There's no doubt about it, Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), such as
the TiVo, have changed the
way many people watch and enjoy TV, but there are many more people who
simply don't understand the advantages of current "smart" TV recording
devices.
How could Apple redo the PVR and make it as successful as the
iPod?
There have always been rumors of Apple reentering the PDA market or
trying to compete with Microsoft's Tablet PC. But as some people have
pointed out, the Tablet PC is still new and really isn't a viable
replacement for a laptop (despite Microsoft's advertising hype), and
the PDA market seems to be shrinking more and more each quarter as new
PDA-like mobile phones are released.
But the PVR market, like the MP3 player market before the iPod, is
still new and dominated only by the tech savvy people of the world. An
Apple branded set-top PVR, if done right, could create an entire new
section of the "Digital Hub" and compete head on with not only the
TiVo, but also the Microsoft "Media Center" PC, and even the Xbox.
Standards
With the release of Mac OS X, Apple is strongly embracing open
standards such as Bluetooth, Rendezvous, 802.11b (WiFi), USB, MPEG 4,
MP3, SyncML, vCards, vCals, OpenGL, and FireWire. This allows devices
of all kinds to communicate with computers in various ways; the only
limiting factor is software and driver availability. Here's some real
world examples of how Apple and their products use standards:
- The iPod uses two popular standards, Apple's own FireWire and the
popular MP3 music format.
- With the release of Jaguar, Mac OS X is Bluetooth-ready, allowing
both synchronization of mobile phone data (using the SyncML standard)
with data stored on the computer and Mac-to-Mobile Internet
access.
- AirPort, based on the 802.11b standard, made wireless Internet a
popular network connection for businesses and home users. Before
802.11b was popular, many users were forced to use nonstandard methods
such as phoneline networking to let machines communicate in places
where long ethernet cables were not an option.
- With Rendezvous, machines and devices can talk to each other and
configure themselves automatically. Applications like iTunes and iChat
can talk to each other and share data instantly. All of the major
printer manufacturers are supporting Rendezvous in their future network
printers, making difficult network printer setup a thing of the
past.
- With FireWire and USB, devices such as printers, scanners, game
controllers, and data storage drives can work right out of the box
without making you worry about your computer having the right
ports.
- MPEG-4, as introduced to the world in QuickTime 6, eliminates the
need for proprietary media players and will enable people and devices,
no matter which platform or OS, to share video and audio.
- iCal can publish in the standard vCal format, so any calendar
application can view and modify the calendar data and still be able to
send it back to its originating application.
- vCards, as generated by Address Book, allow individual and business
contact information to be shared digitally, without the need for paper
business cards that can easily get lost. Like the other standards, the
vCard is not assigned to just one single Address Book program, allowing
anybody on any devices and platform to view, modify, and share the
contact data.
- OpenGL is a big part of Mac OS X, used in just about every screen
saver, as well as the Quartz Extreme rendering process. It's also an
important base for every major 3D game on the Mac.
With the above standards and Apple's Unix-based Mac OS X platform,
all the pieces of the Apple PVR puzzle are there - they just need to be
put together. For the product to be successful, Apple would need to
make the machine better than the TiVo.
Seems impossible? With Apple's innovation and standards support, it
could easily be done.
Putting the Puzzle Together
First, Apple would need a set-top box. To start, there are two
obvious needs: A processor and a hard drive. A G4 processor (say 500
MHz) would probably work nicely for most PVR tasks, and any standard
hard drive with at least 20 GB capacity would do. To add to that, we'd
need some type of video input/output. Regular RCA-style cables for
input and output would function for the majority of users.
Now we need a way for the PVR to talk to the device it's controlling
- USB ports, anyone? With USB, Apple could create an "IR Blaster"
device to manually change channels on a cable or satellite receiver or
allow a USB-to-USB connection to current Digital Cable and Satellite
receivers (a direct connection would provide greater channel-changing
accuracy than an IR blaster, which is subject to interference).
What about channel listings and schedules? How about a vCal file!
How do we get the vCal file to the set-top box? Do we need to worry
about having a phone line or ethernet cable near the TV? No, we have
AirPort to give us on-demand Internet connectivity!
What about the remote control (you know, the thing every TV watcher
worships)? Do we need to stick with old-fashioned Infrared line-of-site
remote controllers to control this set-top box? No! Simply adding
Bluetooth to the remote and set-top box would give us a good way to
control the machine from your recliner without having to aim at the
PVR.
The last thing is the operating system. Guess what? Because of the
choice to use standards in the device, Mac OS X would be very easy
to customize to run an Apple PVR. The only major changes would need to
be to the GUI. Aqua would have to go to make room for a lower
resolution, TV friendly, onscreen navigational system.
Simply add the QuickTime 6 guts on top of everything, and we have
our media recording and playback system. With MPEG-4's compression and
scalability, the device could hold much more audio and video than
competing PVRs that use larger file formats (such as MPEG-2), while
still having great audio and video quality.
Controlling the Device
Next, we would need a recording scheduling system. What if iCal let
you view and schedule TV listings on your Mac and then sync this up to
the set-top box via iSync and Rendezvous? You could use your big
computer screen and mouse/keyboard for most of the scheduling process,
eliminating the need to strain your eyes (and nerves) navigating
channels and program information on a low-resolution TV screen.
Rendezvous with iApps
Sound good enough yet? We know Apple will soon be releasing a new
Rendezvous-ready version of iTunes to "stream" your music to other
network user's playlists (without the need to copy the actual audio
files, to keep the RIAA happy).
What if the set-top box could pick up your iTunes playlist and
stream the music through your TV and stereo, the same way other network
Macs can? You would never have to worry about finding the right CD
again or changing the CDs every time you want a different song on a
different album or by a different artist. You'd have your favorite
music on your custom playlists going through your home theater
speakers, without the need to run a long wire from your headphone port
to your receiver!
What if iPhoto and iMovie were Rendezvous-ready? You could broadcast
your wedding photos (edited and organized in iPhoto) or your son's
first steps video (edited in iMovie) directly to your TV. There
wouldn't be a need to waste time and money on DVDs for something you
may only want to view on the TV once.
Gaming Console?
Say we added a FireWire port and a 3D accelerator chip to the
set-top box. And what if we used the FireWire port to connect a CD
drive, and either the USB ports or Bluetooth to support joysticks or
other game controllers? Can you say, Xbox killer?
With the Mac OS X core and OpenGL, it'd be fairly easy to port any
Mac OS X game to the machine, and it would create new business for
game porting houses like Aspyr and Mac-only game developers like
Pangea.
Also, if Apple included authoring tools for the device with it's
free Developer Tools package, anybody could create their own games for
the machine, letting a world of wannabe console game makers have a
chance to have their talent noticed, the same way regular software
developers have their work noticed on sites like Version Tracker. This
is something that no other game console allows due to steep learning
curves, expensive development systems and tools, and licensing
fees.
Conclusion
The point of this article is not to speculate on what devices Apple
may or may not be creating, but to point out what Apple could do at any
time with low R & D costs and little effort, thanks to their
support of open standards, and their Unix based OS. But with a little
of Apple's famous innovation (and marketing), a device such as this
could be successful with both geeks and the average consumer.
For more musings on this subject, see TiVo Points to Apple's Next
Market.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
