Would you really buy a separate Roku or whatever if your TV had one already built in? Moreover, what if you could program your TV as easily as your Roku? This seems, to me at least, a pretty compelling proposition. Stick a PC in my TV as soon as possible, please!
> Would you really buy a separate Roku or whatever if your TV had one already built in?
Yes, because the TV is a couple years old and doesn't run today's apps, even though it has the right number of pixels which haven't changed in a decade.
> Stick a PC in my TV as soon as possible, please!
No. Because the pace of development in screens is notably less than the pace of development in devices, and the cost of building (a probably underpowered) PC into the TV would end up being a significant portion of the purchase price without much benefit.
AirPlay changes the equation. Use whatever latest personal device you have, tap a button to see it on the TV.
It's redundant to have multiple apps with multiple UIs and preferences scattered across multiple devices, when the tech exists today to have a primary personal device that you could look at anywhere.
TVs need to get out of the app business, just display HDMI + AirPlay (works from Android using Twonky Beam, iMedia Share, PlayTo, etc.), and focus back on visual quality.
> AirPlay changes the equation. Use whatever latest personal device you have, tap a button to see it on the TV.
AirPlay annoys me since for video it's still 100% proprietary. Meanwhile we have DLNA which Apple refuse to implement, just so they'll be able to make a mint on overpriced TVs one day when they want to leverage their installed base of iOS devices.
I'd prefer the box. It's cheaper to replace than a TV which would allow me to upgrade the hardware more frequently for new features. The new Xbox has shown that a box can take over typical functional like the channel guide and changing stations.
What we need are better protocols to integrate boxes into the TV. HDMI CEC goes a bit (maps TV remote arrow keys etc), but to make boxes usable for normal people we need stuff like automatically renaming "HDMI1" to "Roku box".
