Android on TV is awesome! Way better than everything else I tried so far - Windows, Linux, and what not. Android is much easier to navigate on big displays that are viewed from a distance than the rest. Its a coincidence that something designed for smartphones and tablets caters equally well for our TVs too.
But there is a problem, a very sore one indeed. 'Point & Click' just doesn't cut it and all those fancy handheld keyboards and remotes are 'Fancy' at best. They need getting used to and even then they are a pain to to use. Interfaces designed around these silly remotes and handhelds suck big time and this limitation is preventing Smart TV from going mainstream.
I sometimes wonder how easy it would be if I could just touch my TV to control it. It would be silly to run to the TV every time we want to do something but what if we can hold a full touch remote (customized tablet) in our hand that mirrors our TV display onto it and we can just touch and interact with it to interact with our TV!!!
Isn't 'Miracast' (WiFi display) achieving something similar albeit in the reverse fashion! Yes, but with one big problem. To use it we need to disconnect from WiFi and forgo internet connectivity! A deal breaker for most of us.
But there is a problem, a very sore one indeed. 'Point & Click' just doesn't cut it and all those fancy handheld keyboards and remotes are 'Fancy' at best. They need getting used to and even then they are a pain to to use. Interfaces designed around these silly remotes and handhelds suck big time and this limitation is preventing Smart TV from going mainstream.
I sometimes wonder how easy it would be if I could just touch my TV to control it. It would be silly to run to the TV every time we want to do something but what if we can hold a full touch remote (customized tablet) in our hand that mirrors our TV display onto it and we can just touch and interact with it to interact with our TV!!!
Isn't 'Miracast' (WiFi display) achieving something similar albeit in the reverse fashion! Yes, but with one big problem. To use it we need to disconnect from WiFi and forgo internet connectivity! A deal breaker for most of us.
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There is validity to every bit of your post, Praveen. I have been trying to find the ideal HTPC (home theater PC) for a while now. I have several ways to control my PC but not the best way. TVs have come a long way. Android on TV is great, just great. But the problem again is control/navigation. There is no perfect solution out there (not that there are ever any perfect solutions). People on the Apple bandwagon are not immune to this problem either.
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@Praneeth - I have been pondering over this problem for few weeks now looking for ways to solve it. A software only solution to replicate the display of one Android device to another where one is serving the big display and the other as remote is possible with some caveats. Obviously both the devices need to be on the same WiFi network and should have good signal quality to support high throughput between them. (SD quality screen replication needs at least 20 Mbps end to end connectivity).
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Contd.. There will also be some sync delay (~100 milliseconds) between the remote and the main display. It may not be perceivable in majority of the situations but in some cases it will be. On the other hand Miracast is a mature ultra low latency screen replication solution for Android. If our android device has two wireless NICs, one for connecting to regular WiFi and another to host the p2p WiFi connection with the Miracast enabled TV, all the problems with using Android for HTPC are solved.
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Apparently, the WiFi issue has been addressed on newer Android devices but Miracast has one more Achilles's heel; its trying to stream HD Video and Audio from a battery powered device to a remote display. Ideally the handheld device should be an accessory to the main display, only used for browsing and navigating thereby prolonging its battery life. Its much easier and faster to stream Low-Fi display to the handheld for navigation and control than the other way around.
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