How Do They Fit All Those TV Channels Into That Tiny Set Top Box?
from the ahhh,-editing dept
Ok, ok, everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and we're sure this must have just been an embarrassing little mistake that someone really regrets right now, but it's too amusing not to point out on a Friday afternoon as we get ready to close out the week. The Wall Street Journal, which generally has a well-deserved reputation for reporting excellence apparently put a bizarre statement towards the end of their article about SBC's new IPTV set top boxes: "SBC's Internet-TV boxes will be smaller than a typical cable box. Cable boxes need to be big enough to store all channel programming at once, but because Internet-based boxes stream only one channel at a time, they don't need the extra space." As David Card says at the link above, "Isn't that a little like saying: Flat panel sets aren't as good for watching team sports because a CRT has more room to hide all the tiny little players?"
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Not totally wrong
IPTV removes the tuner stuff and the the need for heavy power, among other things, so yes, you probably will end up with a smaller, cooler-running box.
There's also a generational thing: older cable boxes can be fairly large. Digital cable boxes can be absolutely huge. Around here Comcast deploys a gigantic digital box that's 20 inches across and more than a foot deep. It is bigger than my Tivo. It's absurd to expect people to use that thing but the giant box is what they get if they want Comcast.
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IPTV Remotes Will be HUGE!
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G
(Lived with PAL all my life)
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Fitting all those huge players into the CRT.
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Nah.
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