google search being replaced with Yahoo search on the Motorola Backflip, and devices utilizing Android that have no sign of Google anywhere near them (Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader).

[cncb]

How is this any different than Boxee except with the Google name behind it with a different OS?

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by cncb

How is this any different than Boxee except with the Google name behind it with a different OS?

Right, Boxee/Playon came to mind...

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

Right, Boxee/Playon came to mind...

Except Google is household name (or verb :-) but most people don't know about others. So if you go to Best Buys to buy your next TV and you have a choice between TV with Google, Yahoo and Boxee which one will most people choose?

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

Except Google is household name (or verb :-) but most people don't know about others. So if you go to Best Buys to buy your next TV and you have a choice between TV with Google, Yahoo and Boxee which one will most people choose?

True, it does have the brand recognition. But I am curious as to what people relate it to. If the mass market sees the Google brand on a tv will they think "Why the heck should I care if I can search the web on my tv?"

[bastafidli]

Yes, but remember google is now branching out. They have the fastest growing phone OS and nobody is relating it to search.

[SHS]

GoogleTV boring Z Z Z Z Z Z

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by jm9843

You do realize that the last thing you said was exactly what I was talking about in my op and why I'm excited.

Google is releasing the Google TV sdk in January of '11. There is nothing at that time that would prevent Sage from developing a native SageTV client that would run inside of Google TV. It would be downloadable from the Android marketplace on the TV and/or would still be sold direct to consumers like Sage does now. Furthermore, Google will be open-sourcing the whole Google TV project a few months after the sdk is released. Sage could, in fact, continue to sell their own extenders that ship with and leverage the power of the Google TV platform. For free, at no cost to Sage.

Seriously guys, look into Google TV. There is huge potential for Sage.

P.S. The initial release of Google TV runs on Android 2.1 Eclair. Any app in the Android marketplace that doesn't depend on phone specific features (accelerometer, gps, etc.) will run out of the box on Google TV when the marketplace is released. During the day #2 keynote at Google I/O, they demoed the Android Pandora app running on the platform. Native GoogleTV applications for YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon VOD are confirmed to be available at launch.

Wasn't trying to be rude. It just seems like google wouldn't want sagetv running on their platform because it would make most of what it does pointless. We'd be able to have sage running inside our tv's and wouldn't need extenders any more. Unless your tv wasn't a google one.

If it is as open as they say it will there is potential there. What I want to see is STB's with google os on them so we can use sage to manage all of the content going to and coming from the stb. That would eliminate hd-pvr's and cablecard and all that stuff.

Only time will tell...

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

Yes, but remember google is now branching out. They have the fastest growing phone OS and nobody is relating it to search.

Shrug, it's what I relate it to mostly even though I know they have a presence in other arenas. I think to say nobody is relating it to search isn't accurate.

If you asked most mainstream people I think they would relate it to it. I did an impromptu poll of about 30 people that were over the other day and only 2 knew that they even had a phone presence. Ages varying from 16 - 50, average age about 33.

[panteragstk]

This article was very interesting. Basically Sony is actually taking this very seriously. They are even moving VP's from playstation and VAIO over to TV's so they can actually make a TV function more like a computer. Very interesting.

[Brent]

For those curious about GoogleTV, give this article at GeekTonic a read
GoogleTV Meets Innovation
It's a guest-post by our very own "Stuckless" who was fortunate enough to attend the Google IO Conference.

[jm9843]

Another point about Google TV that few seem to be talking about is that it will effectively become a game console in addition to everything else that it does.

For a clue, look no further than their hiring of Mark DeLoura as "Developer Advocate for games." His credits include: manager of developer relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America, technical director at Ubisoft, and lead engineer at Nintendo.

These next 12 - 18 months are going to be very interesting.

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by jm9843

Another point about Google TV that few seem to be talking about is that it will effectively become a game console in addition to everything else that it does.

Like I said before this doesn't appeal to me. The same reason I don't buy a dvd/tv combo as one unit. I would rather have one well made dedicated device to each task then a bunch of mediocre mass market crap all trying to be everything for everyone and failing at them all.

[stuckless]

Part of the appeal for me, is having a bunch of plugins ready to install, at the touch of button, and having the communication between the TV and other devices, such as your phone, tablet, etc. Really the first thing is something that I know people want, since the new Plugin Repository appears to be a huge hit. Installing the web server has never been easier

The second part, the device to tv communication and vice versa, is the really the innovative part with this. GoogleTV isn't just another STB or crappy media player. If that's all it was, then I'd say yeah, it sucks worse than AppleTV... but this is different.

The device to tv communcation is quite appealing. I find a youtube video on my PC and single click and it's now playing on my TV. Who doesn't want that? Granted, some of these things can be done today, using SageTV, I just think that Google is going make it more main stream.

I think some people would be happy if Google was replaced by "insert your fanboi company here"... but because it's google, it's going to suck. That's too bad, because if you get past Google... what they are doing is truly an innovative approach to web/tv/devices.

Personally I think that SageTV is really missing out, if they don't put a sagetv app in the marketplace. Boxee has just annouced that they are doing it. This isn't necessarily competiion for SageTV, but rather it could be a great symbiotic relationship where sage could offer some true value to the platform.

[medwynd]

Originally Posted by stuckless

GoogleTV isn't just another STB or crappy media player. If that's all it was, then I'd say yeah, it sucks worse than AppleTV... but this is different.

I was referring more to the "game console" mention.

[jm9843]

Originally Posted by medwynd

Like I said before this doesn't appeal to me. The same reason I don't buy a dvd/tv combo as one unit. I would rather have one well made dedicated device to each task then a bunch of mediocre mass market crap all trying to be everything for everyone and failing at them all.

I wasn't addressing you specifically. Rather, this is a topic on Google TV and I was mentioning a facet of the platform that hadn't been brought up yet.

It may not appeal to you, but it will potentially play a roll in the platform achieving a critical mass that ends up changing the television forever.