TV boxes have been dying since the first day they appeared

The rapid development of smart TVs has also brought heat to the TV box market, giving a second life to the huge stock of old TVs. TV boxes are a long-standing product, and various TV set-top boxes for watching cable TV are also a type of TV box, but the access to Internet resources has made people really pay attention to this small external box. The long-term existence of TV set-top boxes has made people mistakenly believe that external TV boxes are an acceptable usage scenario, but in fact, Internet set-top boxes have been slowly dying out since the first day they appeared.

The reason for the existence of TV boxes is the emergence of smart TVs. It is impossible for the huge stock of old TVs to be upgraded to smart TVs in a short period of time, and users of these old TVs also want to use Internet resources on their TVs. Internet TV boxes that can meet this demand have come into being. Most of them use HDMI interfaces to connect to TVs. Some products also take older TVs into account and use color difference component or AV composite video interfaces to connect to TVs.

From the product form, if smart TVs gradually become mainstream, TV boxes will gradually disappear, because then there will be no need for them to exist. Lu Renbo, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronic Commerce Association, once said when evaluating TV boxes: This type of product is not very useful. In the long run, it will be integrated into the TV. The set-top box has no technical content and is just a tool.

According to data from Aowei Consulting, the penetration rate of smart TVs reached 51% in 2013, and is expected to reach 85% in 2015 and 93% in 2020. The necessity of TV boxes as transitional products will become less and less, and even without any external force, TV boxes will slowly disappear. Liu Fengxi, president of Konka Group, once said that Konka will stop developing non-smart TVs. In fact, this is also a trend in the entire TV industry, it is just a matter of time. Even Sony TV , which has always been conservative in this regard , has begun a comprehensive intelligent transformation in 2014, not to mention other relatively radical TV manufacturers?

Modular TVs accelerate the demise of TV boxes

The existence of TV boxes, on the one hand, is to allow old TVs to embrace the Internet, and on the other hand, it is also caused by the fact that the user experience of smart TVs has been slow to improve and the cost of upgrading is too high.

For users, there is not much difference between buying a smart TV and buying a TV box in terms of the so-called intelligent experience, so there is not enough motivation for people to upgrade their smart TVs. On the other hand, smart TVs are highly dependent on hardware configurations such as CPU and GPU. In order to improve the user experience, large-scale upgrades are often required. Replacing a TV costs thousands of yuan, while replacing a TV box only costs a few hundred yuan. Faced with such a huge price difference, TV boxes have become the preferred choice for TVs to access the Internet.

This has always been the case, but the emergence of modular TVs has broken this balance. Samsung was the first manufacturer to introduce the concept of TV upgradeability, and its upgrade kit was called Evolution Kit, while Lenovo and Haier were the ones who really pushed modular TVs to the general public .

The Samsung Evolution Kit upgrade kit has a built-in quad-core processor and an integrated interface for the 2013 Samsung smart TV. It will upgrade voice control, gesture control, facial recognition, Smart View, HEVC decoding, and web content quality improvement. Samsung's latest Evolution Kit integrates the 2014 Samsung smart TV interface and adds support for 4K.

Currently, only the S9 series of Lenovo TVs support upgrades. The upgrade card is equipped with a powerful NVIDIA K1 processor. When the Lenovo smart TV upgrade card is inserted into the smart TV S9, a separate screen will appear on the TV interface, which displays various large-scale games. It is reported that Lenovo will gradually adjust all its smart TVs to upgradeable products from the second half of this year. Haier's modular TV uses a standard OSIF interface and has a variety of upgrade modules to choose from. Each module interface and the functions it focuses on are different. When the corresponding module is inserted, the TV will have the corresponding functions, such as facial recognition, gesture control, somatosensory games, etc.

To put it simply, the upgrade module is to make the TV box smaller and more convenient to connect to the TV, but its real advantage is that the upgraded system hardware and software can be integrated, and there is no need to switch between two remote controls like a TV box, and you have to switch the TV signal source when you want to use the TV box. Although modular TVs are still in a very early stage of development, the emergence of such products will undoubtedly accelerate the demise of TV boxes.

