Snowflake - the new UPC User Interface?

patrickmooney

I've been reading up on NDS Snowflake, a new User Interface being adopted by Liberty Global. Version 11 is scheduled to go live on UPC later this year. The hardware uses Intel with iPhone/iPad interfaces. It's all very refreshing.

Some video about Version 10 and what UPC are doing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhRKNcvTgi4

French Service rolling this out, their ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3T0fq3e8HY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

A demo of Version 11, rolling out on UPC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hgFvswV4yc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

And finally a demo from France of the UI:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49jPl-T0Lh4

I love UX, and well, this excites me. It's beautiful. The question is, will the new horizon boxes support snowflake?

shanemhoban

think ill have grandkids by the time this gets to ireland!!

JoeyJJ

Would love a rich user experience like this, could be a while before UPC Ireland get a hold of this if ever.

Would love Virgin UK Tivo service as it is now, not sure this trumps it.

bk

Very interesting

patrickmooney wrote: »

The question is, will the new horizon boxes support snowflake?

It seems so, the new horizon boxes will have Intel atom CPU's and flash as described in the videos above and then there is this for further confirmation:

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2010/05/12/liberty-home-gateway-brings-in-samsung-intel-and-nds/

This is interesting as in the past UPC went with Nagravision for heir middleware and conditional access, NDS being Sky's supplier (and NDS being partly owned by News Corp, Sky's parent).

It looks like UPC will be switching to NDS, for middleware at least (probably stick with Nagravision for conditional access).

I wonder will Sky and UPC end up with similar UI's or will Sky take a different direction.

The Snowflake 10 UI looks ok, but misses the importance of search and seems to have an awkward way for browsing the TV guide.

What we can see of the Snowflake 11 UI looks way out there. I think it maybe too complicated, futuristic and busy for most people. But it does get one thing right, the two most important options, TV and search right up front and center.

On the other hand, by using Intel CPU's and flash, it should be easy to change the UI to match peoples needs.

JoeyJJ

Usually software companies throw companies a stick to get custom, if they provide snowflake they might give them conditional access software at a cut price or vice versa. I'm sure UPC / Nagravision relations where bad for a long time during the dodgy box bubble, wonder how high tensions are now.

Solair

UPC are fast enough to roll out new stuff in Ireland.
They rolled out HD, PVR etc very quickly after the Netherlands.

There's no particular reason why they wouldn't.

The only technical difference is the power cable!

icdg

Solair wrote: »

UPC are fast enough to roll out new stuff in Ireland.
They rolled out HD, PVR etc very quickly after the Netherlands.

There's no particular reason why they wouldn't.

The only technical difference is the power cable!

On actual UPC boxes, of course.

There are a huge chunk of NTL and Chorus boxes still out there - and even in some instances still being issued to new customers - even though the NTL boxes at least now have a UPC-branded EPG that superficially looks like the UPC EPG but in fact is just the old NTL one with the colours changed and some other comestic differences. Not sure if any changes have been made to the Chorus EPG, the last time I used a Chorus box, two years ago, it was still fully Chorus branded. These boxes are never likely to run Snowflake, the smaller NTL ones appear barely able to cope with the Liberate software they are currently running.

Solair

That's the same in all cable systems world-wide though. They don't just rip out every box and chuck them into a landfill.

As people upgrade to HD and PVRs etc, new boxes roll out.

Most Sky boxes can't run fancier software either, in fact some of the early HD boxes can barely cope with the new HD software.

who is this

Solair wrote: »

Most Sky boxes can't run fancier software either, in fact some of the early HD boxes can barely cope with the new HD software.

Are they still giving them to new customers?

Also with Sky, am I not correct in thinking you can manually (at cost) have a box replaced?

UPC don't do this until it breaks.

BostonB

who is this wrote: »

...
UPC don't do this until it breaks.

If you were having a problem how likely is it the box would break..:D

lucernarian

Sky HD boxes are far more consistent in function than what I've seen used for UPC. Their or UPC's STB upgrade capability is not particularly relevant as there's quite a lot of uncertainty as to when e.g. the Horizon box will reach our shores and indeed the arrival of Snowflake is also speculation.

The fact is that issues with sky boxes themselves are firstly easier to troubleshoot and are also far more uncommon than with the ex-NTL and Chorus equipment currently.. Every friend and relative of mine who has ever used NTL, Chorus (in particular) or UPC has described Sky as having an easier to use EPG. A couple of people I know aren't used to the new EPG on Sky HD boxes but the first time I regularly got to use Sky was with a Sky HD box and I prefer that EPG to the older EPG. (Being able to watch TV while using the guide etc.)

bk

To_be_confirmed that is true today.

But the specs of these new UPC boxes are vastly more powerful then the existing Sky HD boxes.

These new UPC boxes are basically PC's, with Intel Atom x86 CPU + GPU, RAM, Hard Drive, etc.

They will probably run a specially configured Linux distribution with an Adobe Flash UI running on top of it.

That is going to be a very powerful and sophisticated setup.

lucernarian

Firstly, I'll truly believe it when UPC have announced a launch date in Ireland, and (secondly) we won't know until after they've launched as to how reliable and "granny friendly" they are.

justsomebloke

bk wrote: »

That is going to be a very powerful and sophisticated setup.

ye but I would still take something simple that works, then something sophisticated yet buggy.

I simply don't trust them to have a user friendly UI that works

Red Alert

Adobe Flash is not suitable for an embedded high-performance device, end of story. I've seen too many crashed flash "kiosks" to ever consider it useful for anything apart from Farmville.

who is this

bk wrote: »

To_be_confirmed that is true today.

But the specs of these new UPC boxes are vastly more powerful then the existing Sky HD boxes.

These new UPC boxes are basically PC's, with Intel Atom x86 CPU + GPU, RAM, Hard Drive, etc.

They will probably run a specially configured Linux distribution with an Adobe Flash UI running on top of it.

That is going to be a very powerful and sophisticated setup.

Very little relevance in practice though.

Penentration can only reach a certain level with UPC, because only cabled houses can avail of their services.

The fact that so many of them already have digital from UPC (and much of the remaining may be unwilling to leave Sky) coupled with the fact that UPC don't swap-out old boxes unless they break means very few people will actually benefit from these.