From the cottage to the Regular Army review of the history of HD player

High-definition players (sometimes called TV boxes) are not unfamiliar to many players, just always give people the impression that some of the "cottage" flavor of the brand in the production and marketing, but nearly one or two years of music, Millet and other "star" enterprises have launched similar products, and the industry as a TV box "regular Army". It is called the regular army, because they are equipped with the broadcasting authority of the Internet television broadcast control platform, which is a historical event for high-definition players. So how did the Cottage Regiment step by step into the regular army? Let's review the history of HD player from cottage to regular army.

Birth: A cottage scheme to replace Blu-ray

Around 2006, High-definition television began to become a market bright spot, but as today's 3D TV and 4K TV, when the extreme lack of high-definition film source at that time, there is no high-definition channel, Blu-ray and HD DVD HD DVDs have not yet entered the domestic market (even if the entry, most people do not have the habit of consumption)

However, there is a demand for the market, then began to appear on the market is called "high-definition player" equipment, modelling and DVD players are very similar, built-in optical drive and hard drive, priced up to two thousand or three thousand yuan, can play online download 1080p HD files. Because this is at that time can play high-definition television charm shortcut, by the film and television enthusiasts in pursuit.

But the first batch of "HD Player" has a lot of deficiencies, such as Universal only play MPEG2 and VC1 but can not play H.264 format, external mobile hard disk can not recognize the NTFS format, does not support Dolby DTS Audio format, external caption support is not good ... It's rubbish today. The most lethal is that the brand of these products are often sold in the market for two months disappeared, typical of the cottage style.

Complementary: Full-format video and hard drive support

has been the domestic HD player market is basically Realtek, Sigma, amlogic several chip dealers, one after another competition, the first batch of machines with Realtek chip scheme does not support the H.264 format, soon by the Sigma introduced a new scheme to make up. So in 2007 years, the basic market of HD player to support all the three high-definition format, and the appearance began to become smaller and more practical, no longer provide optical drive, many even do not have a built-in hard drive, these changes also make the price of high-definition players quickly fall to hundreds of yuan.

Because of the support of NTFS-formatted mobile hard disk, the market also appeared a special charge for the video of the business; many film enthusiasts have also developed the use of computers to download High-definition films, and then use a mobile hard disk to receive high-definition player to watch the habit. At this time all kinds of HD BT download station began

Of course, there is no good goods, these machines still do not get rid of cutting corners and a gun to change the nature of a local cottage.

Play tricks: bt download, Blu-ray playback, Third-party firmware

Early High-definition players mainly use embedded Linux system, in order to increase the selling point, the manufacturer gradually developed some new features added to the firmware. For example, some of the machines have joined the download BT or Thunder connection function, users can download the film directly with High-definition player and play, eliminating the process of opening a computer hanging machine; There are also some models that support Blu-ray navigation menus, allowing you to experience authentic Blu-ray menus without Blu-ray players.

There is also a third-party firmware (represented by Hdpfans), which can be brushed as long as it is a high-definition player using certain chip schemes. It added some of the original features do not, such as online watching domestic and foreign television and video web site television programs.

This online watch video function is adapted to the trend of the Internet, but the clarity of the program is often offensive, links are often blocked by video sites, the most important thing is not in line with the provisions of the radio and television departments. But the characteristics of the free still attracted the fans.

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games before the opening of the DMB digital television ground broadcast is a high-definition player to get rid of the "cottage" an opportunity, at that time some chip program to support the DMB. But because of its free nature, there are not many channels to receive, plus will add some hardware costs, manufacturers generally less interested.

Changing tide: Introducing Android Intelligent Operating system

Around 2010, Android, which was popular in smartphones, was also adopted by High-definition set-top boxes and was named "Smart HD Player". But because of the limited research and development capabilities of SHANZHAI vendors, these machines carry only native Android systems, without the original magic "Blu-ray original disk" playback function, or even high-definition decoding have problems, purely for intelligent and intelligent. To make up for these deficiencies, they use the same Android and Linux dual systems, and want to switch to Linux in order to see the local HD video.

Android has increased the ability to extend applications to high-definition players, but it was all about Android apps that weren't developed for large screens and remote-control operations, and all sorts of problems. The app that can install video website is a big use, but at that time still does not conform to broadcasting regulation.

Status quo: Broadcast control platform for the emergence of the regular army

At the end of 2011, the radio and television 181th document "Holding Internet television licensing agency operation management Requirements" issued, the internet and high-definition players finally legally combined, its name has become "Internet set-top box." This document stipulates that the Internet set-top box can be "controllable" internet TV integrated platform to provide users with Internet television programs, and these platforms include CNTV, hundred-Vision, China, the south media, such as 6.

Benefiting from this policy, TV boxes that legitimately carry the Internet TV-broadcast platform, such as the earliest video TV and fine-LUN brands, as well as the millet boxes released at the end of 2012, have also launched their own boxes as a licensing platform for broadcast-control platforms. These brands have formed two camps with the previous high-definition players with local video playback: The regular army and the cottage side.

In fact, the biggest difference between the regular army and the cottage box is that the former is completely authentic, the latter is still in the gray area of copyright, and the online broadcast control platform also changed the use of the download and then use the mobile hard disk to the viewer to watch the habit, directly connected to the network can watch high-definition video quality.

Of course, at present in the domestic users of the copyright problem is still very serious, local video playback mainly of the Cottage Regiment has a certain market, but the legitimate is a major trend, I believe in the near future these "Shanzhai" brand will also go to the normal road.