Active-TV and the Extended-PC's role in digital convergence

By Daniel Mann, Fellow, Digital-Home,

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
iApplianceWeb
(02/13/06, 12:54 PM GMT)

Most of us are familiar with using a PC at home or at work. They have become essential to our lives; enabling us to browse the web, sort digital photos, manage finances, play games and much more. Their new role in support of home entertainment has been increasing.

The PC is the accepted tool for legally copying an Audio CD or downloading MP3 to an Apple iPOD or other portable music player. When a significant new use for the PC appears, such as web browsing or legal music copying, many PC users are motivated to buy a new PC or Notebook. This is what the PC industry calls a “replacement cycle”. In the past a replacement cycle could also be triggered by a new Operating System release or large step-up in system performance; but increasingly, users are looking for more than technical advancements.

Much of the PC industry is actively trying to define and determine the role of the PC in support of digital convergence. It is widely believed that a significant role for the PC would drive a new replacement cycle.

To make a PC attractive to a “digital enthusiast” it would have to support their interest in: digital photography, music libraries, video editing and reformatting, and the shift towards digital TV.

iPODs and the future of the Extended-PC

An increasing number of developers believe the solution is some form of Extended-PC. That is a PC which extends its use and value beyond its traditional role. That traditional role is described by the industry as “2-foot” – the user sits 2-foot from the screen and interacts with a keyboard and mouse.

For example, the iPOD, or MP3 player, allows the PC to extend its value. Before an iPOD can be used in, for example a car, it is typically docked with a PC and charged with music.

This arrangement effectively extends the value of a PC for the in-car iPOD user. Similarly, there are emerging products which extend the value of the PC into every room of the house. One example is the Apple AirportExpress, which enables music to be streamed, over a home network, from an Extended-PC to a HiFi system connected to the AirportExpress. The Extended-PC replacement cycle “trigger” is the adoption of wireless home networking, which enables the PC to support useful tasks in rooms in which it is not directly present.

At home, most entertainment time is spent watching TV. The familiar infrared (IR) remote is the input device for the TV. This traditional TV User Interface (UI) and remote combination is described by the industry as “10-foot” – the user sits 10-foot from the screen. To prove the value of an Extended-PC, it must have some widely accepted role in support of TV entertainment.

The PC-to-TV connection. One approach is to directly connect the PC to the living room TV. In support of this, the PC must have a new 10-foot UI. Many software companies now offer this, including the Microsoft Media Center UI. A 10-foot UI is controlled from an IR remote, as there is little desire to use a mouse and keyboard when switching TV channels or accessing entertainment content – movies, music and the like.

Living room PCs are often equipped with TV tuners; leading to their use as video recorders. The TV tuners are usually of the analog type, resulting in noticeably less quality than is available with digital TV. But the approach avoids the monthly service fees usually associated with a video record service provided by a digital Set-Top Box (STB). As a 10-foot-only appliance, the PC is not yet a runaway success.

There are several explanations given for this: PC’s produce more heat and noise than the familiar STB or DVD player, the Windows operating system requires maintenance and start-up time, the traditional PC box does not look good next to the TV. Most significantly, another box and another IR remote are just not wanted.

A PC is appreciated for its 2-foot value. The technology inside the PC is relatively more complex than a traditional entertainment appliance – such as a DVD player. This leads to a 2-foot Bill of Materials (PC BOM) which is higher than a typical 10-foot BOM.

Promoting a solution with a 2-foot BOM where the consumer expects 10-foot BOM price, creates marketing challenges which are new to the PC industry. A PC dedicated to a 10-foot location is typically marketed as a Media Server PC – but there is no widespread consumer understanding or appreciation for what a Media Server is, and why one should want it.

The role of the Hybrid PC 

Another approach is to promote the PC as a hybrid solution; that is, it supports both 10-foot and 2-foot operation. This can work in situations such as a small apartment where 2-foot and 10-foot living occur in the same space; or in a kids’ bedroom, where the PC monitor is also used as a TV display. The Hybrid PC is bought for its understood 2-foot value; but as an extra, it can display a 10-foot UI on a nearby TV. When the PC monitor is not used for TV viewing, a second video-out port is required to send the 10-foot UI to the living room TV.

The Hybrid PC approach is interesting to many, but it still does not satisfy the majority of PC or entertainment appliance users. The conclusion is, extending the PC’s value into the living room is today not best achieved by placing the PC in the living room. This is where the entertainment thin-client provides a solution. In less technical terms, this refers to adding networking support into already understood entertainment appliances, resulting in cooperative communication with an Extended-PC elsewhere in the home network.

