[Discuss] Ubuntu TV

[tmetro-blu at vl.com (Tom Metro)]

Announced at CES this past week.

http://www.internetnews.com/blog/skerner/ubuntu-bringing-linux-to-your-tv.html

  Ubuntu TV is an effort that pushes the Ubuntu interface (Dash) for
  TV's as a way to get content, including shows, movies and TV
  programming content. There is a whole new site setup for those of us
  not at CES to see what it's all about at: http://www.ubuntu.com/tv

  Linux on TVs is nothing new and shouldn't come as a surprise. If
  you've got a DVR device [or] an 'enhanced' media device (WD, seagate,
  boxee etc..) you've already got a Linux TV. What Ubuntu is doing here
  is associating their brand of Linux (and make no mistake about it,
  Canonical is doing its best to push Ubuntu as a brand) for consumer
  electronics vendors.


Looks nice...
Anyone tried it out? If you want to, here are the install instructions:

How To Install Ubuntu TV From A PPA
http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/how-to-install-ubuntu-tv-from-ppa.html


Ubuntu TV Features and Goals
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-TV-Features-and-Goals-245241.shtml

  Ubuntu TV offers easy integration of online and broadcast services,
  and applications, offering a modern broadcast TV experience, allowing
  users to search, record, buy, rent and playback.

  Users will be able to integrate satellite and cable services into
  Ubuntu TV, providing support for EU and US standard formats, for both
  high definition and standard contents.

  Ubuntu One integration will be provided, and users can install various
  TV optimized apps from the Ubuntu Software Center.

The featureset, such as being built-in to TVs and supporting apps makes
it sound a lot like Google TV.

Ubuntu One integration? As in playing content a user has uploaded to the
cloud? A law suit waiting to happen.

I wondered if this push to the TV was one of the big motivators behind
Canonical's effort to port Ubuntu to ARM CPUs, but an Ubuntu employee I
mentioned this to said it is consistent with Mark Shuttleworth's goal of
"Ubuntu everywhere" and they've included supporting ARM in low-power
data center servers.

What I'm really curious about is how or if they will be supporting MythTV.

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/