Originally Posted by
ftsemonks:
“Hi, nice talking to you. Samsung customer service told me my TV will not get the ITV Iplayer.
The TV is Great, lovely picture and I do have Sky+HD which by early next year should have all the catch up TV..
So Samsung can go and do one
”
I know what you mean, and I know it sounds like I am defending Samsung here, but that is not really my stance - even though it appears like it.
If Samsung tells you that your TV will not get the ITV player, doesn't actually mean it was Samsung's decision.
Samsung doesn't code these apps, ITV does.
So, I would imagine the following has happened.
1) ITV has recoded their App to only work on the later models of Samsung's TV's and ITV (for whatever reason they have - most likely DRM related) do not wish to code the app for older platforms.
2) Samsung has no further say - except to tell you it will never come.
Now, I do wonder myself what differences there are between the older sets and the newer ones. The only thing I have heard, and keep this in mind, it is only heard from good sources, is that the content providers have demanded new DRM initiatives, which have been passed onto the content deliverers (in this case ITV) via license agreements. The older Samsung sets do not provide the software and hardware capable of meeting these new requirements, thus they do not have the ITV app.
Who is at fault:
1) Content Providers. These corporations never deal with real humans, they sell to other corporations and thus are somewhat removed from reality. They create the shows, and it is them that demand and drive DRM. They are becoming increasenly paranoid about loosing revenue from pirated content - which is partly fair, since so much of their content is pirated, but also the completely wrong approach, as anyone can see when looking at the failure with music DRM.
2) ITV. It is ITV that codes the apps that play the content from the previously mentioned content providers. ITV, like any other broadcaster doesn't want DRM. All they care about, is broadcasting - i.e. getting their content to as many people as possible. But they are bound by licensing agreements, and these can be a real mess. If a license ITV signs to broadcast or stream material says it must have xyz DRM, then if Samsungs older TV models don't provide this, they simply will not bother to code the App. There is no business sense to do so.
3) Samsung: Of course, Samsung, like any TV company would want apps from every possible TV broadcaster around. They want the ITV app like an alcoholic wants a beer. But they are in a dog eat dog world of cut price TV's. Sure, those big flat screen TV's look expensive, but in fact they are about as cheap as they could get. With so much competition, they have to sell the sets for the smallest possible mark-up, and to keep prices down, they cut costs wherever possible. This sadly means that the processors & GPU's they use for Smart TV (which is only a tiny faction of what their TV's are used for) are the cheapest ones that can "just" do the job. If only they spent a bit more to ensure a few more years of longitivity, but this is where they chose to keep the costs down. Like any business, it's a fine balancing act to decide where to cut and where to spend.
All of them are at fault in some way, but some more than others. The real fault is DRM which holds back the industry and the services. Maybe one day the video content providers will learn just as the music industry has, that DRM is a failed concept. We can only hope.
Maybe your best bet now is an external box - possibly the You View box or something similar. These should have the grunt to process DRM requirements for quite a few years.