Home Analysis Connected TV Samsung’s 2012 Smart TV buyers benefit from CES upgrades

Samsung’s 2012 Smart TV buyers benefit from CES upgrades

image1 (9K)
Share on

Samsung gave a major upgrade to the user experience (UEX) on its latest Smart TVs at CES this year with the introduction of S-recommendation to help content discovery and a redesigned Samsung Smart Hub. The company also delivered on its promise to upgrade older televisions with its Evolution Kit, which can be used on select 2012 models to boost their hardware processing power and introduce the UEX innovations.

The new S-Recommendation technology provides content recommendation based on viewing history and user ratings and makes it easier to search for content you like. Available on Samsung 2013 Smart TVs, home theatre and Blu-ray players, it looks for content across various services including broadcast TV, streaming VOD content, applications, social content and locally-stored content from personal devices. Robert King, Vice President Consumer Electronics, Samsung UK and Ireland, comments:  “Consumers are looking for ways to experience converged content, and they want to do it quickly and easily.”

The Samsung Smart Hub, where Samsung pools its content apps and other services, has been redesigned.  Five panels now help consumers manage and navigate different types of content and the content is displayed with instant preview thumbnail images for the first time. This makes it easier to select what you want to see. These panels are:

•    On TV – shows the channel that is currently playing as well as the most relevant, personalised suggestions that may be airing shortly based on consumer viewing habits

•    Movies & TV Shows – an easy view of movies and TV services and OTT content that are available from various content providers. Content is recommended based on the consumer’s viewing habit

•    Photos, Videos & Music – allows consumers to organise their personal content and files on Samsung Smart TVs and other linked devices

•    Social – highlights user created content from friends and family, popular videos from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and video call services

•    Apps – Enables access to a wide array of online content and services, organises downloaded Samsung Apps and recommendations for easy access.

The Korean CE giant has also been working to improve the user interaction with its televisions. Last year it introduced voice and gesture controls on its Smart TVs and now it is trying to perfect the technology. What it is calling Smart Interaction uses powerful algorithms to ensure even more accurate facial recognition, voice and motion controls. You can use voice controls to command the TV, including asking it to search for content according to actor, title or genre. The TV will then provide recommendations. Gesture control supports two-handed gestures. Viewers can pinch-to-zoom or use a swipe motion to navigate between Smart Hub panels.

One of the most important developments for Samsung this year is the availability of the 2013 Smart Evolution kit, which allows consumers to update the hardware and software on some 2012 models by adding the kit to a slot in the televisions. For those existing owners, the Evolution Kit will give them the redesigned Smart Hub, enhanced Voice Interaction and Gesture Control, and updated hardware (the addition of a quad-core chipset for increased processing power). Flagship 2013 Smart TVs will also be equipped with slots for future Smart Evolution kits.

Keeping Smart TVs up-to-date is a big issue for manufacturers so the Evolution Kit is an important product. If consumers think their Smart TV will be out of date within 12 months, unable to cope with multi-tasking or deliver the best UI then they might delay buying. Equally, if televisions become out of date over a period of time as their processing power is dwarfed by newer CE devices, consumers could conclude that they should buy the best TV they can afford based on its display qualities, rather than its ‘smart’ features, and buy connected streaming boxes that cost a fraction of what a television does to deliver those ‘smart’ connected services.

The Smart Evolution kit that enables some 2012 Smart TVs to enjoy the hardware and software upgrades on 2013 models

Also, if Samsung sells a TV that becomes outdated and the consumer looks for a new smart streaming box after three years, that box could come from Apple or Sony. That means those rival CE companies can take over the entertainment relationship with the person or family, with their User Interface and entertainment portal gaining primacy. One of the biggest arguments against Smart TVs acting as a replacement for set-top boxes is that they will become out of date, unable to handle new video codecs or features, for example. Evolution Kit might go some way to countering that argument.

The Evolution Kit enables Samsung’s 7000, 8000 and 9000 2012 Smart TV models to evolve into Samsung’s new 2013 Smart TVs.  According to Robert King, “The Evolution Kit is a truly innovative concept from Samsung that allows consumers to enjoy the latest features and services every year without having to purchase a brand new TV.”

