The Death of a Set-Top Box

It looks looks like TV sets have won back the purity. Set-top boxes will be gone soon. They were, after all, a temporary solution. Set-tops were application platforms, with connectivity to multiple feed interfaces: satellite, cable, terrestrial. They had storage and above all were hosting service providers' applications. Televisions were just simple displays.

But now televisions are more and more powerful computers, with multiple connectivity options and power to run a number of applications. STBs are not needed any longer. This is becoming clearly visible with the recent arrival of the Android TV operating system, embraced by lead TV manufacturers like Sony and Philips.

When my Linux - based satellite tuner was dying and my TV just stopped working I visited a local electronics store where - to my surprise - I've found a number of new generation TV sets. They are all already 4K / UltraHD panels with "smart" functions, but what has hit me the most were two developments:

1. Many of them run the standard Android OS with the pure Google Play AppStore.
2. They have multiple tuners already installed, including satellite, cable and digital terrestrial. They also have slots for CAM conditional access modules with smart cards and of course they have Ethernet. Meaning a STB is no longer necessary. I can connect dish antennas (for SAT), yagi antennas (for terrestrial) and all other cables hanging off my wall directly to the TV.

So finally there is a single remote, controlling all the functions and all content sources. And the platform is open and extensible. Wonder why it took so long for TV makers to figure this out. Interestingly the service providers have not figured out this change yet, as many of them do not offer CAM modules, pushing their own STBs which include a second remote, so you have to juggle the matrix of TV inputs, volume control on one and programming on the other.

Android TV also looks promising although it still has many signs of immaturity. Just a subset of apps is available for this platform (but they are easy to port from their phone / tablet versions). Google has now a tremendous chance to win the living room, but it has to push and execute. make the platform the most polished and stable. TV manufacturers have also think of their products as powerful computers. The lags have to go as well as the platforms have to be even more open for apps.

Speaking of processors powering the new TV sets. What is the point of driving a 65" screen with a processor that drives a phone? It consumes north of 100W anyway, so it makes no sense saving on a power efficient chip. A TV should be at least as powerful as a mid range Mac Mini (it is not today). 10 watts more does not make any difference while the smoothness of the UI and multitasking does.

Anyway I feel very happy now with most of the cable mess gone and with a single RC unit on the table. It is like smart phones reduced the number of gadgets (music players, personal GPS navigators, compact cameras) you carry, a smart TV will reduce the number of cables, remotes and equipment to a minimum. Something that is really desired by consumers. At the same time a TV becomes THE application platform in a living room. The more open it is the more it wins.