I love watching movies (that’s no secret), I also love watching movies in style, be it in a theatre or at home. [To know how you should ideally watch your favourite flick in a multiplex read this] At home I have a Tata Sky HD, a Sony LCD TV and a Sony Home Theatre but it looks like all this is not much of a use with limited number of HD channels you get thru your DTH service provider and since whichever movie channels it has, repeats the same set of movies for months together and you are left with no choice than to shut the TV down! Coming back to square one, I get engrossed in my Laptop searching for the content I like watching and movies that are available for viewing on the internet. Am against piracy.
Now imagine, if you were given the choice of watching exactly what you want to watch at whatever time on your same old TV? Isn’t that just too good to be true? You are partially right. With Google TV launching only in a few cities in the US itself (Aug’12) that technology reaching India is a distant dream, as of now.
Integration of Google TV looks like no rocket science to me, it’s just another box in-between my satellite box and TV. But am sure there is some science that it’s taking Google so much time to launch it so slowly. Anyways, point is that I personally feel if you are not a housewife, Indian television has reached a saturation point where at an average there’s a maximum of 1 hour of ‘your kind of stuff’ to watch in a week. Correct me if am wrong. Hence, Google TV sounds like ‘doobte ko tinke ka sahara’.
Benefits of a Google TV at your home:
- You will not need a cable connection/ a Tata Sky or any such equivalent;
- Play as many TV’s as you want with single connection at no extra cost;
- With integrated internet watch your favourite shows on YouTube or post your new status update on Facebook, side by side;
- Nexus 7 tablet comes free with Google TV;
- You can record 8 different programmes on 8 different channels at the same time;
- Benefits of no ads or less intermittent intervals for ads, possible. You get better control;
- You will not be restricted to channels that stream in your country, Channels/ content from across the globe will be at your finger tips;
- Like on your computer, you can choose to play games with your friends across the globe or next to your home, on your TV.
Google TV (and Apple TV) would be a biggest threat to the DTH business (Tatasky, Dish TV, Reliance etc.) And this threat will also be there for individual channels. You would not be forced to see what the media giant forces on to you, you will have multiple channels and sources from which you would get to see what you would like to watch. Many user generated content and videos will help you get clearer and unbiased opinion rather than manipulated news reports from various News Channels, which most of the times show half truth.
Right now the channel price in your DTH pack should be kept a track of, you will be surprised to see how they keep jacking up the channel cost very regularly and many a times without your information!
But don’t get too disappointed, Samsung Smart TV is already here and is rockingly Awesome. Check out the features that it boosts of – click here
The UI (user interface) is excellent, its already available in India, the Social Hub integrates your usual boring TV to the internet, you can do video chat, hand gesture control, face recognition, play videos from the internet and all the other stuff that you do from your Laptop now. The add-on touch and voice remote control device adds to the style quotient.
I particularly like the ‘Renew your TV every year’ feature where a small add on called ‘Smart Evolution’ will upgrade/ transform the TV’s dual core CPU to the faster generation of quad core technology. It’s like my Google Nexus S mobile phone which receives an update from Google as and when there is an upgraded Operating System available and it takes my phone to a next level, I need not exchange my phone for a new one. Until now we all think of buying a new TV when the old one looses it’s shine because technologically a TV lags a generation behind every 6 months. But just like my phone now you need not dispose off this TV to get the latest one. But if you are rich, you might want to move to a better and bigger model, your call! 🙂
Goes without saying that it will have better sharing and connectivity capabilities for your Smartphone and Laptop with the TV. Without the hassles of any wire – inbuilt wireless hub gives a better platform for connectivity or direct streaming from any of your devices at home.
The price of Smart TV’s in India are as much as LCD TV’s, when they were launched. So if your the ‘first mover’ go grab this TV, else wait for it to be adopted and then buy, you will definitely be better off cost wise.