Recently, more and more news about the new Apple TV, from Apple's developer Steve Troughton-Smith broke the HomePod firmware, successively excavated a lot of details about the iPhone 8. However, this great god did not stop the pace of its new product, through Apple TV's tvOS simulator, and there have been new discoveries.
Forced unlocked tvOS can support resolution display up to 3840×2160. Of course, this is not unique to the all-China 4K TV box, but the firmware seems to have revealed support for HDR 10, Dolby Vision, and Hybrid Log-Gamma. The iTunes service is also preparing for 4K HDR content.
The new Apple TV or will support HDR full format. HDR's popularity on TV platforms in these two years is no less than the beginning of 4K. By accommodating more brightness and color information, the dynamic range of the brightness of the video is greatly expanded, leaving more details of dark and bright parts, and the color space presented is closer to the real world observed by human eyes. This is a picture quality revolution after the SDR standard has stagnated more than 50 years.
Apple's shot is definitely full-format support on the hardware. Content streaming service platforms such as Amazon, Netflix, Vudu, Ultra, etc., operate paid HDR content, and they are still increasing their investment. tvOS may accept them to integrate more quality resources.
Apple TV has gone through four generations. From 2006 to the present, the ten-year period is just 10 years after the rapid change of living room entertainment. Although with the diversification of entertainment methods, young consumers have less and less time left in the living room, they still cannot stop the iteration of products such as “TV boxesâ€. In this issue, we will briefly review the development of the "TV Box", which will surely find your memories.
80s: The Yagi Antenna that will rotate
Looking at the era of Journey to the West, I still don't know what the Internet is. I only know who owns the antenna higher, the better the TV signal from someone, and the lower the probability of TV “snowflakeâ€. Sometimes, in order to find a signal, climb the building to turn the antenna 360 degrees, and later remember that an antenna can automatically "find" the signal, do not have to manually rotate.
There was no TV set-top box in the 1980s, terrestrial digital television signals became the only source of all outside information, and the eight-point antenna was the only tool to receive this signal. This is also a technology decentralized from the military field. It was widely used in shortwave communications during World War II, such as radar technology for night fighter aircraft. After the war, it began to be used as a television transmission antenna by various countries.
There are posts on the Internet about the Yagi antenna made by various gods. Although the principle of receiving signals is more complicated, it is not difficult to make by hand. And there are detailed production drawings and steps, you can try a little hands-on ability. The televisions currently being sold are all supported to receive terrestrial digital television signals, so as long as the antenna is made to be connected to the TV, you can watch TV directly. Of course, this approach is too old for a variety of information-rich cities, but it is still very useful in many remote rural areas that do not have Internet access.
The 1990s: The "VCD, DVD" era without seeds
In the 1990s, people’s entertainment and entertainment aspirations began to become more diversified, and movies became the spiritual entertainment activities that ordinary people could afford. It was the VCD that moved movies to ordinary families. The concept of home audio and video was flourishing.
At that time, China's VCD market grew at a rate of several times each year. In 1997, it grew from 600,000 units to 10 million units in just one year, and gave birth to mainland brands such as Aida, Backgammon and Shinco. However, without the protection of intellectual products, piracy and the development of leading enterprises have become difficult.
However, the resolution of the VCD in the 1990s was only 352×240 (NTSC format) or 352×288 (PAL format), and people’s pursuit of television screens was much more than that. VCDs could no longer record higher-standard video programs. The DVD at this time will follow suit.
In 1994, Sony pioneered the multimedia optical disc system and became the first DVD specification. Later Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Pioneer and other companies also flocked to the development of a different specification of the DVD, such as recordable DVD + RW and DVD-R, DVD technology has emerged in three categories, five specifications.
After DVD, the HD DVD single-layer storage capacity jointly developed by Toshiba and NEC reached 15GB. Later, Sony developed a Blu-ray disc broke through the limit of storage capacity, enough to record a 4-hour high resolution video, and even 4K Blu-ray movies have been released. In competing with HD DVD for the next-generation standard optical disc format, Blu-ray discs eventually won, and they were widely used in games and film.
