Shocking to hear Milwaukee is on the target markets. TWC there couldn't even get cable card to work on my parents' Sammy HLR.
Of course, this is total crap. This is yet another way for the cable co's to lock up the EPG in to whatever ugly, clunky interface they want. At least CableCard (in spirit, not practice) allowed the consumer's device to drive the EPG. It sounds like OCAP leaves the entire experience in the hands of the company least likely to differentiate it - the cable crooks. The cable providers have no incentive to deliver a rich, functional, well-designed EPG. They do, however, have plenty of motivation to sell ADVERTISING on that space and ensure that every time you turn on your fancy new HDTV, you're tuned to one of their fantastic VOD preview channels.
CE manufacturers and STB innovators (like TiVo, the people at Myth, even M$ with MCE) have an incentive to make the EPG as consumer-friendly and functional as can be. This allows them to differentiate their TV or STB or HTPC in the marketplace and provides them competitive advantage. Since the cable providers have no competition, they have no interest in serving the consumer by differentiating their service. Their motivation is to strictly milk the maximum revenue possible off of their monopoly position.
I, for one, hope D* and/or the IPTV providers figure this out quickly and consent to allowing for innovation in this space. Allow people to roll their own HTPC's with your tuners. Roll out add-on's for Vista or AppleTV that make sense. Cut deals with TiVo, Myth, or Microsoft to get your content on these consumer driven devices. I have no doubt Apple's design shop could create something far more compelling than anyone at Time Warner or Comcast. Hell, D*'s already proving it is hard to replicate what TiVo did for them on their own.
Content providers please note: STAY OUT OF THE USER INTERFACE BUSINESS - YOU SUCK! Leave the heavy lifting on the consumer end to the people fit (and motivated) to do it. Just keep charging us up the wazoo for the and the content you provide and the pipe that delivers it, not the EPG/DVR we use to watch it.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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Shocking to hear Milwaukee is on the target markets. TWC there couldn't even get cable card to work on my parents' Sammy HLR.
Of course, this is total crap. This is yet another way for the cable co's to lock up the EPG in to whatever ugly, clunky interface they want. At least CableCard (in spirit, not practice) allowed the consumer's device to drive the EPG. It sounds like OCAP leaves the entire experience in the hands of the company least likely to differentiate it - the cable crooks. The cable providers have no incentive to deliver a rich, functional, well-designed EPG. They do, however, have plenty of motivation to sell ADVERTISING on that space and ensure that every time you turn on your fancy new HDTV, you're tuned to one of their fantastic VOD preview channels.
CE manufacturers and STB innovators (like TiVo, the people at Myth, even M$ with MCE) have an incentive to make the EPG as consumer-friendly and functional as can be. This allows them to differentiate their TV or STB or HTPC in the marketplace and provides them competitive advantage. Since the cable providers have no competition, they have no interest in serving the consumer by differentiating their service. Their motivation is to strictly milk the maximum revenue possible off of their monopoly position.
I, for one, hope D* and/or the IPTV providers figure this out quickly and consent to allowing for innovation in this space. Allow people to roll their own HTPC's with your tuners. Roll out add-on's for Vista or AppleTV that make sense. Cut deals with TiVo, Myth, or Microsoft to get your content on these consumer driven devices. I have no doubt Apple's design shop could create something far more compelling than anyone at Time Warner or Comcast. Hell, D*'s already proving it is hard to replicate what TiVo did for them on their own.
Content providers please note: STAY OUT OF THE USER INTERFACE BUSINESS - YOU SUCK! Leave the heavy lifting on the consumer end to the people fit (and motivated) to do it. Just keep charging us up the wazoo for the and the content you provide and the pipe that delivers it, not the EPG/DVR we use to watch it.