Microsoft's thin-client approach. The thin-client approach was somewhat followed by Microsoft with their Extender appliance and by others with their Digital Media Adapters (DMA).  A DMA typically networked to a PC running the Windows XP Home Operating System (OS). The Extender only networks with a PC using the Media Center Edition OS. Other than this and other technical differences, they are much the same – an appliance which has no standalone capability but enables PC-resident content to be presented at the TV. The Extender has the advantage of presenting the same 10-foot UI provided by the PC when directly connected to the TV.

The Extender and DMA have not yet shown DVD-like adoption rates. The explanations given for this are: another box and another IR remote are just not wanted; thin-client capability should be built into an existing appliance; network set-up and bandwidth requirements are excessive; the value of the features enabled by a DMA are not yet understood or appreciated.

Microsoft has responded to the market by building the Extender capability into the new Xbox360. This gives the Xbox360 a dual-role beyond its basic duty of being a gaming platform. For enthusiastic Xbox360 gamers, the Extender capabilities are a useful addition.  But for those not interested in gaming, the box looks like an expensive Extender.

PC as distributed entertainment hub

Both the Media Server PC and Hybrid PC approaches use the PC as a hub for distributing entertainment (or 10-foot) content. Via the PC’s broadband connection or TV tuners, the PC-hub gathers and stores video content for presentation on a connected TV or transfer to a thin-client’s TV.  This approach has potentially several disadvantages.

It requires the caballing normally bringing video reception to the living room STB to be routed to the PC location. Home users and TV service providers don’t like moving or installing cable. Even with the PC in the living room, the second popular complaint is not avoided – if the PC fails for any reason, the familiar TV channels are no longer available. Existing PC users and TV service providers are very concerned about the PC’s ability to sustain basic service to the level of the already familiar STB.

STB and TV. Before describing an approach which extends the PC’s use, without encountering the problems described above, let’s first take a look at what is happening with the living room STB and TV. New TVs have a larger screen area; they are also flatter and with superior resolution.  There are also several important STB trends. First, the STB is connecting with the TV via cable which supports higher signal definition -the higher TV resolution requires a better connection with the STB. Second, disc storage is being integrated into new generation STB. This enables digital video record (DVR) and other services – such as Video on Demand (VOD). Users can time shift programs or skip adverts with their DVR STB. Thirdly, networking capability is being added to the STB.

 There are some advanced technical features being added to the STB, such as Digital Rights Management (DRM) and higher compression video Codec (H.264 for example), but end-users don’t follow or directly respond to these developments.  The addition of networking support enables the STB to be part of a home network. Like a PC or Notebook, the STB connects with the home router. Consequently, like the home Notebook, the STB can access any broadband service connected to the router. All of this is to enable Internet Protocol TV (IP-TV) to be delivered to the STB’s TV.

IP is the language of computer networks. Connecting the STB to the network enables video to be delivered by the new IP-TV path. High quality video requires a lot of network bandwidth; if this is not available then the quality of any live-streamed video would be reduced. However, another form of IP-TV is via Video on Demand (VOD). High quality video can be requested over the network and stored on the STB integrated disc. Later, the video can be watched, with video-pause naturally supported.

Extended-PC and the Hybrid-STB

Within the industry there is talk of future IP-TV STB adoption. However, the dedicated IP-TV STB is likely to suffer the same fate as the DMA. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly clear that IP-TV features must be built into an existing entertainment appliance – with one obvious choice being the conventional broadcast reception STB. This is the trend happening in Europe, where IP-TV and DVB-t (European digital TV) are supported by a Hybrid-STB.

 The Hybrid-STB supports two important trends, the shift from analog TV broadcast to digital TV; and the use of IP-TV for video catch-up services and VOD. These Video on Demand services are not needed to offer alternative access to Hollywood movies. Consumers already have many choices for new Hollywood-type content. The VOD enables access to special interest content – what the business people call long-tail content. Maybe it’s a particular Bollywood movie or fly fishing in Idaho; not many people want to watch each unique choice. But, when all the unique choices are added up, there is a lot of network traffic supporting IP-TV.

With the Hybrid-STB, the end-user has more choices when watching TV. The traditional Electronic Program Guide (EPG) lists the conventional channel choices; some new form of menu system enables selection of content via the IP-TV path. The catch-up service refers to accessing, via IP-TV, a program which was previously broadcast but missed. The term “downloading” a TV show is sometimes used.

Currently, TV users don’t think of downloading a TV show via their TV remote – they think of changing TV channels or maybe time-shifting; the word “downloading” is PC-industry speak. The new TV menu system supports catch-up or VOD (video downloading).  DVD disks typically include a small menu at start-up, so users have some experience of TV menus. However, these new TV User Interfaces (10-foot UI) present two new challenges.

PC and Mac users are familiar with a high-quality User Interface (UI). The PC is fast and incorporates advanced 3D graphics acceleration hardware. Tools for building advanced PC software are widely available and end-users are now accustomed to a high-quality PC UI.

