I am aware of Smart-TVs. For those of us who have stayed in a hotel which provide these in your room, its a TV that has Internet and other neat things built-into the TV's Menu system, Smart-TVs in the consumer space come with WiFi built-in.
But, I bought a TV that, although it has a menu, it is NOT labeled as a Smart-TV and does NOT have a built-in WiFi adapter. So, what prompted me to purchase was that I could somehow make use of the ethernet port to add "smarts" to the TV once I got it on my network.
Here the problem
Many of us who have installed Rack mount servers know that servers built for racks can/do have an "extra" RJ45 port on its back. That extra port is for the manufacturer's service technician, should they be making a service call to access the hardware in the system. Well, guess what!!! This new TV has that port ONLY for the service-tech's use. ... not for mere mortals like the rest of us. I spent the better part of 3 hours in research and with the manufacturer's support tech to understand much more about how this TV differs from the Smart-TV. The information I received, now, will allow me to ask more intelligent questions when I do purchase a TV to address my future broadcast expectations
But, this leads to what is really going on in the world of TVs and whether Puppy has a chance in delivering technology that works in a TV.
I am asking the community for their ideas in this area and for their contributions. Your contributions can be as little or as much as you can for our understanding that may lead to production of a PET or distro that can work in/on a TV to provide "Smarts" to a TV which has HDMI and cable connections at a minimum, while if it also has Wifi and ethernet port (not a technician port), and USB, then, Puppy will take advantage of managing multimedia streams in concert with the TV.
In review, there are really 2 differing aspects to using the TV from a PC.
- Use it as a monitor for the the PC (primitive approach in today's world) - this ignores the TV aspect
- Manage the current TV deliverable while the PC is a recorder/streamer/Internet conduit/ for Smart services adding to the already existing services on the TV - this may mean replacing TV firmware with a Puppy distro. In this manner, Puppy controls all of what shows on the screen. That is remote control management, Picture-in-picture in picture (that is not a typo), channel management, Internet access and traditional desktop applications.
Benefit to Puppy community and membership
Think of how many TVs with HDMI there are in the world? What if we had something that ....
Because I am so new at looking at this, I am appealing to this community for their inputs, understanding, and suggestions/requests for how to make a TV Puppy Smart or how to make a PC TV Smart.
So lets start with asking the obvious
- What characters a Smart TV?
- What is the processor(s) in the Smart TVs?
- What is the OSes (firmware) in the Smart TVs?
What would you do or what should we do?