Boxes are not the only form of existence

When mentioning TV boxes, most people will think of the square appearance, but in order to seek better development, TV boxes have long ceased to exist in a single form. Specifically, there are currently several forms of TV boxes. In addition to traditional TV boxes, there are also TV sticks, Android game consoles, Android micro projectors, Android cameras, Android routers, etc.

Needless to say, there are many models of traditional TV boxes. In addition to some big brand boxes, there are also many knockoff products. The TV stick is headed by Google Chromecast. Such TV sticks do not have their own system, but you can search for videos through your mobile phone and push them to the TV stick. For some small manufacturers, this solution is very popular in China because it does not have its own system and saves the trouble of video copyright. In addition, there are products such as Huawei Mango Pie that have built-in Android system but are still made into the appearance of a TV stick.

Android game consoles are represented by OUYA abroad. In China , TCL , ZTE , Huawei and others have launched Android game consoles, which focus on game functions and also have the function of watching online videos. They are another form of TV boxes. Take TCL's T-square game console as an example. It is equipped with a quad-core processor and 16GB of body storage space, 2G dual-channel DDR3 memory, and Android 4.2.2 system. The hardware and software are the same as ordinary TV boxes, but since it is positioned as a game console, there are naturally differences. TCL has formed a strategic alliance with ATET and Gameloft, claiming to have more than 100 large-scale, high-definition TV games including " Modern Warfare 4", "GT2 Racing", "Fun Zoo", "World of War", etc.

Android micro-projection is a product that combines TV box and micro-projection. It can also be understood as a micro-projection equipped with Android system. In this way, no other equipment is needed. It can search and play online videos by itself. It can be used both indoors and outdoors. For example, Miura X8 is such a wireless micro-projector with built-in Android system and battery module. Its body is thin and light, with a thickness of only 1.3cm; the power consumption is less than 5W, so there is no built-in fan, which can achieve ultra-quiet operation; it uses Texas Instruments DLP LED light head, with a brightness of up to 1000LM, a resolution of 854x480, and can project a 100-inch screen; it is pre-installed with Android 4.0 system, which can not only search online videos by itself, but also support mobile phone or tablet screen projection operation; built-in 3000mAh battery, which can power itself and mobile phones when going out; in addition, the upper part of the body is equivalent to a touchpad, which can be operated without an external mouse. Haier Tongshuai iSee mini is also a similar product.

Android camera can also be understood as a TV box with a camera. Compared with ordinary Android boxes, it has a camera, and the placement will change, which is more convenient when using video call applications such as TV version of QQ. The F1 TV box produced by Home Network is a product with such an idea. Previously, TP-Link also launched a TV box called TP Big Eyes, which also uses the design of combining TV box and camera. However, in comparison, the product of Home Network is much smaller, and it will not appear too prominent when placed on the TV.

Most smart routers use the OpenWrt system, but some manufacturers also install the omnipotent Android system on their routers. For example, the Huawei Memo displayed at CES2014 is an Android router. The biggest advantage of the Android system is that it is more convenient to develop and install applications, and it has the function of obtaining Internet videos and other resources. Therefore, Huawei Memo has an HDMI interface more than ordinary smart routers.

It is precisely because of the openness of the Android system that Android TV boxes do not exist in a single form. Various manufacturers have designed and produced a variety of "TV boxes" based on different thinking. Such multi-forms have also differentiated TV boxes to a certain extent.

Summarize

TV boxes, a product born for transition, are destined to gradually die out from the moment they were born. The emergence of modular TVs and various forms of Android devices has accelerated the demise of TV boxes. Of course, you can also understand this demise as an evolution. The fundamental purpose of so-called intelligence is to make users use it more conveniently and have a better experience. Any form of existence should serve this goal. Products that are smart for the sake of being smart will really die out.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.