The much less expensive STB does not have comparable processing power or software tools available for construction of a 10-foot UI. This is likely to result in a UI at the TV that is slow, unsophisticated and does not satisfy the end-user. The shift to higher definition TV only compounds the problem, as more resolution requires the support of a more powerful computation engine – not typical in the low-cost STB.

There are many suppliers of STB. There is no standard for advanced menus or software support. This makes it difficult for a VOD service provider to build a single 10-foot UI which will work on every IP-TV STB. The lack of software uniformity and STB CPU engine performance, may be an obstacle to IP-TV growth.

Consider the rapid growth of the web. PC users are very familiar with accessing different web pages. The basic browser interface is the same on every PC and on every web site. This consistency allows a user to be very productive when using the web UI. A similar familiarity, uniformity and productivity is required at the TV -  now we are moving beyond simple TV channel selection. The 10-foot UI is not like a browser UI, used to access information, but is part of the entertainment enjoyment.

IP-TV and the post-linear TV era

Beside the above two challenges, there is a third. The expression “linear TV” is used to describe traditional TV broadcast and channel viewing. The linear expression refers to: TV show – advert – TV show – advert – and so on. 

With the introduction of time shifting, IP-TV choice and interactive TV, we are entering a post-linear TV era. Interactive TV refers to the user changing the course of their viewing by interacting, not with a channel changer, but with menus and other objects appearing on the TV screen.  This is often called “pushing red”, for the red button on the new IR remote and the red circle which appears on the TV screen. Supporting these advanced features places an additional burden on the STB.

TV advertisers are also looking for new ways to reach the audience. The increased use of time-shifting contributes to this, but so does competition from better focused advertising on the web. TV advertising can reestablish its value if it can interact with the TV audience. This requires an IP return-path from the viewer to the advertiser. The hybrid STB enables this, but the advertising community also benefits from the same uniformity of STB interaction which enables a single advertising campaign to reach every TV.

The STB falls short in supporting all the demands now being placed on it. It does a good job with broadcast TV; it can support IP-TV content distribution; it does less well with the complex issues lumped under the heading 10-foot User Interface. As described earlier, the PC-hub is not essential for the distribution of entertainment content. In fact keeping the PC out of the critical-path for content flow addresses many of the criticism leveled at exiting PC industry convergence efforts. When a PC is included in the home network, the Hybrid-STB can access content from the PC as easily as over a broadband connection. If the PC is not turned on, then the STB continues to operate, its just got less places to draw content from.

Hybrid-STB as home PC thin-client

When a Hybrid-STB can also operate as a thin-client to the home PC, then we enable a very interesting way of extending the PC’s value; that is, the PC is used as an invisible computational engine for building an advanced User Interface appearing on the STB’s TV.  The power of the PC and its software tools and infrastructure are required to transition the TV screen from its historical linear-TV role to its new active-TV requirement. The new large high-def TVs require more than simple menus to satisfy their users.

Interesting combinations of computer graphics, video and other content possible with the power of the PC doing the heavy lifting. The Extended-PC combines these materials into IP-Media-TV channels and sends it over the home network to the Hybrid-STB. In less technical terms, an IP-Media-TV channel gives the TV access to the music library stored on the Extended-PC. This includes showing available album cover-art on the TV, or maybe offering an enjoyable music jukebox format .To the PC, the task is to run Media Application software. This application software can change the images, menus or interactivity occurring on any TV in the home network.

TV and the Extended-Notebook

Removing the PC from being the hub for video distribution is the ideal approach for home Notebook PC users - no one was ever going to permanently install video or satellite reception cable into their Notebook.  With the Extended-Notebook approach, they don’t have to.

The Hybrid-STB accesses its own broadcast TV or IP-TV. When the active-TV UI changes, the STB sends update requests over the home wireless network to the Notebook. Invisible to the Notebook user, the Media Application software resident on the notebook is executed and the new UI is send back over the network to the STB.

If the necessary Media Application software is not resident in the Notebook, then via the wireless bridge to the home router, the broadband connection is used to acquire the new software from a server location on the internet. This is very much like browsing the web, and it happens quickly.

The result is the Notebook computer and the thin-client Hybrid-STB become a unifying entertainment ecosystem. The system is a natural development from existing standalone platform operation. The system is robust, low-cost, enables secure access to all forms of content distribution and significantly satisfies the transition from linear-TV to active-TV.

 With growing acceptance of iPODs and entertainment thin-clients such as the Hybrid-STB, the conventional PC’s evolution to the Extended-PC is assured.

Projection of a Media Application UI to a thin-client requires little network bandwidth support, making the approach ideal for the growing Extended-Notebook market. Notebooks are typically used at home to give wireless access to the web.

The job of the Extended-Notebook is to run Media Application software for the TV as well as satisfy the users’ 2-foot requirements – it is very good at both these task. This approach combines the best of the PC industry with the best of the STB industry.

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