In the late 1990s: "Digital set-top box" with charging mode turned on
In the late 1990s, Radio and Television began to increase the coverage of cable television networks, digital set-top boxes came into being, and began to become the real living room overlord. The behavior of the rooftop satellite dish was strictly prohibited. The pay-to-view TV program has actually started since then. The monthly set-top box cost is about 20-30.
Afterwards, the TV station began to pilot a higher-definition HDTV and set off an upsurge of set-top boxes. People on TV can finally see higher-definition television programs like movie theaters. This improvement in sharpness is more powerful than color and image quality.
At the beginning of the 21st century: Radio & TV's biggest rival "IPTV"
At the beginning of the 21st century, with the rapid development and popularization of the Internet in the world, people started to use the idea of ​​using a TV to access the Internet. Then a "TV set-top box" that can be accessed online was born. It is IPTV. It allows set-top boxes to be used not only for digital television, but also as a bridge between IP networks and televisions, enabling rich and varied programming content on broadband networks to be displayed on televisions via set-top boxes.
IPTV started frantically sweeping the Chinese market around 2012, and dozens of brands flocked to it. In the mixed market, it produced a lot of aliases, “Internet Playerâ€, “Internet HD Playerâ€, and “TV Companionâ€. , "TV boxes", etc. Until now, most of them are TV boxes. Apple TV is also produced in this era background. Of course more are TV boxes based on Android or Linux.
Android, which is open source, allows TV boxes to be connected to wifi to become omnipotent playback tools. The hardware cost is very cheap, and one or two hundred can make traditional TV reborn. The key is not to pay the monthly rent of the set-top box. Once the TV box is connected to the Internet, it will be used once and for all. It can be seen that the content is higher than the digital set-top box. In 2014, the TV box's momentum became unstoppable.
There is no doubt that such a free TV box will certainly make Radio and TV digital set-top boxes take a simmering fire. As the leader of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the direct supervision of all broadcasting and television media in mainland China has political publicity functions in addition to social service functions. Including the Internet eradication of pornography and Internet cultural copyright, the market's competitive awakening is relatively slow. In the copyright market is not mature, and there are a lot of ideological areas into the current bad content, radio and television must be managed.
Therefore, for the brutal growth of digital set-top boxes without legal awareness, radio and television must be managed. Since 2014, several files have been issued to standardize and "block" TV boxes.
If the OTT live broadcast service on the TV box is opened, the revenue of cable and digital TV will definitely suffer a large diversion. Compared to content on video sites and OTT live content, digital set-top boxes have been defeated. Taking away the users means that the advertisers have been snatched away. The television stations propped up by advertisements will greatly reduce their income, and SARFT can only stand by? It cannot be pressured by telecom operators and broadband operators.
Mainstream: Enthusiast's Plaything "HTPC"
In the evolution of the mainstream box, there is also a tributary, which is generally a personal computer (HTPC) used by DIY players to set up a home theater. It is small and can be operated with a remote controller.
The main difference between HTPC and ordinary PC is that it is not the only goal to pursue high performance. It should be the product of balance of appearance, performance, noise, and power consumption. As a home digital audio and video center in the living room, he also needs a nice look.
At present, Intel's seventh-generation cpu has already done the same for H. 265 hard solution, so HTPC does not need to carry a video card. However, if you use HTPC to smoothly render HDR 10 videos, the general computer performance is not enough. It is said that the upgrade of the Windows 10 Creators 1703 version already supports the output of the standard HDR10 data, which will not be too high compared to the hardware requirements for playing HDR video in the future.
As the decoding performance of TV boxes has become more and more powerful, many enthusiasts have turned into a TV box + NAS combination to watch movies.
Conclusion: The trajectory of the “box†in the living room corresponds to the footsteps of people seeking higher quality and more open content, as well as the diversified footprints of pastime entertainment. The seemingly disappearing box, in fact, embarked on an ever-evolving road. The future home entertainment center and home intelligence center may well be a box.
yucheng county huibang electric technology ltd , https://www.hbspeaker.com