The company has been demonstrating how the Smart TV could become the hub of the connected home, at least for non-Pay TV content. Its multi-screen content sharing, using Samsung Smart View, allows consumers to move their content between devices in real-time. Meanwhile the AllShare software connects the TV to compatible mobile devices and home appliances wirelessly and creates a centre for media and whole-home automation. Users also gain the ability to mirror their compatible Samsung Galaxy tablets and phones onto their Samsung Smart TV.

At CES Samsung was highlighting smart fridges featuring LCD screens with apps to share recipes, photos and videos. It is well known that broadband service providers, especially telcos, are interested in expanding their role in the connected home and offering things like energy monitoring, home automation or home security, maybe in partnership with third-party providers. There could be an opportunity for the Smart TV to become the hub of a wider connected home ecosystem regardless of whether they end up being the hub of home entertainment.

Telcos, cable and satellite operators might want to make their own gateway devices the heart of this SmartHome ecosystem, of course. We might see a similar picture emerge here as we have with television and VOD: a potential fight between service provider and CE ecosystems or potential cooperation (e.g. a service provider hub manages services that are displayed and accessed via Smart TVs in different rooms, which is a similar model to using Smart TVs to enable multi-room TV in a server/client architecture).

Meanwhile, Samsung claimed its new S9 UHD TV (Ultra High Definition television set) represents the future in home entertainment viewing thanks to its brilliant picture quality. This model has a quad-core processor and that has implications for the Smart TV environment because its power enables multi-tasking between content and apps. With three-way 2.2 channels of 120 Watt sound, the audio experience is also getting a boost; it is said to be six times better than a typical TV. “This is an outstanding audio experience to complement the UHD picture,” the company points out.

Audio is sure to be a key part of the Ultra High Definition experience but it does highlight a question we have about the overall market for UHD: namely whether the market will be limited by physical constraints unlike any before it. HDTV is available to pretty much anybody. The benefits of HD are obvious on a screen as small as 32 inches and most people can accommodate one of them. To make UHD worthwhile you will need bigger screens and that could limit the market to larger homes. And those audio figures above are important. Who can bang out 120 Watts of sound without upsetting the neighbours? Some people can…but not many.

Samsung also launched a TV (the F9500 OLED TV) that lets two people watch TV on the same sofa, side by side, yet see completely different programmes. The company demonstrated this Multi-View feature at CES last year.

http://www.v-net.loc/now-two-people-can-watch-a-different-show-on-the-same-tv/

It works by displaying two pictures at the same time but using 3D glasses to filter out one of them. Thus one person can watch Channel 1 with their glasses and built-in personal headphones, and one person can watch Channel 2. If you want to watch Channel 2 the glasses filter out Channel 1. The content appears on the main television screen.

It will be interesting to see whether people prefer this approach to what is becoming fairly common practice today: one person watching the TV and another watching something different on their tablet with headphones. If this concept is successful there might actually be less demand for smaller TVs in the kitchen! It is a great technology and we think it has potential providing the use of glasses does not cause eye strain.

Samsung also released its Smart TV SDK (Software Development Kit) 4.0 at CES. This will allow Smart TV software development on Linux and Mac for the first time. Until now Samsung’s Smart TV software development only supported Windows O/S. This is expected to lead to active development of Smart TV software in some areas where non-Windows O/S are widely used.

The Smart TV SDK 4.0 provides a local cloud development environment that allows developers who use the Mac O/S to team up with other developers who use Windows O/S. As a result, many developers can engage in a team effort, resulting in greater software development efficiency and reduced costs.

Samsung supports the HTML5 standard programming language in the Smart TV SDK 4.0 and says it has therefore laid the foundations for many software developers to easily take part in development of Smart TV applications. “With HTML5, Samsung has been able to build an integrated environment that supports the development of convergence applications. This enables Samsung’s Smart TVs to interact and communicate with external devices,” the company says.

What Samsung unveiled at CES was quite impressive in terms of its volume, demonstrating the competitive nature of the Smart TV market and its continued leadership of it. The most important development, in our view, is the delivery of the Smart Evolution kit.


Share on